Eugene concludes his reflection to his spiritual confidant on the source of his spiritual strength during the difficult process in Rome. He was conscious that he was being held up by the prayers and unity of all the Oblates in France, whose cause he was representing in Rome.
But I ought to let you know that such confidence and sentiments were all due, after the grace which inspired them, to the thought that I was asking some- thing in keeping with the will of God, apt to procure his glory, the salvation of souls and the good of the Church, and also because I regarded myself as the interpreter of all of you and because I felt, so to speak, borne along by the prayers, merits and works of the whole Society.
Letter to Henri Tempier, 16 February 1826, EO VII n 224
“Ministry is the least important thing. You cannot not minister if you are in communion with God and live in community.” Henri Nouwen
My thoughts have chased each other around the world and back this morning. To be in communion with, living in community. Am I? Do I? It doesn’t always ‘look’ the same. Am I in communion with God? I think I am – it is unconscious, and conscious. When it is uncoinscious it is God doing the being, always there – always. And then there are times of grace, moments, hours when I consciously enter into communion with God and others. It is not anything “I” can sustain, that only comes from God. And I am not sure it is anything that another can tell me.
And ministry – that seems to come from deep within me or from far outside of just myself. I have a passion to share God (if I can say it that way) with others, to share with them all that I have been given. I have a passion to nourish and nurture others, so that they might in turn look to those around them and share who they are, connect. If that is ministry then I guess that I am living it a little. No great and earth shaking things and actions, just the ordinary things that or hidden and sometimes forgotten.
It is all a curious mixture of being and doing. Perhaps that is part of the ministering that Henri Nouwen speaks of, the doing that comes from the being, That is most certainly how it is in my life. Praying with, being prayed for – never has it been so important as it is now. Let each of us who comes here today, consciously or unconsciously pray with and for the other.