WHO IS SAINT EUGENE? A YOUNG MAN TRANSFORMED BY HIS ENCOUNTER WITH JESUS CHRIST

Around the age of 24 Eugene entered a period of self-searching, a journey that reached a high-point one Good Friday:

So I had looked for happiness outside of God, and outside him I found but affliction and chagrin.Blessed, a thousand times blessed, that he, this good Father, notwithstanding my unworthiness, lavished on me all the richness of his mercy.
Let me at least make up for lost time by redoubling my love for him. May all my actions, thoughts, etc., be directed to that end.
What more glorious occupation than to act in everything and for everything only for God, to love him above all else, to love him all the more as one who has loved him too late.

Retreat Journal, December 1814, E.O. XV n.130

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1 Response to WHO IS SAINT EUGENE? A YOUNG MAN TRANSFORMED BY HIS ENCOUNTER WITH JESUS CHRIST

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    “Blessed, a thousand times blessed, that he, this good Father, notwithstanding my unworthiness, lavished on me all the richness of his mercy.” So much more than ‘knowing’ that God loves us. Here Eugene hints at his experience and a new awareness., the recognition of being the recipient of that love. It is intensely intimate and personal and it alters and transforms his entire being. Am I speaking of Eugene or perhaps myself?

    And his response: “What more glorious occupation than to act in everything and for everything only for God, to love him above all else, to love him…” Immediate, intense, a response that began in the very core of his being and spread out to encompass the rest of his life. How he lived this out, beginning with his love of the poor, the youth, the infirm, the condemned, the people who ‘good society’ and the church seemed to ignore or not even recognize. He lived it out with those he brought into a community of religious and then a formal, recognized and blessed congregation.

    A man of his times and beyond for he lives on today, his spirit, his heart, in all who share in his charism, this gift of himself. Such is our inheritance.

    We spent the past 4 days together, working, sharing, discovering, recognizing who we are and how we might look forward, together with each other. Jesus gave us the formula and Eugene invited us together. This was shared with us by the Core Team, they shared how they do it, how they live, the possibilities for us – a continuation and growing of what was begun by Eugene. We listened to the words of Eugene’s successor, Fr. Louise Lougen and found ourselves becoming inspired, our hearts catching flame, Such is the lavish love of God, of Jesus, of Eugene passed on to us. Such is our inheritance.

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