BUILDING RELATIONS TO CREATE A SOURCE OF GROWTH

Beginning in 1812, I had introduced to this seminary… the zealous association which I had known in the seminary in Paris.

Diary of 20 August 1838, E.O. XIX

 Pielorz’s research into Eugene’s activities in the Association at the seminary concludes:

These details, perhaps more than all the others, reveal to us the ardent spirit of the zealous seminarian. If, among the 90 seminarians, he was deemed worthy of being chosen as a member of an elite group and of soon becoming its secretary, if he succeeded in giving new life to this ailing organization, it was due to the fact that his practices of mortification, detachment, self-denial and especially his love for Christ, the Savior, had had their effect. From the former Count [ed. A title that the adolescent Eugene had invented for himself when he was mixing with titled people in Palermo.], they produced a model seminarian and a zealous director.

PIELORZ, The Spiritual Life, p. 308-309

The Association was a concrete response to a need of the Church, and it gave Eugene a formation in a dynamic and a method that successfully formed an elite corps to be an instrument of change of a larger group. What he learnt here was fundamentally important for his life as it gave him the basis of the method he would use again in Aix for his work in the seminary, among the youth and in the founding of the Oblates.

Were it a question of going out to preach more or less well the word of God, mingled with much alloy of self, of going far and wide for the purpose, if you wish, of winning souls for God without taking much trouble to be men of interior life, truly apostolic men, I think it would not be difficult to replace you.
But can you believe I want merchandise of that sort?
We must be truly saints ourselves. In saying that, we include all that can possibly be said.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 13 December 1815 E.O. VI n 7

 

“By building relations we create a source of love and personal pride and belonging that makes living in a chaotic world easier.”   Susan Lieberman

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2 Responses to BUILDING RELATIONS TO CREATE A SOURCE OF GROWTH

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    “Were it a question of going out to preach more or less well the word of God, mingled with much alloy of self, of going far and wide for the purpose, if you wish, of winning souls for God without taking much trouble to be men of interior life, truly apostolic men…” This brings to mind an image of a cartoon character (I say cartoon because the image is of a one-dimension person, empty and without substance) striding out in order to be noticed for himself, preaching the word of God by rote, without sharing anything of himself, without heart. I could go on. That is not who Eugene is speaking about. To me Eugene has always been saying, sometimes even with the words that the way to perfection (for all of us who share in his spirit) is that in sharing this way of life, with God. Almost of putting ourselves with the people we are sent to share the Good News with and in doing that we become as we teach. “We must lead [people] to act like human beings, and then like Christians and, finally, we must help them to become saints”; in doing this we shall experience all that we are giving. My way to ‘perfection’, to sainthood does not lie just within myself. It is ongoing and ever deepening. If I take what I have been given and hold it safely hidden away so that only I can enjoy it then it is robbed of true beauty and goodness and becomes an empty thing. But if I share it, give it away it grows and deepens just as does a sunset, ever deepening and changing. How can we ever hope to be an instrument of love if we do not live out that love? It has to be lived and shared, seen by all and given back and forth – not one-way. It begins with our being, who we are and from there comes what we will do and how we will do it.

  2. Ken Hart says:

    Balance is key. We must balance our commitments to options for the most abandoned with what Covey calls “sharpening the saw”. That is, prayer, rest, reflection, physical exercise and diet, recreation and friendship. It is interesting to note how often St. Eugene had to to deal with a tendency among members of the community to become unbalanced, pouring out themselves until there was nothing left to build on. However, it is important to remember that one can become unbalanced in the other direction as well, retreating into the interior mansions and not venturing forth.

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