Our mission puts us on constant call to respond to the most urgent needs of the Church through various forms of witness and ministry, but especially through proclaiming the Word of God…
CC&RR, Constitution 7
Our reason for existence as Oblates – and as a Mazenodian Family – is to proclaim the Word of God. St Eugene, taught us the attitude that is necessary in order to achieve this. In the first Rule of Life he gave to the Oblates, he wrote:
We shall not attain it, however, unless we renounce our own personal glory, and repress in the depth of our hearts the vain praises of people; in a word, unless like the Apostle we preach Jesus Christ and him crucified “not with showy speech, but in the demonstration of the Spirit,” that is to say, unless we make it evident that we are saturated with what we teach, and that we have begun to practice, before attempting to instruct others.
1818 Rule Part 1, Chapter 3, §1 Preaching
“Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.” Thomas Carlyle
How do I ‘make evident that I am saturated with what I teach’, that I ‘have begun to practice, before attempting to instruct others’? How do I ‘preach Jesus Christ and him crucified’ – ‘in the demonstration of the Spirit? On my own, truly on my own I would accomplish little, but if, when I allow myself to be led by the Spirit, by God speaking through others… I think of the image of a small child, learning to walk, standing on his own – so eager to be in the arms of his parent that he moves forward, without thinking, into the arms of love. I think of Peter in the book, without thinking, jumping out and running across the water to Jesus. It takes great daring and trust.
How do I proclaim the word of God? Am I saturated with what I am trying to teach? Not perfectly my heart responds, not perfectly. And as I say that I have in my mind the image of friends who I respect and love, and yet none of them is perfect – but still I love them. Not always easy. ‘It is how I love you’ a quiet voice whispers in my heart. The enormity of love! Let it saturate my being – this love of Him who made me.
Thanks Frank. The word saturated jumps out. In a few days a new Novitiate class begins and a phrase that Rudy often used is “Novitiate is the time for the novice to nomarinate in the Oblate juices”. As a chef that speaks to me.
Please keep those preparing to enter the Novitiate in prayer as the travel to Godfrey, Il. U.S.A.