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 which finds its fulfilment in the celebration of the sacraments and in service to others.
CC&RR, Constitution 7
From his earliest days as a seminarian, Eugene insisted on the importance of the Eucharist. Writing to his mother, just to take one example, he urged her to more frequent communion.
Dear mother, are you not going a little more often to the source of all consolation? Cannot you hear this Saviour, who calls to you from his tabernacle: Dear soul, why am I humbled here like this? Is it in vain that I keep on re-echoing these selfsame words that I said to my disciples: come to me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden: come and I will give you rest, and restore you; unite with me in this intimate union for which I remained with you, and balm will flow in your veins, and your soul will be filled, strengthened, renewed…
If I did not think it necessary for the good of your soul to frequent the sacraments more often than you do, do you think I would keep coming back to it so often?
Letter to his mother, 14 October 1811, EO XIV n 93
“Farmers everywhere provide bread for all humanity, but it is Christ alone who is the bread of life…Even if all the physical hunger of the world were satisfied, even if everyone who is hungry were fed by his or her own labor or by the generosity of others, the deepest hunger of man would still exist…Therefore, I say, Come, all of you, to Christ. He is the bread of life. Come to Christ and you will never be hungry again…” Saint John Paul II
A small “Aha” moment, a tiny spark of recognition and light this morning that comes and is gone – except I know that I experienced it and I treasure the gift. There is a truth here that is so great and that could so easily be missed or even seen yet ignored.
I am reminded of Jesus telling his apostles that the poor would always be with us. I have at times wondered about that statement thinking it to be a little ‘crass’. What – are we to then ignore them I would ask myself?
Yet here I am every morning, I who have been given so much, so incredibly much. Still I am hungry more – for the truth, hungry to be led and nourished, hungry for the light that beckons – often realising that I will never be quite satisfied, full and strangely it is all enough even as I yearn for more.
Eugene’s words – his understanding and perception of what Jesus said – breaking open what Jesus said. “come to me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden: come and I will give you rest, and restore you; unite with me in this intimate union for which I remained with you, and balm will flow in your veins, and your soul will be filled, strengthened, renewed…” His words touch me, stir my emotions. I cannot say that I understand it, simply that I respond.
I sit here – ready to begin my day and I am quite simply, filled with gratitude.
Fasinating. Thank you