Having laid out three fundamental way of refocusing our lives according to the spirit of our Mazenodian vocation, according to our state of life, Eugene continued:
Let each judge himself, correct himself or otherwise regard himself as a good-for-nothing. The sentence seems severe but it is certain.
Indeed I would give my life a thousand times in order that no one amongst us ever give the scandal of not being worthy of his vocation.
To preserve ourselves from this misfortune: Deus autem pacis …aptet vos in omni bono.” [ed. …convince, rebuke and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching …may the God of peace provide you with everything good 2 Tim. 4, 2; Hebr. 13, 20].
Letter to Hippolyte Guibert, 29 July 1830, EO VII n 350
I think of the present times and how I go about refocusing life – my life – according to the spirit of my Mazenodian vocation, according to my state of life. Not something that I wait to do once a year or perhaps every six months. No it has to be much more often than that for it is too easy for me to let things – usually the small things slide and then they grow and grow. When that happens I can become in very real danger of being unworthy of all that God has given to me, of being unworthy of that which I have been called to.
I look at what I have been reflecting on the past week. And I look back at a careless comment that I made to another yesterday – careless not because it was designed to rebuke or hurt another, but careless in my handling of a situation and so that my wording may have hurt another. It was not worthy or respectful of the two I was speaking with or myself. To be so fallible – will I ever be able to overcome this.
I have gone over in detail this letter of Eugene to Hippolyte Guibert this morning. To remind myself of all that was said, as a whole, hoping that this spirit of our Mazenodian vocation will become all pervasive within me and around me as I learn and refocus; try to live outward from that. That “Deus autem pacis …aptet vos in omni bono.” with a deeper focus on the being unfailing in patience and in teaching will become the pervasive way of being.