I WOULD GIVE MY LIFE A THOUSAND TIMES IN ORDER THAT NO ONE AMONGST US EVER GIVE THE SCANDAL OF NOT BEING WORTHY OF THEIR VOCATION

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

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1 Response to I WOULD GIVE MY LIFE A THOUSAND TIMES IN ORDER THAT NO ONE AMONGST US EVER GIVE THE SCANDAL OF NOT BEING WORTHY OF THEIR VOCATION

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    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.

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