I AM CONFOUNDED, ASTONISHED, RAVISHED BY OUR LOFTY DESTINY

It is all there: seeking to imitate the virtues and example of our Savior Jesus Christ. If only one could engrave these words on one’s heart, have them written everywhere to have them always before one’s eyes.
The more I go on, the more I am confounded, astonished, ravished by our lofty destiny.

Retreat notes, October 1831, EO XV n. 163

And my identity as a disciple? What is my reaction?

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1 Response to I AM CONFOUNDED, ASTONISHED, RAVISHED BY OUR LOFTY DESTINY

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    How often have I felt confounded, astonished, ravished by the destiny that God has laid out before me? How often have a feared what it might mean, what others might say if I were to speak too loudly, if I am laughed at and scorned because of my response to God? I think for an instant of the words sung by Mary Magdalene in Superstar, “I don’t’ know how to love him, what to do…’ As a disciple (me – imagine it – me a disciple!); me invited by Eugene to share in his charism, in the gift that the Holy Spirit gave to him. Words are coming to me, slowly and surely they dance in my heart and are set free through my mouth and my eyes, my ears and my whole body.

    I am on a journey of discovery; discovery of my lofty destiny, discovery of God’s call to me and what that looks like in and through the eyes of Jesus, Beloved, crucified Saviour… I dare to say those words and write them down, to shout them out and share all that is within me. My heart sings and dances, it laughs and it cries, it gentles and comforts. This is where God leads me, through the Church, with Eugene who invites me to join his family, to share and follow, walk with and support…

    Lofty destiny indeed! How perfect all of it is.

    Eugene’s words at the very end of his life; ‘be sure to tell them I die happy… that I died happy that God was so good as to choose me to found the Congregation of the Oblates in the Church.’ I am not dying, nor have I founded anything, but what I have been called to, who I walk with and am a part of, a disciple of Jesus. It takes time to get used those words. How happy am I with this life that God has given to me – that is still unfolding before me.

    “Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard what god has ready for those who love him. Spirit of God, come give me the mind of Jesus, teach me the wisdom of God.”

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