LET US WONDER IN SILENCE AT OUR GREAT VOCATION

Why all this insistence on imitating these virtues? Because Jesus is our founder. Because without him and the example of his relationship with the apostles, our life and baptismal vocation would have no meaning. Here is the foundation of our vocation as Mazenodian Family.

Would one believe the Rule thinks there has been sufficient insistence on the indispensable necessity of imitating Jesus Christ? No. Here now it presents us with the Savior as the true founder of the Congregation, and the Apostles who were the first to follow in the footsteps of their Master as our first Fathers. Could anything bring greater pressure to bring us to imitate them!
Jesus, our Founder, the Apostles, our forerunners, our first Fathers! And it is the Church that tells it to us, it is Peter through the mouth of [Pope] Leo who says it!
Let us prostate ourselves, respectfully listen, wonder in silence.
Let us swear to be faithful, to become worthy of our great vocation: It has already been said that the missionaries ought, as far as human nature allows, to imitate in everything the example of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the CHIEF FOUNDER OF OUR SOCIETY, and that of his Apostles- OUR FIRST FATHERS.

Retreat notes, October 1831, EO XV n. 163

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1 Response to LET US WONDER IN SILENCE AT OUR GREAT VOCATION

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    I sit and ask: where is Jesus in my life? Is he at the centre of all or have I relegated him to a small back-room in my heart, which I visit every once in a while when I am in need of a boost. Or is Jesus at the very centre of all that has been or ever will be, of all that is?

    It is the latter and I although I may not live it perfectly – that is my reality. It is his heart which gives beat to mine, and it from there that I am sent out to live and love. And within that heart is the Church for she is also an integral part of this and I too am a small part of her. That brings such great hope for she too, or so it seems, is not always perfect; yet she is good, so very good and I have always given thanks to God for bringing me back to her. I sit in wonder at who she is in and with and through Jesus – God. And within her – many families, but the one to which I have been called is the Mazenodian Family. I am filled with wonder and awe, with joy and pride, with gratitude and immense love. I sit amidst the fireworks that seem to explode within my heart – so brilliant that they need no sound. This is being! And it is at this tiny point in time that I see how all of my doing comes from this being.

    Susan Boyle with her wonderful voice sings a song; “You’ll See” and she sings of doing it all herself – . All by myself I don’t need anyone at all… – that never worked for me. “Here is the foundation of our vocation as Mazenodian Family” as Frank puts it. “Let us respectfully listen, wonder in silence; swear to be faithful and become worthy…” It goes far beyond us, beyond Eugene de Mazenod. Even the Constitutions and Rules are filled with the Word of God, scriptures, and at the center our crucified Saviour – Jesus!

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