200 YEARS AGO: NOTA BENE – TAKE NOTE!

Having reflected on the damage caused to the Church Eugene dipped his quill into the inkwell and launched into an impassioned reflection of the vocation of the Missionary. NOTA BENE, he writes: take note!

The text that follows is known to us as “The Preface” in the form in which we have received it.

Eugene aimed to counteract the ravage caused by bad priests by holding up the ideal of what the Oblate Missionary priest is

What more sublime purpose than that of their Institute!
Their founder is Jesus Christ, the very Son of God;
their first fathers are the Apostles.
They are called to be the Saviour’s co-workers, the co-redeemers of mankind.

1818 Rule, Part One, Chapter One. The ends of the Institute, §3. Nota Bene.
Missions, 78 (1951) p. 15

Here in a succinct manner is the kernel of the Missionary vocation for all who are inspired to live by Eugene’s dream.

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1 Response to 200 YEARS AGO: NOTA BENE – TAKE NOTE!

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    It is as an Oblate Associate of the Mazenodian Family that I sit here looking for the small kernels of God’s call to a missionary vocation, as one inspired and one who dares to live by Eugene’s dream.

    These words are basic, foundational, kernels of the core, the root. Not something I want to change, but in a sense something that I need to be able to move through to get to the point of them. “They are called to be the Saviour’s co-workers, the co-redeemers of mankind.” Such a lofty dream – even for Eugene and yet he dared. So why not us – why not me!

    The desire to be a Cooperator of the Saviour, a co-worker, on the Cross alongside of my Saviour. Jesus as my model as are his disciples.

    “The call of Jesus Christ, heard within the Church through people’s need for salvation draws us together… Christ thus invites us to follow him and to share in his mission through world and work.”

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