APOSTOLIC COURAGE WHICH WILL ENABLE ME NEVER TO YIELD TO THE POWERS OF EVIL

In Rome, Eugene was staying at the Church of San Silvestro. It was here that he had lived when he had come to seek Papal approbation of the Oblates, and it was here that he had been consecrated bishop the previous year.

Yesterday, Sunday, I did not go out the whole day. I said Mass at the same altar where I was consecrated, and I am continuing this practice every day and asking God that I may never be unworthy of the sublime character and high dignity I received on that spot, but always be a credit to my great ministry through a truly apostolic courage which will enable me never to yield to the powers of hell nor to those of earth which in these days find there their inspirations.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 20 August 1833, EO VIII n 454

Where are the spiritual places I turn to when the evil around me seems to absorb so much of my focus?

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1 Response to APOSTOLIC COURAGE WHICH WILL ENABLE ME NEVER TO YIELD TO THE POWERS OF EVIL

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    I am surprised where my thoughts lead me this morning. I smile at myself because of my inherent tendency to ask – beg God not to abandon me whenever there is evil around me. My heart knows that would never happen and yet my humanness and brokenness seep to the fore and I beg.

    Perhaps I look for the false safety of ‘feelings’. I find myself turning to the sacraments, to the Church to nourish me, to embrace me – not like some magic pill that makes all the ‘bad disappear’ but rather to give me courage, the strength to stand in the seeming darkness and recognize the joy of a very small glow of light that is always there with me.

    I find myself turning to my Founder, to St. Eugene de Mazenod, looking at how he lived his oblation, his life with fidelity. The more I come to know him, the more he is a source of inspiration and a model to me – as are his many sons and daughters. I think of Blessed Joseph Gerard and of my old friend Kay Cronin HOMI who is also long gone from this world – they are particularly special to me and I draw on them along with the other members of the communion of saints. The word ancestors, come to me and they share their heritage with me. I live and share that with community.

    I think of the question St. Eugene asked of himself and those founding members of his small community: “How, indeed, did our Lord Jesus Christ proceed…?” Apostolic courage – I think of the two on the way to Emmaus and the life and courage they received in recognizing Jesus in the midst of their sorrow and fear. Then Jesus seemingly vanishes from their midst and they returned to Jerusalem to share and be with the other apostles, to ‘share the good news’.

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