Writing to the superior of this Marian shrine that had been in the care of a group of young Oblates for a short time, Eugene referred to one of the aims of the Oblates when we were founded: to work for the formation and the renewal of the clergy. Our houses were always to be open to welcome priests for retreats or for spiritual guidance.
You tell me that priests are beginning to come. I hope they will be edified by what they see in your house. No amount of politeness counts as much as scrupulous fidelity to all our observances.
It was the quality of the lives of the Oblates that would lead to conversions, not their words. In a similar way new recruits would come to the community not through prayers, but through the attractive witness given by those in the community.
We do need to pray the Dominum messis [ed “Send laborers into the vineyard”] for him to send us workers. The most effective mea ns of being heard is for us to be everything we are called to be.
Letter to Bruno Guigues, 3 September 1835, EO VIII n 541
I try to think back to what it was that had first attracted me to the Oblates and even more to St. Eugene de Mazenod.
“…through the attractive witness given by those in the community.” Truly – hearing the words “Immense Hope” (having the results of that congregational process shared with me) and being able to see what beautiful witnesses to love these Oblates were/are. I was entranced, I was overjoyed, I was grateful for this beautiful gift God had given; of the Oblates to me and of me to the Oblates. What that was to look like was anybody’s guess – but that sharing of their lives, how they struggled and thrived in being Oblates was what drew me, invited me…
I glance down this morning at the small, green book which is always there at the edge of my desk: “O.M.I. on the front cover. The Constitutions and Rules – the embodiment of the Charism and how it is to be lived out. A heart-stopping and brilliant witness to love. I have come to love the first ten Constitutions and Rules – Mission. They are my invitation to prayer, my response to God’s call to me as a member of the Mazenodian Family to be lived fully so that I too can faithfully be the person that God has called me to be.
My response in living those first 10 Constitutions and Rules; that is how I allow Jesus, our crucified Saviour, St. Eugene de Mazenod, the many Oblates over the past two hundred years and all those who make up the Mazenodian Family – these are my models of how I can be everything I am called to be.