EUGENE, THE PRIEST WHO AIMED TO LOVE WITH THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST
© Laurent Girard / Studio Mazenod (2011) – Tableau du Jean-Jacques Martin
Impelled by a force from outside of himself, Eugene left Aix and followed:
The vocation that called me to dedicate myself to the service and happiness of my neighbour, whom I loved with the love of Jesus Christ for people.
Diary, 31 March 1839, O.W. XX
1808 Seminarian in Saint Sulpice, Paris:
I dedicated myself to the service of the Church because it was persecuted, and because it had been abandoned.
Letter to his father, 7 December 1814, O.W. XV n, 129
21 December 1811, ordination to the priesthood in Amiens:
You, you alone will be the sole object to which will tend all my affections and my every action. To please you, act for your glory, will be my daily task, the task of every moment of my life. I wish to live only for you, I wish to love you alone and all else in you and through you. I despise riches, I trample honours under foot; you are my all, replacing all else. My God, my love and my all: Deus meus et omnia.
Notes made during the retreat in preparation for priestly ordination
December 1-21, O.W. XIV n.95