Whenever Eugene was away from Aix he had the opportunity to reflect on his community from a distance and to write his reflections. His considerations give us precious insights into his founding vision and the spirit he wished to see in the community of Missionaries.
In his first letter to the community from Paris we read:
I am only inclined to speak of you, of our good novices. Tell them I was asking about them; let them not forget me in their prayers.
I celebrate today our Feast with you, at least in spirit. May our holy Patron communicate to us something of his spirit.
Let us love one another in God and for God and for ever.
Letter to the Missionaries in Aix, 19 July 1817, O.W. VI n.17
The feast was that of Saint Vincent de Paul, whom the Missionaries had taken as one of their patrons. It was at the seminary in Paris that the Sulpicians introduced Eugene to devotion to St Vincent, and Eugene was able to be imbued with the same spirit of service for the poor. Both Eugene and Vincent had been affected by their encounters with poor people early in their priestly ministry and desired to help these abandoned people in the country regain their faith in God and discover their own dignity.
Both marked 25 January, feast of the conversion of St Paul, as a key day for their missionary congregations: Vincent began his mission preaching on that day in 1617 and Eugene in 1816. Both chose “Evangelizare pauperibus misit me” as the mottos of their religious families.
It was an evangelization built on the same spirituality of love of God expressed in others: “Let us love one another in God and for God and for ever.”