On 18 February 1826, Eugene wrote this good news from Rome to his Oblate brothers in France:
My dear friend, my dear brothers, on February 17, 1826, yesterday evening, the Sovereign Pontiff Leo XII confirmed the decision of the congregation of Cardinals and specifically approved the Institute, the Rules and Constitutions of the Missionary Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, and accompanied this solemn act of his pontifical power, with most admiring words for those who happily form this Society from which the head of the Church indeed expects the greatest good.
Everyone is stupefied at this. Even those called upon to contribute with their votes to the execution of the very emphatic will of the Pope, are surprised by the unanimous agreement of views and especially with the imperturbable resolution of the Holy Father, whom nothing has been able to deter from the first thought with which the Holy Spirit inspired him on the first day that I knelt at his feet and presented to him the plan of this enterprise which now we can call divine…
The conclusion to be drawn from this, my dear friends and good brothers, is: we must work, with renewed ardour and still more total devotedness, to bring to God all the glory that stems from our efforts and, to the needy souls of our neighbours, salvation in all possible ways; we must attach ourselves heart and soul to our Rules and practice [more] exactly what they prescribe to us…
… In the name of God, let us be saints.
Eugene de Mazenod, 18 February 1826, O.W. VII, n. 226
Today:
The Constitutions and Rules set out a privileged means for each Oblate to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. They are inspired by the charism lived by the Founder and his first companions; also, they have received the approval of the Church. Thus, they allow each Oblate to evaluate the quality of his response to his vocation and to become a saint.
CC&RR 163
“… In the name of God, let us be saints.” Thank you St. Eugene for giving voice to this God-given and shared desire. It was in seeing it from Eugene’s writings that opened the doors to the community of Oblates here in my part of the world.
Happy Feast Day! Thanks for the image.
“Everyone is stupefied.”
In other words it was the Spirit at work, not Eugene!
Now don’t take it that it is either the Spirit or Eugene, but Eugene being the Earthen Vessel in which the Spirit is able to work.
To give Glory to God is not to feed the ego and we see that struggle in his life. The brash young man in Sicily needing notoriety, but here he knows and shares with us the spiritual disciple of detachment. Now we are called into the practice
Last night at Mass our Pastor talked about how we all need to belong, to be recognized. He was talking about the basics of the the temptations put before Jesus by Satan. I was so glad to hear that, to hear that my desires to be ‘a part of’ something, to ‘participate in’, even to commit myself to’ are natural human desires. They are not in themselves necessarily wrong, unhealthy or different from the millions of us people throughout the world. And I thanked God for that bit of grace. Because there is much freedom in knowing that, I do not need to be tied up in knots or anxious in any way because of my humanness. I don’t need to let those things rule me or become distorted and become the “goal”.
I share these only because I believe in some ways these needs would have been met or soothed or fulfilled in a way for those early Oblates. They, their group, their society had been confirmed – by the Church, their plans now called “divine” and they took as a symbol the cross – a rather large cross [almost 9″ tall] to be worn and which was instantly recognizable. And of course they celebrated this, just as a couple getting married and starting a new union, a new family celebrates their wedding, and their commitment to God, to each other, year after year. It is something good, it is even I dare say, something triumphant. And we celebrate with them and we celebrate them, and we celebrate ourselves.
Yesterday I found myself filled with gratitude for most of the day, for all that I have been given, that we have been given. I look at the road I am on, walking as an Oblate Associate, and how each step brings me closer. Today also I am filled with gratitude, with joy and even with a measure of triumph. They are more than just feelings, they are ways of being, of living. They are deep [not so close to the surface] and rule the why and how I live. They will I guess be lived out in the ordinary of my day. A small echo of what Eugene writes in the last paragraph of his letter above?