Having established that benefactors are indeed partners in mission, Eugene shows how these partners participate fully in the spiritual benefits of being associated with the Missionaries.
Nevertheless, on our part, this is the contribution that we will make, despite our :weakness;
it will be by praying several times a day from the depths of our heart for the benefactors of this holy apostolic work;
it will be during the missions by asking the good people who have been strengthened and the sinners who have been converted to pray for the same intention;
finally it will be by often offering the Holy Sacrifice for them, and by granting them a full and complete sharing in all the good works, prayers and penances, etc. done while on the missions or when not on the missions by all the members of our Society.
That is not much, to be sure, but when you give all that you have, what more can you do.
After expressing in all simplicity all the good we wish for you, I dare to ask some share in your prayers for me and my little community, which, thanks be to God, walks better before the Lord than does its poor Superior who is a very lax and unfaithful servant.
Letter to Madame de Servan, 20 August 1818, O.W. XIII n. 15.
Today our Rule of Life expresses the mutual interdependence of all the members of the Mazenodian family:
The charism of Saint Eugene de Mazenod is a gift of the Spirit to the Church, and it radiates throughout the world. Lay people recognize that they are called to share in the charism according to their state of life, and to live it in ways that vary according to milieu and cultures. They share in the charism in a spirit of communion and reciprocity amongst themselves and with the Oblates. Rule 37a
Rule 37a is a powerful rule that speaks to of the ongoing development of Religious Communities ever where. It speaks for the People of God working together with the gifts and talents we have/are. And so even in Eugene’s day, the young society was not separated from the people but one with the people. And together they were calling each other to “holiness”.
And being one in the de Mazenodian Family calls for the “World Wide Web of Oraison”. That was and will continue to be the key that opens up the heart of possibilities.