17 FEBRUARY 1826: THE CHURCH RECOGNIZES THAT EUGENE’S FOUNDATION IS A GOD-GIVEN CHARISM FOR US TODAY

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

 

As we celebrate the anniversary of the approval of our Constitutions and Rules we recall Saint Eugene’s desire to form “…a Society in order to work more effectively for the salvation of souls and for their own sanctification” (Preface, 1825). The Oblates were to be seriously engaged in becoming holy and this was directly related to their effectiveness as missionaries. This is true also today. If we are to be available and courageous to take on the most difficult of missions “facing the challenges of today from our diverse contexts, including globalization, secularization, inculturation and information technology”; if we are to go beyond “just doing by inertia what we are used to”; if we are “to participate in crossing borders and being inter-cultural”; if we are to live and work together “within apostolic communities”; we need to be spiritually fully alive and to take seriously the call to be saints. Conversion will lead us to holiness; to a creative and audacious spirit that leaves nothing undared; and to the deepest sense of our oblation. Conversion will prepare us to place our lives on the line for any mission. (The words in quotes are from the 2010 Chapter document, CONVERSION, p. 24, English version).

Fr. Louis Lougen, Superior General
http://www.omiworld.org/content.asp?catID=3&artID=1911

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1 Response to 17 FEBRUARY 1826: THE CHURCH RECOGNIZES THAT EUGENE’S FOUNDATION IS A GOD-GIVEN CHARISM FOR US TODAY

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    Wow. Thank you for this. I have found the effect of being able to read Eugene’s and then Louis Lougen’s letters to be very powerful. And although they are I am sure most likely meant to centre, renew and affirm what it means to be an Oblate, and I daresay an Oblate Associate, and for many who make up the Mazenodian Family I find myself thinking in another direction as well.

    For I find myself thinking of “succession” – of Superior Generals of the Congregation and even of the papal succession [which I guess could be called a little apt in light of Pope Benedict stepping down at the end of the month]. I look at what Eugene wrote in his letter to affirm, support, enflame those first Oblates and what Louis Lougen has written and shared in his letter, using terms that we are more familiar with, more easily eaten and digested. I find myself saying yes, I want to follow, be a part of, look at how this can apply to my daily life. I see the graces of succession here, it is not separate and a whole new set of terms. I am able to focus on the same spirit somehow that has been, that is passed down from Superior General to Superior General and so to all Oblates [those hearts of fire, of love]. Not that it was not there before but seeing it in a new way somehow. And it is the same with the Pope, for that is something that I have struggled greatly with since coming back into the church over 30 years ago [and not to say that I still won’t struggle with it, but again a small or perhaps big grace this morning in how I look at it]. Since the time of Jesus and Peter and the “rules and constitution” of the church and up to the present, the papacy, there has been grace, there has been the Holy Spirit and more as well as the humanness and it is all a part of this very church that I love so much and so struggle so greatly with at times. [of course this is not going to take away the struggle or change the church’s position or mine on certain things, it is just clearer somehow]. A little off topic but this was the gift I received this morning.

    Today, tomorrow and in the coming week I shall come back to this posting and reread it and Fr. Louis’ letter, for both are very powerful. Tomorrow is a day when I celebrate with the Oblates their foundation as a congregation with Eugene’s God-given charism. Tomorrow I celebrate with and I celebrate all you other Oblate Associates, here at home and all of you in other countries, most of whom I have never even met. We are all members of the same family and so I thank God for this great gift we have been given and through this grace that God has given us I hold each of you in my heart.

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