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, E.O. 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, E.O. 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, E.O. XIV n.95
******** IPAD APP *******
You can have a “Saint Eugene speaks” app on your ipad by going to http://myapp.is/Eugenespeaks ON YOUR TABLET and following the instructions
I see more clearly the intentionality of St. Eugene’s life. He stated it, was very specific, saying this is it and this is how I will live it out. “The priest who aimed to love with the love of Jesus Christ” Pretty specific. Pretty daring. I am thinking of Jesus and his early apostles. It seemed that in Jesus’s time God was deemed to be totally separate and removed from mankind, one did not even say aloud the name of God. The very idea of God enfleshed, incarnate was deemed to be blasphemous. This is the first time that I see a very specific link between Eugene and the apostles, not that it wasn’t there but I did not realize or experience it the same way, with the same fullness of truth. Even in my own life I did not dare to think of God incarnate – what that meant, enfleshed, a part of me and I a part of God – that was something that when I did realize and experience I kept it hidden, to myself for it was so very different from what I had learned. There are still times of struggle when I try almost to ‘separate’ myself from God whether in punishment or in the inadequacy of words. Eugene though claimed it and lived it out. So if I say to God that I give You my all – what does that mean? What does that look like? Because it’s got to be more than just words.
I return to that image of Jesus at the centre, heart afire and with the flames of his love reaching out and setting afire the hearts of the apostles and those in turn flowing back and forth and in between and then to and St. Eugene and his Oblates – it too is somehow a little more true, more real this morning. What has happened that I suddenly see or understand a little more clearly. And what of myself – can I look and see myself in there, in that widening circle? I must be truthful and state that even to give voice to that question is a little scary somehow because what would that mean?
The title of our community days was “fanning the flames to become who we are”. It has become a little more personal this morning.
“I dedicated myself to the service of the Church because it was persecuted, and because it had been abandoned.”
Aha. I have often wondered why Eugene was so dedicated and supportive of the institutional church. After all, he founded a religious order which required walking a delicate line with the hierarchy.
This explains it. There is almost a feeling sorry for the Church in its abandoned and persecuted state after the French revolution. I also see a bit of an engineer in him – “it was broken and I had to help fix it.”
There are parallels here between St Eugene’s love and dedication to the Church and the direction Pope Francis seems to be taking with Church reform and renewal: focusing on the disenfranchised and marginalized, loving and helping them, just as Jesus did.
I am ready for our sojourn to Le Puy and beyond with St Eugene in my hip pocket.