1826, February 17 – Ecclesiastical approbation by the Pope of the Congregation and its Rules, under the title of Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The charism of Eugene was recognized as having its inspiration in the Holy Spirit
Rejoice with me and congratulate yourselves, my beloved, for it has pleased the Lord to grant us great favours; Our Holy Father the Pope, Leo XII, gloriously reigning from the chair of St. Peter, has sanctioned with his apostolic approbation, on March 21 of this current year, our Institute, our Constitutions and our Rules. See then our little flock, to whom the Father of the family has kindly wished to open wide the field of the holy Church, given a place in the hierarchic order, associated with the venerable Congregations which have spread throughout the Church so many great benefits and enlightened the entire world with so bright a light; see her, right from her birth, enriched with the same privileges of those illustrious Societies, in the footsteps of which, with all her strength and all her means, she will certainly strive to walk steadily forward.
Letter to all the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 1826, E.O. VII n.232
“Rejoice with me and congratulate yourselves, my beloved, for it has pleased the Lord to grant us great favours”. Eugene’s use of the word ‘beloved’ as he speaks with his sons. I am not surprised – when I think of the language, how he spoke in that letter to Henri Tempier, the very beginning of bringing together his family, others who would live out a radical way of loving. But still I stopped and had to read this a couple of times, I think because I am more used to hear him speak of the Oblates as sons, as his children, as his family. Beloved, a word reserved and not used lightly, at least not in my experience. My first consciousness of it was in hearing God say to me “beloved”, one word more powerful than a million, that stopped me and at the same time rocketed me to the heavens, embracing and opening, the universe forever changed in that instant. A word, a memory to be ‘savoured’. One word that defines God, myself and everyone else, kind of like the words cross, oblation, all – experiential, lived. Certainly not a word to be used lightly, only used sparingly at best, when I speak (mostly in prayer) of my ‘beloved’ Oblates, or when I pray for my ‘most beloved’ – those who have not known, who do not know what it is to be loved (their suffering is so huge). And so it is this word that Eugene uses for his Oblates of Mary Immaculate. A huge ‘wow’. I daresay it defines both Eugene and his Oblates in the same breath.
The remainder of this part of the letter from Eugene I had to work through off and on, for I found the language not always to be of my preference, as when he speaks of the Pope ‘gloriously reigning’. But then he moves on to speak of “our little flock” and once again I find an image forming, of oneness with God, with Jesus, shepherding. We are his [Jesus] flock. Even as I write this I find myself wondering who is a part of my flock. Scary thought, but not bad or sinful or sacreligious – it is just a part of, the ‘both and’. Eugene continues on about the church – this same church that I both love so greatly and struggle with as much as I love it. There is in all of it a mystery, for it is not explainable.
Eugene de Mazenod, Oblate of Mary Immaculate – those few words say it all.