ONE MUST KNOW WHEN IT IS TIME TO CLOSE ONE’S DOOR

Most of us do not know how to reasonably close our doors and evaluate the requests made on our time and energy.

After the exertions of a hard mission, is it abnormal that I demand that you rest and that I be upset if you get immersed in very demanding work and if I see you disposed to take on yet more strenuous tasks? There are no considerations which are valid.

To help them Eugene wanted the requests for ministry to come to him, and he would be the one to protect them if this was asking too much of the men.

I would have wished you to reply nothing to what they have the indiscretion to ask of you, except to tell them to address themselves to me. We will now permit the children’s jubilee which will tire you much more than you think, but nothing after that. I absolutely insist that you rest and that you study; one must know when it is time to close one’s door.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Honorat, 13 March 1827, EO VII n 266

Rest referred to physical rest, but also to the necessity to study and prayer so as to have worthwhile content in preaching. The invitation of our Rule of Life:

“They will interiorise in prayer what they study and begin to live what they learn, so that they will be credible signs of the message they are to preach.”    CC&RR, Rule 66c

 

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2 Responses to ONE MUST KNOW WHEN IT IS TIME TO CLOSE ONE’S DOOR

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    Eugene’s writing and Frank’s interpretation hit close to home this morning – another of those times when this could have been written for me, oh and also for my local community here, and oops for the whole family and it grows on. It takes courage to let go of being needed and being a fixer and a savior, and doing, and…

    I think also of how Jesus took time to withdraw and rest, to be nourished by God, to be replenished. At a retreat that I took part in a year ago, we were told that there would be two conferences a day, but before and after each of them we were invited to spend our time relaxing and resting. So for the first time I entered into that invitation and rested. I did not spend all of my free time in examining myself, and writing and, and, and. I did not try to ‘prove’ myself to God or any other. I ‘let go’. One of the best retreats ever where I learned and was replenished, refueled.

    “Rest referred to physical rest, but also to the necessity to study and prayer so as to have worthwhile content in preaching. The invitation of our Rule of Life: “They will interiorise in prayer what they study and begin to live what they learn, so that they will be credible signs of the message they are to preach.” CC&RR, Rule 66c” For myself how can I preach in the way that God is asking me to, if I am too tired, if I do not know and experience what I share. I suppose I could look at what both Frank and Eugene are saying as being heavy-handed, paternal, controlling or a lot of other things. Or I can look at it as an opportunity, an invitation to ‘let go’ and be led, guided and grown. This time I spend here each morning is one of the small ways I respond to that invitation.

  2. Patrick M McGee, OMI says:

    This was hard for Eugene; it is hard for us. The exhortation comes straight from The Master: “…go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father….” (Mt. 6:6)

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