DRAWN INTO THE DIVINE ADVENTURE   

Convinced that his vocation to respond to the Savior’s love as a priest came from God, Eugene now had to convince his unimpressed mother that he had no choice but to obey. He wrote to her:

to communicate to you the Master’s designs we are all bound to obey on pain of damnation, to answer any objections you might make, in short, through telling you my reasons, to get your approval for a project that certainly comes from God, as it has passed all the tests required of any inspiration that seems unusual and it has been endorsed by all the persons who hold his place in my regard.

Realizing that his mother’s objections were caused, in part, by her maternal fear of losing him, he reassured her:

It remains, my dear, darling mother, for me now to reassure you about the thing that might seem hardest to bear from a natural point of view. God is not demanding here sacrifices beyond our strength. There aren’t going to be any heart-rending partings, departures without coming back.

Letter to his mother, 29 June 1808, EO XIV n 27

Our baptism has drawn each of us into a divine adventure. Today Eugene invites us to reflect on how aware we are of our daily lives fitting in with God’s plan for us.

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“God must move our life and draw it into a divine adventure, which is unknown to us; one in which, at the same time spectators and actors of the marvelous plans of love, we give moment by moment the contribution of our free will.”  Chiara Lubich

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1 Response to DRAWN INTO THE DIVINE ADVENTURE   

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    What magnificent excitement and love greets me as I awaken and feed my senses with what both Eugene and Frank have shared this morning. It captures my heart, my imagination and my memory, causing me to look at who I am in God. An adventure, an intricate dance to music unheard yet with notes that are created of endearment and tenderness. I become for an instant a note, a single note in a symphony of thousands.

    I tend not to think often of my own Baptism, but most surely this was when God claimed me; “I love you, you are mine. I have called you by name”. And the dance begins.

    I laugh with the idea of ‘free will’. God has created me for himself, so that all of life is but an invitation to take that next step, to put my hand into his and to give myself over to the music of the dance. Ours alone and yet only to be realised with all others. To turn from such a life would be unthinkable.

    Each and every day my Beloved comes and kisses me awake and filling my senses with all of creation.

    I come here to this sacred place, to enter into a dance which never ends. Eugene has become the choreographer. I look with no little wonder for I thought myself to be quite untalented in the world of music and dance. Yet here I am in a dance that is exquisitely intricate.

    I get ready to move, for I cannot be late – I do not want to miss the opening notes of my day. I move in a grace that belies my eagerly beating heart. This is the day the Lord has made and the music begins.

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