OUR BICENTENARY: REJOICE WITH ME AND CONGRATULATE YOURSELVES, FOR IT HAS PLEASED THE LORD TO GRANT US GREAT FAVORS

The full impact and importance of the foundation we are celebrating can only be appreciated if we look at the bigger picture. Eugene was convinced that the 6 men coming together in the foundation room were doing so in response to a call from God. But, how sure of this was he?

Exactly 10 years later, Eugene was in Rome seeking the Church’s recognition that the foundation event of 25 January was indeed the will of God. With the papal approbation, the Oblate charism 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 favors;
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, EO VII n.232

Papal approbation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, ten years after our foundation

Fr. Fernand Jetté OMI, successor of St. Eugene from 1974 -1986, shows the necessity for a “divine guarantee” regarding our foundation:

It is essential for a religious family to be recognized by the Church, for it is the Church who “constitutes” us, as the Founder put it; it is the Church who gives us our “mission”, who sends us as an apostolic corps to evangelize the world…

For a religious family the issues at stake are substantial; it invites men to leave everything, to give up establishing themselves in this world in order to commit themselves in a radical way and within a group to the following of Christ. In such a project, each one stakes his own life. Who will guarantee the Gospel authenticity of the way that is proposed?

…Before one can offer people a particular way of evangelical life, it is necessary that there be signs from God, discernment and the Church’s official confirmation…. It is the Church therefore that “constitutes” us what we are. She vouches to the faithful for the Gospel authenticity of the life-project we offer them.

F. Jetté, THE OFFICIAL APPROBATION OF OUR NEW CONSTITUTIONS, Letter – Rome 27/06/1982  http://www.omiworld.org/superior-general-writings.asp?v=W&sID=4

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3 Responses to OUR BICENTENARY: REJOICE WITH ME AND CONGRATULATE YOURSELVES, FOR IT HAS PLEASED THE LORD TO GRANT US GREAT FAVORS

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    I again spent the night singing lines from the Gloria – each time I awoke I was singing “Glory to God in the highest…” and I would roll over, thank Eugene very softly and go back to sleep. And just as it did a week ago, quiet but deep contentment and gratitude filled me then just as it does now.

    I am not a priest, a professed Oblate yet I and so many of my brothers and sisters get to share in their spirit, some of their ways of living. “Before one can offer people a particular way of evangelical life, it is necessary that there be signs from God, discernment and the Church’s official confirmation…. It is the Church therefore that “constitutes” us what we are. She vouches to the faithful for the Gospel authenticity of the life-project we offer them. “ Not quite the same for me but close enough. For myself to be an Oblate Associate I needed most certainly the signs from God, discernment and the congregations official confirmation (through my Province) (that was the way it came from the Church). It was necessary that is was not ‘of my own’, ‘just me’ but rather in discernment with other Associates and Oblates, making that commitment to the Oblates and them receiving it. Receiving my small Oblate Cross, walking with them, being in relationship with.

    In 16 more days I will renew my commitment after having experienced an ongoing discernment process. This only could have begun and grown from God and yes the Church (for it is through her that I found the Oblates and met Eugene). If ever they (the Oblates) should wonder if they are being true to the charism, the spirit of Eugene and those first Oblates they need only to look at how they have touched so many of us and led us to become human, and Christian and are helping us to become saints. Indeed; “Rejoice with me and congratulate yourselves, for it has pleased the Lord to grant us great favors.: I would like this to be a day of thanks.

  2. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    A week ago I sat here with a bright and giddy joy but today my joy is quieter, solid, rich and full – a little like the depths of the ocean which from the skies look placid with little movement but whose depths hold currents so profound that without them all of life might cease to be.

    I think of the Church which ‘constitutes who we are’ and for a second I idly wonder if she will ever acknowledge women in the way that she does men. I think of the scriptures from Mass yesterday, hearing the word ‘men’ over and over and yet I sang with all my heart “Here I am Lord, is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord if you lead me – I will hold your people in my heart.”

    I cannot hang on to those little hurts if I am to go where God leads me, to walk with others in this mighty Mazenodian Family that Eugene first began 200 years ago. I do not forget them but I will not dwell on them and let them be the colouring of my life. Seeing through the eyes of our crucified Savior changes me, transforms and enables me to be more. Again I repeat Eugene’s words of “Rejoice with me and congratulate yourselves, my beloved, for it has pleased the Lord to grant us great favors.” That one line says it all.

  3. David Morgan. Oblate Associate says:

    This papal approval was all the more significant as at least 45 dioceses in France had seen societies formed to preach missions in parishes between 1815 and 1830. The Holy Father received many requests for papal approval of these societies to which he expressed his ‘encouragement’ only. For some reason Pope Leo XII took a liking to St. Eugene’s proposal and personally endorsed it. St. Eugene saw this as an act of God.

    This is one reason the Oblates have survived and prospered these past 200 years. I can still feel the buzz of that papal endorsement today.

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