Our Mazenodian vocation is to live the life of Jesus and the apostles. It is to do their ministry: to make Jesus Christ present in our everyday activities. It is the practice the virtues of Jesus as he taught them to his apostles – and to us through them.
So one must live their life, exercise their ministry, practice their virtues? There is no room for doubt: Imitating these illustrious models, the missionaries will give one portion of their life to prayer, recollection, and contemplation, while living together in the seclusion of God’s house.
The other portion of their life they will zealously devote to the works of the exterior ministry, such as to missions, preaching, the hearing of confessions, teaching catechism, directing the young, visiting the sick and prisoners, giving spiritual retreats, and other works of this kind.
Retreat notes, October 1831, EO XV n. 163
In order to achieve this we need to work at an equilibrium between action and quiet, busy-ness and reflection, activity-time and prayer-time. The aim is to transform all our “doing” and “being” into God-time.
The activities of the Oblate missionaries are listed above, but the text is for all of us who follow the charism of St Eugene. Which of my daily activities can I add to the list as a baptized lay-person in today’s world?
I have sat here – looking at what I do, and where that comes from. I could list off a whole lot of little things that I ‘do’ and they are many of them small services for others most of which are probably hidden and not noticed – of no great import save to perhaps those who are on the receiving end and who might one day notice. There is in there a desire to be noticed – one of the things I am working on – but it not just because of that need – there is more. I notice where there are little holes that can be filled and so I fill them much as does a paver going ahead of a car to fill the little potholes. My version of what Eugene called works of exterior ministry perhaps.
I also notice people who need, who deserve to be celebrated and I celebrate them. Why? Why not?
Right now so much of my time is concentrated on my studies – 2 courses which fill my days because I cannot be rushed and because I want them to become a living part of me. I can hardly wait for the day when I will be able to share with others what I am being given. It is turning my world around and how I wish that others could share in this experience. Already a difference is being made in my life – how I see things, my understanding of that which I love so deeply. It colours my world and my being – imagine being able to share something like that – so immense – so incredibly beautiful and full – something so transformative. All within a very specific family outlook and way of doing and being. At the heart of it all – God – Jesus, the Spirit. The reason for all.
It can be so hard looking and admitting to the good that has been planted within – fear can halt the whole process. And yet I remember Jesus stating who he was, what he was about. Eugene – daring to found a congregation and to express and share his experience of God – huge ways.
For me – my ways are small and ordinary and often quite imperfect but I give it all that I have and am. And God? Well God just keeps transforming. That immense and living spiral – the deeper I go, the deeper I am taken and carried – the wider are the ripples coming from that depth. God – making the ordinary into the extraordinary.