1812 : returned to Aix as a young priest and lived in the house of his mother in the center of the city
My major occupation will be to love Him, my greatest concern will be to make Him loved
Retreat notes, December 1812, E.O. XV n. 109
1813: Beginning of his ministry among the most-abandoned. They were those who were not being touched by the structures of the Church of Aix: the youth, the prisoners, the people of Provence who did not speak French
… my whole ambition was to consecrate myself to the service of the poor and of the youth. I thus started out in the prisons, and my first apprenticeship consisted of gathering around me young boys whom I instructed. I formed a large number in virtue. I saw up to 280 grouped around me, and those who today still remain faithful to the principles that I had the happiness of instilling in their souls and who do honour to their faith in every rank of society or in the sanctuary, will uphold for a long time, either in Aix or in the other places where they are dispersed, the reputation that this congregation had rightly acquired for itself while I was able to care for it.
Diary of 31 March 1839, E.O. XX
This morning Eugene seems to invite me to look at my own life in the light that he shares with us.
I read Eugene’s words and I think of the beautiful statue of Eugene – the one at Klokoty and its mirror image at the General House in Rome. There is Eugene with his right hand holding up his cross as he seems almost to stride forward.
What a grand love affair I have lived with some of the sons and daughters of Saint Eugene de Mazenod – Eugene as I call him. And even as I write these words my mind goes further back in time to when I was in High School, when I entered into a budding friendship with the first “lady Oblate” as she was called – Kay Cronin, HOMI.
I was already addicted to both alcohol and drugs when she befriended me, but she would me to visit her at her office at St. Augustine’s and she took me a couple of times to functions at the Crescent to meet more of her Oblates – like Fr. Hennessy. Neither Kay nor her Oblates seemed to judge me or look down on me. She introduced me to the new Development and Peace organization and shared stories from her trips to the missions in Peru. We talked about our shared sorrow in how our indigenous friends were being treated. Since then she has spent her time gently pushing me forward. She published an early poem that I wrote in the 1968 Oblate Missions review and showed me how to walk the road to fight racism towards our indigenous brothers and sisters. She never got to see me sober up or how I met Jesus for she died in 1975, but I do believe she has been keeping her eye on me since then.
Kay was truly the first Missionary Oblate that I met.
“My major occupation will be to love Him, my greatest concern will be to make Him loved…” and “… my whole ambition was to consecrate myself to the service of the poor and of the youth…” Those words from Eugene seem to typify Kay Cronin.
I see Kay smiling at me – perhaps as she chats with Eugene while keeping an eye on me.