BE WHAT YOU SHOULD BE

I hope, I am even confident that not one of our men is blind to the importance and grandeur of your mission. The future of the Congregation in the New World is in your hands.

Writing to Father Honorat, superior of the first community of Oblate missionaries outside of France, Eugene reminds them of the importance of their mission. If their ministry is successful in Canada, then their future is assured. If the first community turns out to be a failure, that would destroy all future missionary endeavours.  The eyes of the Canadian Church were focused on this community.

The secret to success was to be found in their spiritual and community life – in the way in which they lived their spirit of oblation.

Be what you should be, that is,

truly good religious,

disciplined in your whole behaviour,

perfectly united,

of one heart and mind,

moved by the same spirit under that ordered regularity which marks you in the eyes of all as men living up to the demands of their Rule, in obedience and charity, devoted to all works of zeal conformed to such obedience and not otherwise, never seeking their own interest but only what pertains to the glory of God and the service of the Church.

Letter to Fr. Jean Baptiste Honorat, 26 March 1842, EO I n 10

“Be what you should be” as members of the Mazenodian Family, living the spirit of oblation of Jesus the Savior in the everyday demands of our state of life.

We are all disciples through our baptism – let us help each other to “be what you should be”: WITNESSES THROUGH THE QUALITY OF OUR LIVES.!

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1 Response to BE WHAT YOU SHOULD BE

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    To be what we should be as members of the Mazenodian Family, no matter our state of life. To be as we have been created to be, complete with weaknesses and fears; with courage and daring; with love and compassion; with giving and sharing… As Frank said, living the spirit of oblation of Jesus the Saviour in the everyday of our lives.

    It might seem that it starts out being about ourselves but eventually, as we grow into who we have been created to be, it becomes about God, about our Beloved and how we serve the Church who is the Body of Christ.

    I think of Fr. Albert Lacombe OMI who became priest and then asked to become a member of the Oblate Family. I think of his dreams of becoming a missionary to and with his beloved “Indians” and how that took precedence over his time of becoming a novice and then later how obedience often took precedence over his being with those he loved so dearly. It was never black and white, never just the “letter of the law”. As Frank said: a member of “the Mazenodian Family, living the spirit of oblation of Jesus the Savior in the everyday demands of his state of life.”

    Like Lacombe we are all called, and sent out to embrace the mission – not our own but the “missio Dei” – God’s mission. That is what we members of the Mazenodian Family are called to live as set out in the OMI Rule of Life. That beautiful Rule written for all who share and embrace that call as religious or lay persons. Our “oblation” asks for and demands our all; and it will be seen in how our lives give witness to God, to the Church and to the love of each other.

    It is about how we embrace the Cross and the Resurrection, how we become Co-operators of our crucified Saviour.

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