Eugene’s confidence in God despite opposition:
You are right in being resigned to what God will decide for you. He will never ask of us anything beyond what we can do. People are more demanding than God, but it is not people whom we are to please.
If we do God’s will, we shall succeed against peoples’ expectations and in spite of them
Letter to Fr Eugene Guigues, 27 September 1842, EO IX n 777
In a perfect world…
I find myself thinking of the times that I have thought that I alone have the best way of doing something, whether it has been at work, at home, in my thoughts and even in my prayers.
Community calls me to a different way of thinking and being, just as it did back in the 1800s and will do in the future. It rests upon “we” and not just “me”.
As I began to reflect this morning I picked up and held my copy of the Constitutions and Rules. There is within them a formula for being able to “do God’s will” and succeed “against peoples’ expectations and in spit of them” as Eugene wrote. It may not be the formula for everyone, but for me it works. And there is always the Lord’s Prayer: “…Your kingdom come, Your will be done…”
I remember what I have learned about the General Chapters: there is a trust and belief that during the General Chapter it is the Holy Spirit who leads and brings everyone together. We will not be abandoned or left on our own…
I think of the words spoken to me recently by an Oblate: “Listen Eleanor, just listen…” He was reminding me to listen to my Indigenous brothers and sisters instead of just myself. To listen to others and not just myself. To listen to God speak, through Eugene and through the greater community and Mazenodian Family. It is the only way for me at least to succeed in this life.