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Recent Posts
- IT IS THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE START OF THE CONGREGATION THAT I HAVE HEARD SUCH AN EVIL-SOUNDING WORD
- BECOME ONE WITH YOUR SUPERIOR, SO THAT YOU AND HE ARE OF ONE HEART, ONE MIND, ONE WILL
- MY HEART OF A FATHER WAS FULL OF LOVE FOR YOU WHO ARE DOUBLY MY SON
- WE MUST DISCOVER ALL THESE ADVANTAGES IN THE BLESSED CONGREGATION THAT HAS GIVEN BIRTH TO US
- YOU MUST BE A FATHER TO YOUR NOVICES, YOU MUST BE CLOSE TO THEM IN THEIR DIFFICULTIES AND ENCOURAGE THEM
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- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate on BECOME ONE WITH YOUR SUPERIOR, SO THAT YOU AND HE ARE OF ONE HEART, ONE MIND, ONE WILL
- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate on MY HEART OF A FATHER WAS FULL OF LOVE FOR YOU WHO ARE DOUBLY MY SON
- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate on WE MUST DISCOVER ALL THESE ADVANTAGES IN THE BLESSED CONGREGATION THAT HAS GIVEN BIRTH TO US
- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate on YOU MUST BE A FATHER TO YOUR NOVICES, YOU MUST BE CLOSE TO THEM IN THEIR DIFFICULTIES AND ENCOURAGE THEM
- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate on THE DREAM BEGINS WITH A TEACHER WHO BELIEVES IN YOU
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“A father’s communication with his many children… that is one of the most agreeable occupations of my life” 1857
The General Chapter was not just a recitation of the number of missions preached, or the number of hearts touched, it was a sharing and celebration of the life being lived by the members of this growing family. It was a practice they lived in their individual houses, something they did as a family.
This is how it is still done today. I have never been to a General Chapter, but the report given by our Provincial was shared with all of us. As were the “Acts of the 36th General Chapter”, the new and renewed focuses and directions that we as a family would move forward with. All of it coming from the shared charism that we each live out as community. We share the same Good News, with the same mission, seeing with the same focus, through the same eyes (all of it coming from God, through our crucified Saviour). I think for a moment of Albert Lacombe OMI who recognized he would lose himself in a way if he had to do it alone, without shared guidelines and rules of the heart.
We might sing “I did it my way” with Frank Sinatra, or how we “don’t need anybody” with Susan Boyle, but we know in the deepest part of our beings, that for Eugene and for each of us this isn’t possible. This is why we are called to live as community.
The words that Fr. Louis Lougen, Superior General has said to me on the few occasions that we have met: “Remember, we need you”. He was not just speaking of me, but of all of us Associates, members of the Mazenodian Family. We truly need each other so that we can work and celebrate together.
Eugene’s words, which bear repeating 200 years later, speak to what we as members of the Mazenodian Family are all about. “These are the wonders of Providence upon us and an ever more pressing reason to thank the Lord who has given us such a vocation and to accomplish even more faithfully the apostolic virtues that this vocation demands of us.”