OBLATION: THE SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, OUR COMMON MASTER, HAS RECEIVED YOUR VOWS, HAS ADOPTED YOU AND HAS MARKED YOU WITH THE SEAL THAT MAKES US WHAT WE ARE

Before making his perpetual oblation, the 18-year-old Charles Baret had written to Eugene, who responded:

You were just a novice, my dear son, when you wrote me on August 5. Today you are a child in the Congregation which justly glorifies itself in having the Most Holy Virgin Mary Immaculate as a mother.

Now you are consecrated to God for life and beyond by your oblation; and I must add in all humility but with great consolation, that thereby I have become your father. I do not know you personally; but since the affection that unites me with my children is essentially supernatural, it is enough for me to know that the Saviour Jesus Christ, our common Master, has received your vows, has adopted you and has marked you with the seal that makes us what we are, so that we are united in the most intimate bonds of charity and that I am bound to you forever as you are to me.

Letter to Brother Charles Baret, at Notre Dame de L’Osier, 18 August 1843

What a beautiful meditation on the relationship between every member of the Mazenodian Family and our Founder and Father, Saint Eugene!

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2 Responses to OBLATION: THE SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, OUR COMMON MASTER, HAS RECEIVED YOUR VOWS, HAS ADOPTED YOU AND HAS MARKED YOU WITH THE SEAL THAT MAKES US WHAT WE ARE

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    “Now you are consecrated to God for life and beyond by your oblation…” What beautiful words, what heady and soul-deepening sentiments; Eugene’s words are an invitation to each of us who share in his spirit, his charism.

    I think this morning of the act of oblation that each of us makes as members of the Mazenodian Family. As we are called by God, our response comes from the deepest part of us, that small hidden space within us where resides our Saviour Jesus Christ, our common Master, where we touch and are embraced by the Divine.

    I think for a moment of the beautiful series that Fabio Ciardi has been sharing on his blog; how he lives his oblation. What an incredible gift that is to all of us, to be able to recognize that same gift from God within ourselves. I have never met Fabio and yet I feel as if I have known him for ages, there is between us the common bond that is ‘essentially supernatural’.

    Sons and daughters of Eugene de Mazenod. “The charism of Saint Eugene de Mazenod is a gift to the Church, and it radiates throughout the world. Lay people recognize that they are called to share in the charism according to their state of life, and to live it in ways that vary according to milieu and cultures. They share in the charism in a spirit of communion and reciprocity amongst themselves and with the Oblates.” R 37a

    Our oblation. It is more than just a part of the name we carry; it is more than our state of life suggests – it is our life and our way of being. This past weekend I celebrated with four others our shared anniversary of our Commitment as Oblate Associates of OMI Lacombe: the beginning of our lived expression of our oblation, and the receiving and putting-on of our beautiful and distinctive little crosses. Our consecration…

    I take to heart what Eugene wrote to Charles Baret, his words echoing in my lived experience as a member of our Mazenodian Family. This is our relationship with each other and the world…

  2. Susan Brotherman says:

    I cherish this and all the meditations that show Eugene’s fatherly ( and motherly) deep concern and love for his “children”: “my dear son”. This family invites us to join.
    Sharing Eugene’s life in helping young men, inviting them into family is a wonderful way to bring us (Oblate Associates) into relationship with him and all of his followers — and Christ and Mary Immaculate.
    Thank you!

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