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- GOD ALONE KNOWS HOW TO REWARD WHAT WE HAVE DONE FOR HIM. SO, WE MUST DO EVERYTHING TO PLEASE HIM
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- THERE IS NOT A CORNER OF ROME WHICH IS NOT A MONUMENT OF FAITH OR PIETY
- THE ROMAN MARTYRS ARE STILL THE OBJECT OF VENERATION OF PEOPLES
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- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate on FAITH-FOCUSED INVESTMENT GROUPS: A PRESENCE WHERE DECISIONS AFFECTING THE FUTURE OF THE POOR ARE BEING MADE (Rule 9a)
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- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate on WE SHOW A VERY HUMAN FACE OF JESUS TO THE WORLD, ONE FULL OF COMPASSION AND SOLIDARITY (Rule 9a)
- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate on JUSTICE, PEACE AND THE INTEGRITY OF CREATION AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF EVANGELIZATION (Rule 9a)
- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate on WALKING THE LINE BETWEEN PROPHETIC VISION AND SPIRITUAL SUSTENANCE (CONSTITUTION 9)
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“A father’s communication with his many children… that is one of the most agreeable occupations of my life” 1857
This letter of Eugene’s and Frank’s introduction sheds a light on an area that I did not even realise was in the shadows of my mind and heart. “Eugene’s religious family belongs primarily to God and to the Church and not to the Founder.” And then “She is as much yours as mine; God’s family too and that of the Church.”
I do what we do, we live as we do in response not just to love of each other but first out of love and service to the Church and God.
The word ‘foundational’ comes to mind only because we were called to reflect and share of what is foundational for us as a family, the Mazenodian Family. On the way home though I started to ask myself what was “foundational” to me.
This morning I find myself thinking of the many ways that we are called to live as members of the Mazenodian Family, sharing the same charism and how Eugene was called to share the Good News to the poorest of the poor, the most abandoned. All those who were not touched by Church structures and what that means to us today in this present time. It is about more than being a religious, or a priest or brother; it is about service and discipleship within the Church herself, and how we each are called to make an oblation, in service, in discipleship to God, to the Church and to and with each other be we lay or religious, male or female, priest or married, single… What unites us is that we do this out of our love for the most abandoned, be they members of a church, involved or not involved with ministry in some way, whether they are educated or not. As missionaries we are all sent out to evangelize the poor; and the poor are evangelized.
What is foundational – is that we all love and serve God, and the Church, having one mission, the mission of God, of the Church. We “belong” to God, to the Church, to our communities. What is foundational is that we are sent to the poorest of the poor, the most abandoned, the forgotten, the voiceless, the unloved… The list is endless.
It is not our state of life, or what our jobs have been, but what God has called us to, what the Spirit has shared with us through our founder Eugene de Mazenod, who was offered a plum position with the Missionaries of France evangelizing the educated, the rich and the elite. Eugene said no to that because he was being called to minister to the poorest of the poor. It this that is foundational and still relevant today…