YOU MUST NOW REGAIN YOUR COURAGE AND MAKE GREAT STRIDES TO GET TO THE POINT WHICH YOU SHOULD HAVE REACHED LONG AGO

Posted on February 2, 2022 by franksantucci

Father Baudrand had repented of his wrong behavior – the most serious being that he had openly gossiped to many about the internal difficulties that the Oblate community was experiencing in Montreal. Eugene realized that one of the major consequences of this disunity was the lack of vocations coming forward to join the community.

Is it true that your dioceses of Montreal and Quebec would produce nothing? I know that making known certain miseries which should have been hidden, buried within yourselves, could have turned away some vocations, but now that each will do his duty, it is to be hoped that the good aroma of your virtues will attract some people.

That is the point. We must inspire so much with our regularity, our modesty, our charity that souls who seek perfection may be able to count on meeting with such practices amongst us. I never was able to understand how anyone could lose sight of that fact. It is nevertheless a question of an essential duty which one could not neglect without gravely sinning.

Father Baudrand must now make a new beginning with a changed attitude:

You must now regain your courage and make great strides to get to the point which you should have reached long ago.

Eugene has forgiven him and reminds him of his paternal concern.

Adieu, my very dear son. May God bless all your undertakings and keep you in health. I embrace you affectionately and bless you and commend myself to your prayers.

Letter to Father Jean Baudrand (in Canada), 1 October 1844, EO I n 48

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One Response to YOU MUST NOW REGAIN YOUR COURAGE AND MAKE GREAT STRIDES TO GET TO THE POINT WHICH YOU SHOULD HAVE REACHED LONG AGO

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:
    February 2, 2022 at 11:46

    Eugene’s words appear to be a ‘dressing down’, something that might be said to a child rather than an adult who given his life to God and gone to the new world as a missionary. Eugene though, was looking out for his young missionary sons, and for the people they had been sent to serve and minister to.

    “We must inspire so much with our regularity, our modesty, our charity that souls who seek perfection may be able to count on meeting with such practices amongst us.” In other words, these missionaries were to become models in the same way that Jesus and his apostles were models to them.

    This calls me to reflect on what kind of a model might I be to others. Do I portray myself as being filled with joy and life? Do I inspire others in such a way that they are invited to live as I live and love? Does my behaviour and way of being leave others feeling drained, empty, and exhausted, or does it seem to energize and give life to others?

    “You must now regain your courage and make great strides…” Is this not what has been asked of us by God in the Old Testament and by Jesus in the New Testament? It takes deep courage and perseverance to atone and live a new life. Upon first hearing Eugene’s story I was struck by how he modelled the life of St. Paul and I idly wonder whose life others might decide I am modelling.

    Eugene’s final words of blessing: “I embrace you affectionately and bless you and commend myself to your prayers.” I am reminded of the lyrics of the Redemptorists’ hymn “Father I have sinned”: I forgive you; I love you. You are mine, take my hand. Go in peace, sin no more, beloved one.

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