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- LET ALL OF YOU REDOUBLE YOUR FERVOUR AND EXACTITUDE FOR THE OBSERVANCE OF THE RULES.
- I COULD NOT HOLD BACK MY TEARS, SO TOUCHED WAS MY HEART BY THIS GOODNESS. IT IS SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY AND WE CAN ONLY BE DUMBFOUNDED BEFORE GOD AT THIS PROTECTION
- “THIS SOCIETY PLEASES ME; I KNOW THE GOOD IT DOES… MY INTENTION IS NOT MERELY THAT THESE RULES BE PRAISED BUT THAT THEY BE APPROVED” (POPE LEO XII)
- IT IS IN THIS STATE OF HOLY ABANDON THAT I WAITED
- EUGENE PLACED THE RULE AT THE TOMB OF PETER AND IMPLORED HIM AND SAINT PAUL AND THE OTHER HOLY POPES WHO ARE BURIED IN THE SAME PLACE, TO ACCEPT AND BLESS THEM.
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- Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate on JUSTICE, PEACE AND THE INTEGRITY OF CREATION AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF EVANGELIZATION (Rule 9a)
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“A father’s communication with his many children… that is one of the most agreeable occupations of my life” 1857
From almost the outset of Eugene’s missionary work, he was able to recognize different ways that many of the abandoned were not just his own countrymen in France, in the region of Provence, but there were others who suffered from a sense of being disconnected from those around them, as was the case of the Italian immigrants living in Marseilles. As Beaudoin wrote about Eugene becoming aware how these immigrants were deprived of spiritual help in the form of priests to minister to them in their own language. And so in 1828 he made sure that the Calvaire had at least one Oblate who spoke Italian to minister to those Italian immigrants; a ministry which lasted until after the 2nd World War.
I think of Albert Lacombe and his work to get priests sent to Canada to serve the Ruthenians (the Ukrainians) in their own language and rites and how he found a way to celebrate the sacraments with the many First Nations and Metis people that he came to know and live with during his lifetime.
I look at St. Paul University here in Ottawa which was begun by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and which today serves many religions from around the world. Ecumenism that is not limited to unity of only the Christian denominations, but to many different religions such as Judaism, Islam and the spirituality of many of our non-Christian Indigenous brothers and sisters.
I think of the sense of Unity of Life which when it is applied and lived-out pushes past the artificial boundaries that arise in our lives. “We achieve unity of our life only in and through Jesus Christ… We seek his presence in the hearts of the people and the events of daily life as well as in the Word of God…” (C31)
This morning I celebrate with joy the sense “unity of life” that is found when someone suffering from the mental disconnectedness that is often a part of PTSD and other mental illnesses, but which with healing brings everything together.
It is with joy that today we begin by thanking God for our differences and yet how with “unity of life” we are able to live and celebrate those differences as one.