THIS UNIVERSAL CHANGE, SO IN KEEPING WITH THE SENTIMENTS WHICH OUR FAITH INSPIRES IN US, WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST CONSOLATIONS OF MY LIFE

“Good friends find pleasure in one another’s company. Let us know pleasure in the company of our best Friend, a Friend who can do everything for us, a friend who loves us beyond measure. Here in the Blessed Sacrament we can talk to him straight from the heart.” (St Alphonsus de Liguori) 

Eugene’s great love for the Eucharist was one of the major sources of strength in his mission as Oblate Superior General and Bishop. We can thus appreciate his distress when he arrived in the Diocese of Marseilles and saw how disrespectful many of his priests were in the question of Eucharistic devotion. He set to work immediately to rectify the situation by establishing the Forty Hour Eucharistic devotion annually in each parish.

After 8 years of this practice, he rejoices at the fruits in his diary after a visit to one of the Churches in his city.

I must say that every gathering has inspired devotion. The altars where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed are magnificently prepared and the lighting is most brilliant; here is such a church wherein close to one hundred candles could be counted.

If this state of affairs is compared to that which took place when we came to Marseille, that’s something for which to bless the Lord a thousand times and to be delighted for having been able to contribute to such a striking change. At the time, it was a matter of placing our Lord on the altar with two miserable candles while six candlesticks burned weakly over the pews. No tapestries, no ornaments. It was pitiful. I admit that this universal change, so in keeping with the sentiments which our faith inspires in us, was one of the greatest consolations of my life.

Bishop Eugene made it a point of attending the opening and closing ceremonies in each parish, and to pay a visit in between when possible.

I also delighted in my visits during these four days, which for me are hours of good fortune. The spirit of the faithful improved so much on this very essential point that the step which I just took to adorn the doors of the churches where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed by placing a painting representing the image of the Blessed Eucharist on the upholstered door has been singularly appreciated and applauded by everyone. May God and our Lord Jesus Christ be praised, blessed and adored for it with more fervor. Amen.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 25 February 1846, EO XXI