“Mary was the first person to take the ‘way’ to enter the Kingdom of God that Christ opened, a way which is accessible to the humble, to all who trust in the ord of God and endeavor to put it into practice.” (Pope Benedict XVI)
In 1819, the Oblates had discovered that the ministry of Marian sanctuaries as places of mission was an aspect of our God-given charism. Twenty seven years later, the shrine of Bon Secours joined the list as a missionary pilgrimage center, a place from which parish missions were to be preached and a juniorate established to provide Oblate vocations. Eugene entrusted this responsibility to Father Dassy.
The mission that I am giving you is one of trust. I chose you to be the founder of our new house because I know your attachment to our family, your zeal, and your capacity to bring the matter to term.
Letter to Fr. Toussaint Dassy, at Bon Secours , France, 24 February 1846, EO X n 890
Yvon Beaudoin quotes the minutes of the General Council meeting at which this decision was made:
” Bishop Guibert was very attached to his own religious family and thus he decided to ask the Oblates to serve the shrine and to preach missions in a sector of his diocese. The General Council readily acceded to this request, for it corresponded so well with the ends of the Congregation. In the minutes of the January 14, 1845 Council meeting we read: “This is a shrine to Mary, our holy Mother and Patroness, which needs to be developed and our Congregation is called to do the same in other pilgrimage places that have been entrusted to us… By its location on the borders of the dioceses of Viviers, Nïmes and Mende, this house presents us with a vast field that is worthy of the zeal of those among us who will be its personnel…” (https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/notre-dame-de-bon-secours-1845-1994/)
This morning I have been struck with the idea of God’s Time: when the time was right the Spirit inspired Bishop Guibert to ask his own congregation to serve at the shrine. The Oblates had not taken a break from serving God, sharing the Good News, and evangelizing the poor, but I dare say they were growing more deeply into becoming the community that God was sending out.
I was 29 years old when I experienced my conversion, when God planted me on a new life path which brought me east to Ottawa, led to an Oblate parish and which has been my family ever since. I became involved slowly and quietly, unaware that God was putting down roots within me. Years passed without notice, except for a slow realization that St. Joe’s parish community had become my family.
One day I met the Oblates in startling new way: and tender shoots began to burst forth through the life’s soil, quickly growing upwards and reveling in the warmth, the light and the love around me. Once more God seemed to be inviting me to something deeper and the leaves of experience and life appeared and fell with life’s seasons and slowly over time I began to blossom and bear fruit, as given to me by the Beloved so that I could share it with those around me.
Those quiet years were not wasted, for God was reshaping me, just as a potter does with their work until there appears a more beautiful and stronger piece.
These days I am still Eleanor, but the fruits are seen in my engagement in some new ministries of accompanying: I have joined the RCIA Team in our parish as well as starting a ministry of accompaniment with 2SLGBTQ+ folk. I continue to share my experience of God in being a part of the Reflection Ministry of breaking open the Word of God for and with my parish community.
I thank the Beloved for calling me to and inviting me to become a part of the Oblate/Mazenodian Family in a committed way so that those tender shoots are now strong enough to bear fruit.