MY PERSONAL SATISFACTION IN ACCEPTING AS MY CHILDREN, PERSONS WHO ARE SO WELL DISPOSED AS YOU ARE, FULL OF GOOD WILL TO RESPOND TO THE GRACE OF YOUR SUBLIME VOCATION

“When you’re surrounded by people who share a passionate commitment around a common purpose, anything is possible.” Howard Schultz

Four young men had completed their novitiate and had made their perpetual oblation, their lifetime commitment as Missionary Oblates. Eugene, the father of the family, wrote:

My dear sons, I combine in one and the same letter, the reply that each one of you has the right to expect from me. The sentiments I have to express to you are the same: gratitude to God for the benefits he has granted you, congratulations on the occasion of your religious profession by which you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord and have committed yourselves to the service of the Church in the Congregation whose principal end is the conversion of souls, especially of the most abandoned souls.

I must also tell you my personal satisfaction in accepting as my sons men who are so well disposed as you are, full of good will to respond to the grace of your sublime vocation.

Letter to “our very dear Brothers and sons in Jesus Christ, Brothers Bonnard, Martini, Cooke and Dunne”, 22 August, 1846, EO X n 910

Even though Eugene wrote these words more than 170 years ago, they still apply to us today as members of his charism family. Members of each group express their commitment to the ideals of Saint Eugene in a different way according to their state of life, but all focus on how to express their baptismal consecration in service to the Church and to the most abandoned souls.

Our saint continues to express his satisfaction with us as he intercedes for us in heaven.