“No prophet is accepted in his own native place.” (Lk. 4: 24)
We are the ministers of his mercy, and so let us always have the tenderness of a father towards all; let us easily forget the insults that are sometimes committed against us in the exercise of our ministry as the good Lord wishes to forget the offences continually being committed against him. The father of the prodigal son was not content with putting the best robe on him and having a ring put on his finger, he had the fatted calf killed as well.
Letter to Bruno Guigues, 20 February 1837, EO IX n 605
REFLECTION
Lord, make me a channel of Your peace,
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may Lord, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
it is in dying that we are born again to Eternal Life.
(Prayer of St. Francis)
I am reminded once again of the Constitutions and Rules. “We are members of the prophetic Church. While recognizing our own need for conversion, we bear witness to God’s holiness and justice. We announce the liberating presence of Jesus Christ and the new world born in his resurrection… This prophetic mission is carried out in communion with the Church…” (C 9)
I think of the Church’s call to a new way of being – synodality. A way that may demand a letting-go of some of our personal ways of being in order to make space for new shared ways; enlarging the space of our tents as described in Isaiah.
I am thinking of the motto of the 37th Chapter: Pilgrims of Hope in Communion… What might that look like, now that the Chapter is over and the living it out begins?
This past weekend Provincials and their Vicars for our region invited the Oblate Associates from two of the Provinces to come together and meet, to share how we live out our shared charism in mission and to share a meal together. To listen and share as Pilgrims of Hope in Communion, through a new and shared lens. What an awesome grace and gift to be a part of…
A new way to walk and be together as one family: pilgrims together without borders…