MONEY FOR MISSION DOES NOT FALL FROM HEAVEN

Posted on May 5, 2023 by franksantucci

Bishop Eugene’s pastoral letter looked at the various ways in which the faith in post-Revolutionary France had become strong once again. He also showed how the zeal of the missionaries overflowed out of France to bring the Gospel to other countries and continents. He concludes his reflection by pointing out that everyone in his diocese is involved in supporting this missionary outreach.

However, the work of the missionary is not his work alone, the average layman and woman are involved in it, the poor day laborer as well as the rich, the young child as well as the older man, all contribute to it with equal merit.

The Society for the Propagation of the Faith came into existence in France to make the work of the foreign missionaries possible through financial support.

 This association is growing wonderfully under the blessing of Heaven which inspired it. From France, where it began, it is spreading farther and farther, it already includes many countries in its ranks, and by collecting the weekly contribution from the good will of its members, it raises the money which supports the immense work of this glorious army of apostles, which advances every day to conquer the world. The ever-growing cooperation of the people in a work of such immense charity, in the truly apostolic work of the “Propagation of the Faith”, can only have the happiest of results.

Pastoral letter of Bishop de Mazenod to the Diocese of Marseilles for Lent 1847

REFLECTION

“Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.”

Margaret Thatcher

This entry was posted in WRITINGS. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to MONEY FOR MISSION DOES NOT FALL FROM HEAVEN

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate says:
    May 5, 2023 at 13:35

    I think of how the Society for the Propagation of the Faith came into existence in France when most were trying to survive the ravages of the French Revolution. People sharing what they had so that others could also take part in the feast of new life.

    I am reminded of Fr. Remas OMI who came from France as a missionary and who ended up in northern Alberta. He arrived in the fall to a small crumbling shed and he did not know how to forage and prepare for winter or even how to put a proper roof over his head. Albert Lacombe thought about that and so set out to go to Remas and brought him back to his own home, to care for him until the spring when he would then help him to start a new life in the new world.

    “Our choice of poverty compels us to enter into closer communion with Jesus and with the poor…” (C 20) We are not asked to first measure and compare, but simply to enter into another way of offering a ‘collective witness’. “Our members adopt a simple lifestyle, remembering that it is essential for our religious institute to give collective witness to evangelical detachment.” (C 21)

    This is a time of the entire world trying to recover from the Covid pandemic. Not time to ask what don’t I have but rather what I might share so that another has enough to respond as God calls them.

    Reply
  2. Kirk says:
    May 5, 2023 at 17:58

    Thanks Frank for the insight to help promote MAMI works initiated in Eugene’s time.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *