ST EUGENE: PILGRIM OF HOPE WITH MARY AS HIS MOTHER
000000(Eugene’s seventh “road sign” for the pilgrim)
Saint Eugene’s life journey was always accompanied by Mary, whom he loved as mother. Looking back on his life he wrote in his will:
To this end, I invoke the intercession of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God, daring to remind her in all humility, but with consolation, of the filial devotion of my whole life, and of the desire I have always had to make her known and loved, and to spread her devotion everywhere through the ministry of those whom the Church has given to me as children, who have had the same desire as myself…
Eugene de Mazenod’s will, 1 August 1854, E.O. XV n. 191
BIBLICAL REFLECTION
Pope Francis said this to the Mazenodian Family at the recent General Chapter:
“Mary the pilgrim, Mary journeying, Mary who arose in haste to go and serve. After saying her “yes” to God through the archangel Gabriel, she departed in haste to go to her cousin Elizabeth, to share the gift and to place herself at her service. In this too, may Mary be an example to you, for your life and for your mission”
PRAYER COMPOSED BY OUR SUPERIOR GENERAL, FR CHICHO ROIS
(It applies to every category of member of the wide Mazenodian Oblate Family)
Come walk with us Mary, pilgrim of hope in communion. Give us your hand and your smile.
Teach us to look with the heart, to discover the merciful passage of God. Teach us to look at those whom no one looks at and discover that they are the ones chosen by Jesus as signs of His presence: the small and poor, the humble and vulnerable. Make us worthy to walk with them every day.
Take care, Mother, of our common home and our Oblate home. Help us discover what we need to do to make the planet and our communities a home where Jesus can be born. May our communion be the seed and leaven of universal brotherhood for the world.
At the foot of the cross and the crucified, teach us, Mary, to look at the world with the eyes of the crucified Saviour. As we contemplate you, Mary, may we commit ourselves to collaborating with the One who will bring God’s definitive victory over evil.
We are your Oblates: give us your smile, as you have done since our beginning. She intercedes for us, together with Saint Eugene and all the Oblate saints who have preceded us and make us embark on bold paths to become authentic pilgrims of hope in communion, who live and announce the Gospel. Amen.
***
Novena petition:
May we receive through the intercession of Mary and Saint Eugene the particular graces we ask for as pilgrims of hope.
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“Teach us to look at those whom no one looks at and discover that they are the ones chosen by Jesus as signs of His presence: the small and poor, the humble and vulnerable. Make us worthy to walk with them every day.”
Sitting with this beautiful prayer from Fr. Chicho I am reminded of St. Eugene’s 1st Lenten Homily given at the Church of the Madeleine in Aix. The words that give us life and direction, the words that burst forth and give life to our charism and motto, handed down to us from Jesus through Luke and Matthew…
“The charism of Saint Eugene de Mazenod is a gift of the Spirit to the Church, and it radiates through the world. […] called to share in the charism according to their state of life and to live it in ways that very according to milieu and cultures… in a spirit of reciprocity amongst themselves and with the Oblates.” (R 37a from the Constitutions and Rules)
Yesterday I shared my hope and dream of a small ministry that I recently founded in our parish of becoming something larger and less confined, asking God to give us the grace to grow and touch many throughout our archdiocese. Not that it be about numbers but rather about it growing and finding life within the hearts of those I have come to love and walk with. Like the poor of Aix, and “ones chosen by Jesus as signs of His presence” these people who are often misjudged and condemned, fill my heart just as did the poor that Eugene spoke with in the Church of the Madeleine.
Please God make me “worthy to walk with them every day”.
This is how I wish to share the gift of myself, as did Mary with Elizabeth – walking with her, in service to God and to the Church.
“May we receive through the intercession of Mary and Saint Eugene the particular graces we ask for as pilgrims of hope.”