PLEASE STOP THIS BRAGGART WHO PLACES US IN A DESPERATE SITUATION AND WILL BRING ABOUT OUR RUIN
Father Leonard’s vocational recruiting campaign was bringing in so many responses that a second novitiate eventually had to be opened in Nancy, with the possibility of a third in Belgium. As wonderful as all this was, it also led to discomfort among the more practical members of the Congregation who had to find the money and means to house, feed and educate this unexpected influx of men. Father Tempier, who was the General Treasurer, worried the most. Eugene thus wrote to Fr Leonard:
I have already told you that even if I had the mailing service at my disposal, it would be impossible to catch up with you. You go from conquest to conquest and we will have to enlarge on all sides the houses which are to receive your recruits.
I acknowledge that the discomfort caused by the success of your mission does not tempt me to shed tears. I am comforted by the anxiety of our good Father Tempier who continually tells me: “Please stop this braggart who places us in a desperate situation and will bring about our ruin.”
You know, I laugh in his face while he scratches his head and he himself ends up laughing, saying that you have taken him at his word.
… All joking aside, if the Lord sends them to us, we would be very foolish not to receive them.
Despite the practical opposition that Eugene was receiving, his missionary heart saw only the benefit of having so many generous persons ready to give their lives for the poor and most abandoned.
… I think, however, it would be turning away from the way of Providence if you were to stop halfway in a mission that is evidently inspired by God. Chosen by the Lord to accomplish what you are doing with so much success, with the Lord’s evident blessing, you will ever be the benemerente of the Congregation whose mouthpiece you have been to make it known and to spread it.
Letter to Fr Leonard Baveux, 10 June 1847, EO X n 930
REFLECTION
“Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string.” (Pele)
Once upon a time when we prayed for vocations it meant only for more priests, brothers and Sisters. Today our call is to work for and pray for vocations to all ministries in the Church – to “vibrate with enthusiasm” for the beauty of the Mazenodian charism, spirituality and mission.
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A small aside as I sit here this morning: it is the thought of Eugene smiling and laughing. I have never seen a picture of him laughing, but in my thoughts and prayers I have often sensed his smile. Anyone as human as he was and loved as he loved most assuredly smiled and laughed.
I am reminded of the zoom gatherings offered by the Province, especially during COVID and of the smiles and laughter that transformed our faces as we entered those spaces. Joy and even some tears as we came together as members of the Mazenodian Oblate Family. No matter how we might have been sick or struggling the joy would overtake us, just as it seemed to do in this morning’s offering of Eugene and Tempier…
This morning my thoughts are occupied by/with Frank’s words from the Reflection, about how we pray for vocations. Early on in my life I wondered why I only seemed to hear requests for prayers to vocation for the priesthood. And yes then my own thoughts of unworthiness, of being “not good enough” and a sense of exclusion.
BUT the day came when I thought and recognized a call from God and it was tied to the idea of God making me a gift to the Oblates and a gift of the Oblates to me. I had no idea of what that might look like because contained within that idea was as sense of myself as a lay woman and my desire to give all of myself to God. What would that look like? Was that just wishful thinking? Still, I dared to pursue that…
Vocations are both communal and personal no matter how we are called, and I believe it is always in loving service to…, God, our Church, our families, each other and in a sense to ourselves. It never stops but it deepens and becomes a way of being, of breathing in and breathing out, of our heart beats.
It is always “we” thing…