TAKE YOUR CRUCIFIX IN HAND AND MARCH OFF TO THE CONQUEST OF THOSE PERSONS WHOM PROVIDENCE MARKS OUT FOR US
Father Yvon Beaudoin takes up the narration on Father Leonard’s recruiting successes:
“From 1841 to 1847 there were 115 men began the novitiate at Notre-Dame de l’Osier and a similar number in 1847 and 1848. Father Léonard’s preaching tour was a success. More than 100 seminarians entered the novitiate and about fifty made vows. Before 1847, the majority of the vocations came from dioceses in the South of France. After this date, vocations began to arrive from all of France and Belgium.
The Founder then began to speak of the “nightmare” and the “despair” of Father Tempier who is now out of money to supply the needs of the novices and the scholastic brothers. In October of 1847, at the insistence of Fathers Tempier and Vincens, the Founder asked Father Léonard to suspend his tour.” (https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/baveux-jean-claude-leonard/)
Less than 10 days later, however, Eugene reversed his decision! As a compromise he recommended that from now on only seminarians who had already completed their theological studies be accepted.
My dear Father Leonard, with new facts comes new advice. Considerations about our difficulties had determined me to write you to suspend your recruitment tour; but I have just learned that another recruiter as able as you are, is about to cover all the dioceses of France to call all the clerics of good will who may wish to associate themselves with the work for which he is preaching. There is no room for hesitation: it would be useless to follow him, it is important then to precede him.
So grease your boots my dear Father Leonard; or rather, take your crucifix in hand and march off to the conquest of those persons whom Providence marks out for us.
Letter to Father Leonard Bavaux, 8 November 1847, EO X n 954
Father Léonard stopped his tour in March of 1848 because Father Tempier had no more money and because he wanted to be back in Canada to attend the consecration of Father Guigues who had been appointed bishop of Bytown.
REFLECTION
“When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.” (W. Clement Stone)
As a result of our baptism we are all missionaries – at home, at work, on the bus, at the store… – sometimes just a smile and a word of gratitude works miracles.
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Perhaps one of the greatest challenges while at the same time one of the greatest gifts of life is to discover our passion and give ourselves over to where we have been called and sent. (Always it is the Spirit who calls and sends.) And then like seeds, allow ourselves to be planted, so that new roots may grow until we burst forth from the soil of life with tender shoots reaching out to the light – so that we might flower and bear fruit. Sometimes the fruit is in the ‘smile and a small word of gratitude’ and other times it can be found in a larger context. Each of us with a particular role of constant loving and serving…
I reflect on Eugene and Father Leonard and all of the others who make up the community – then and now. Each one of us in this Mazenodian Oblate Family are a part of something created to be deeply personal with equal parts of community. We are all striving for a deeper communion with the Beloved, the crucified Saviour, who we meet and come to know more fully with those around us.
It is a connection brought about by mutual poverty, chastity, obedience and perseverance. It is bonds created from not just one particular thing but from many values, from commonality as well as the infusion of diversity.
We become like a hybrid model born out of the “both and”, offering new ways of life with, in and through… Together we become one…