I HAVE NEVER REPENTED OF HAVING COOPERATED IN SOMETHING THAT I HAVE BELIEVED, BEFORE GOD, TO BE GOOD

Posted on July 31, 2023 by franksantucci

The proposed appointment of Fr Bruno Guigues to the episcopacy caused agitation among some of the Canadian Oblates who appreciated his gifts and administrative abilities and did not want to lose his active presence in his role as the Oblate superior. This could not have been very pleasant for Guigues, and so Eugene wrote to support him.

My very dear friend, although tortured by the innumerable letters which the good Father Allard writes to ask me to prevent your episcopate and that for very honest but exaggerated reasons, I cannot repent of having given my consent to your election.

I could have been troubled by the representations provoked by the love of our Fathers for the Congregation and for you, but never have I repented of having cooperated in something that I have believed, before God, to be good, opportune, advantageous for the Church and very honourable for our Congregation which could suffer no detriment but which, on the contrary, should derive great advantages from this measure…

Letter to Fr. Bruno Guigues in Canada, 7 June 1847, EO I n 84

REFLECTION

Having convictions can be defined as being so thoroughly convinced that Christ and His Word are both objectively true and relationally meaningful that you act on your beliefs regardless of the consequences.

– Josh McDowell

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One Response to I HAVE NEVER REPENTED OF HAVING COOPERATED IN SOMETHING THAT I HAVE BELIEVED, BEFORE GOD, TO BE GOOD

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate says:
    July 31, 2023 at 13:48

    Fr. Guigues oblation was an integral part of the very depths of his being, as was the charism shared with him by Eugene. His vow of obedience was not just to the Oblates, but also to God and to the Church… Not my will but Yours…

    In Hubenig’s book “Living in the Spirit’s Fire” (Chapter titled Trials of an Apostolic Man) we see that Eugene himself experienced a full range of of what it is to love out of his gift of oblation…

    I believe this is something we are all called to experience in our lives… We will join Christ as we bear our crosses throughout our lives as we become a part of the ongoing flow of love. There are risks associated with this no matter who we are but at the end of the day it is as McDowell stated and we act and live on our beliefs regardless of the consequences. Community, discernment and obedience… none of us can do this on our own.

    I think of Ann Mortifee’s “Born to Live” (from her “Healing Journey” album) in which she shares how we are called to life, and to taste the fullness of life… It is a song about living the “both/and” and how we celebrate even as we are ‘letting go’ of something within ourselves.

    Reply

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