IT WILL BE A LIFE OF LONELINESS AND OF EVERY KIND OF DANGER

Posted on August 7, 2023 by franksantucci

Fr. Guigues, receiving the instruction from Eugene to send two Oblates to the new mission, responded: “I consider this foundation imprudent and consequently contrary to God’s will. We are two thousand miles from Red River; . . . communication is extremely difficult; for the subjects, it will be a life of loneliness and of every kind of danger. ” (Quoted in Leflon II p 164)

Bishop de Mazenod was not impressed that his orders had not been carried out, and responded with a strongly-worded letter which ended with:

To settle this matter once and for all, I order you to write to Bishop Provencher and tell him that we are granting the request he made on behalf of his vicariate apostolic and that you have two missionaries to put at his disposal for that purpose.

Letter to Fr. Bruno Guigues, local superior in Canada, 24 May 1845, EO I n 54

Fr. Guigues had no choice but to carry out the order and send the two men chosen by Eugene: Fr Pierre Aubert and a Canadian scholastic Alexandre-Antonin Taché, who had not yet been ordained.

REFLECTION

“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.”   (Henry Drummond)

A good summary of the life of St Eugene. How true is it of your life?

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One Response to IT WILL BE A LIFE OF LONELINESS AND OF EVERY KIND OF DANGER

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate says:
    August 7, 2023 at 13:16

    Wow! I think of Eugene’s life some 12+ years earlier when the Church ordered him to remain silent and stay where he was. He was obedient to God and the Church. It may be easy to take this vow in the early fires of love, but to live it can be difficult and can lead to a certain life of loneliness and danger (Leflon II p. 164).

    Oblation through the vow of Obedience. Not something to be taken lightly for when we know the risks then we must trust totally in the will of God,,which may not always be the easiest road to walk down.

    I think for a moment of Taché who I first met when I was looking at the life of Fr. Albert Lacombe OMI, and how Lacombe came to know what a life of obedience and loving service was what he was searching for.

    Some will say that this is not something that Lay Oblate Associates need to worry about, but there will come a day when some of us will choose to live our lives in the light of a personal vow of Obedience born from our own way of living out of a life of Oblation. It will be quiet and probably and not often noticed in a way that we might ask for. But taking those steps will allow God to move more deeply within our beings and our hearts. This is how we will become more fully alive.

    Then we can trust in hearing that call and responding, whether God chooses that directly for us or speaks through others, like our superiors.

    Reply

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