GIVING ONESELF WITHOUT RESERVE TO GOD

Eugene spoke often of the “enemy” as the power of darkness who prevented people from coming to the light of salvation given by Jesus Christ. He followed the Gospel understanding of the world as being in the power of the Evil One, and hence the missionaries were called to engage in battle against the forces of evil and to bring the light of salvation.

I presume however that the dear companion who went with you to found the house of Red River has been raised to the priesthood and also that he has had to place his profession in your hands as I had authorized.

Twenty-two year-old Alexandre Taché had been ordained to the priesthood on October 12 in St Boniface and then made his perpetual oblation as an Oblate the following day and celebrated his first Mass.

It is good to make one’s vows on the battlefield in the face of the enemy one has come so far to fight. Such thoughts were on my mind on the 17th of this month and indeed I spoke of them at the fine reunion we had of all our Fathers and Brothers who renewed before me and in the presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ the consecration they had made of themselves to the Lord in years more or less remote…

Letter to Fr Pierre Aubert in St Boniface Canada, 21 February 1846, EO I n 61

REFLECTION

“The mark of a saint is not perfection, but consecration. A saint is not a person without faults, but a person who has given oneself without reserve to God.”  (Brooke Westcott)

The mark of each member of the Mazenodian charism family is consecration – how we live and express our oblation in everyday life.