I GROAN TO SEE SO YOUNG A FATHER SEPARATED FROM ALL OUR OBLATES AT SO GREAT A DISTANCE

Posted on August 14, 2023 by franksantucci

Eugene had sent the two missionaries to evangelize the indigenous tribes and was proud of their zeal and courage. He wrote to the Bishop of Montreal:

I have received news from Red River. Fathers Aubert and Taché have written to me and the letter of the latter is charming. He has made his profession and said his first Mass, October 13th. They are both happy with their situation. They are going to establish a mission at 300 leagues from Saint Boniface in the Ile de La Crosse. Father Taché is going there with M. Laflèche and Father Aubert is going to leave for Wamassinoury with M. Belcourt. He will become proficient at that mission in the native language.

Letter to Bishop Bourget of Montreal, 23 December 1846, EO I n 72

Now the missionary challenge of the early days emerges. Eugene wanted his men to live in community with a regular prayer life and mutual support, while having been sent primarily to be itinerant evangelizers not contemplative monks. Writing to Fr Guigues, the Canadian Superior, Eugene refers to the Bishop of St Boniface having sent Fr Taché on mission:

I see that he has sent Father Taché to Ile de la Crosse. But I groan to see so young a Father, scarcely out of novitiate, separated from all our Oblates at so great a distance.

Letter to Fr Bruno Guigues in Canada, 25 March 1847, EO I n 82

REFLECTION

Here we see the tension between religious life, community and mission that has existed throughout our history. How does one establish an equilibrium in responding to the many challenges that each day brings, while maintaining a unity with God and with those we are committed to in family or consecrated life?

 The Oblate Rule encourages us to:

achieve unity in our life only in and through Jesus Christ. Our ministry involves us in a variety of tasks, yet each act in life is an occasion for personal encounter with the Lord, who through us gives himself to others and through others gives himself to us

Constitution 31

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One Response to I GROAN TO SEE SO YOUNG A FATHER SEPARATED FROM ALL OUR OBLATES AT SO GREAT A DISTANCE

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate says:
    August 14, 2023 at 12:59

    It is here that we see the working of the Holy Spirit as being the heart of Eugene’s charism, in the living expression of that charism – I am referring to the OMI Constitutions and Rules. And those same Rules of Life which can be applied in our own lives. We recognize that we are called to “share in the charism according to [our] state of life, and to live it in ways that vary according to [our] milieu and cultures. (R 37a)

    For we do not live in community homes, two by two or even more, however our ways of living community become foundational within the deepest part of our beings. “Living in Faith” Constitutions 31 through 36 offer ways to achieve that unity that we are invited to take part in as we are called by God.

    We may then begin to join our hearts with each other through the practice of Oraison; and become more aware of our own oblation by coming here each morning, afternoon or evening and spending time with our Founder. I had to make a commitment to being here until it became a way of breathing in and breathing out; until I realised that this is where I have learned and continued to recognize how I belong – to myself, to God, the Church, and the Mazenodian Oblate Family (with the latter being a of our breathing in and our breathing out).

    And rather than separating us all from each other (because it is intensely personal at the same time as being communal) we are able through our hearts to be communal with an intimacy that is quite shocking with all we meet. (This reminds me of Jesus!) It is through this love that we connect totally with the other members of our family and indeed the whole world.

    I am so grateful for how God created me to be, to learn how to see all of life through the eyes of the crucified Saviour and the tender understanding way of Mary Immaculate and with the aid of this most beautiful way of being…

    Reply

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