DEFICIENT MISSIONARIES, LUKEWARM RELIGIOUS AND MISERABLY IMPERFECT WHEN THE TIME COMES TO PERFORM MIRACLES IN THEIR HOLY MINISTRY

Posted on September 11, 2023 by franksantucci

Eugene had very high expectations and standards for those preparing for ministry in the scholasticates (here referred to as “Oblates” as opposed to Missionary Oblates being those who had completed formation)

As I have said to some of your other brothers, I cannot accept dissipation in an Oblate. You are neither a college student nor even a seminarian, and yet it happens that seminarians have a better attitude than Oblates do. Also, notice the results. For several years now, not a seminarian has entered the Congregation, they see them too closely. On the contrary. it should be because they see them so closely that they should be attracted toward them by the good impression and example of their virtues.

At this time the Oblate scholastics were studying with the diocesan seminarians.

That is no small disappointment for me because I fear that those who did not want to be fervent during their probation as Oblates will become deficient missionaries, lukewarm religious and miserably imperfect when the time comes to perform miracles in their holy ministry. Impress this truth upon yourselves; and be always concerned in case you lessen the effects of God’s special graces by being unfaithful to that which is required of you.

Letter to Brother Charles Baret, at N.-D. L’Osier, 17 July 1847, EO X n 931

REFLECTION

Sobering words from Eugene, which apply to all of us in whatever our state of life. We are called to live by and be strengthened by the special graces we received at our baptism and constantly through the experience of living our faith.

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” Denis Waitley

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One Response to DEFICIENT MISSIONARIES, LUKEWARM RELIGIOUS AND MISERABLY IMPERFECT WHEN THE TIME COMES TO PERFORM MIRACLES IN THEIR HOLY MINISTRY

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate says:
    September 11, 2023 at 12:42

    I am a part of all that I have met;
    Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
    Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades
    For ever and forever when I move.
    How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
    To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
    As tho’ to breathe were life! (from Ulysses by Tennyson)

    Eugene and Tennyson were both passionate people who lived to the fullest according to the gifts that God gave them, and God’s call to them. I think of Mother Theresa of Calcutta who gave of herself in order to be able to love the poorest of the poor in spite of her personal interior struggle. She was not so different from Eugene. It seems that no matter how dire or difficult the circumstances, Eugene rose above the situations and loved.

    We, as members of the Oblate/Mazenodian Family, are to love and serve in the same manner. God always and ever continues to fill our hearts with an ever-deepening love. We are not called to let it sit there and not be spent, but rather to share it.
    The parable of the servants and the talents in Matthew 25 reminds us that we are called to share the love and care lavish upon us with those on the fringes of life . It is here that the love we are given becomes like Jesus’s blood poured out for all. Our calling is not what we wear or our role in life, but rather how we love.

    My experience is that the more I love, no matter my many struggles in life the more I am able to share the gifts I have been given and to love all who I meet especially when I recognize their interior suffering. It is in this way that I am filled with joy and consolation.

    Reply

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