A HEART AS LARGE AS SAINT PAUL’S, AS LARGE AS THE WORLD

Bishop Horace Bettachini, Coadjutor of the Vicar Apostolic of Colombo, came to Europe in 1845 to seek missionary help. He obtained no more than one member of the Congregation of the Oratory, and one Sylvestrine Benedictine. In vain he travelled throughout the rest of Europe, pleading everywhere. Every door was closed to him. In his distress he met Bishop Berteaud of Tulle, who said to him: “Go to Marseilles. There is a Bishop there whose Congregation is still small, but who has a heart as large as Saint Paul’s, as large as the world. Go and make it clear to him that it is a matter of saving those poor, poor souls — insist on that point. When he hears that, he will be unable to resist.”  (Yvon Beaudoin in EO IV page XXIII)

Bishop de Mazenod responded enthusiastically to this request.

What a mission field is opening up before us!

Letter to Father Ambroise Vincens, 12 August 1847, EO X n 936

REFLECTION

“But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Paul’s Letter to the Romans 10:14-15.

“Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him shall see, and those who have never heard of him shall understand.”

Paul’s Letter to the Romans 15:20