In 1826 Eugene went to the Pope with the Rule which the Oblates had been living for nearly 10 years to ask for approbation.
At that moment, the Church was not approving new congregations, but as Eugene was kneeling next to the Pope and talking enthusiastically about what the Missionaries were doing in France, the Pope, at a certain moment, closed his eyes in prayer. Reopening them he said “I want you to go to the Cardinals with this Rule”
The next day the Pope told the Cardinal “This society pleases me, I know the good it does and I wish to favor it.” In prayer he had discerned the work of God in the Oblates.
Saint Eugene writing immediately to the Oblates in France, with the joyful news of our recognition by the Church, wrote these words about the Rule.
They are not an unimportant detail, they are no longer simple regulations, merely pious directions; they are Rules approved by the Church after most minute examination.
Thus it was on the 17th of February that the Church officially recognized that it was the Spirit of God that inspired these Rules, and that the work of Eugene de Mazenod and the Oblates was not a human creation. It was a group that had been brought about by God. It was a recognized charism in the Church.
They have been judged holy and eminently suited to lead those who have embraced them to their goal.
The Rule is the way we live the Gospel: in the light of our charism of evangelizing the poor and most abandoned.
They have become the property of the Church that has adopted them. The Pope, by approving them, has become their guarantor.
Our charism does not belong to us, but to the Church. The Constitutions and Rules are our expression of the charism and they belong to the Church and not to us.
He whom God has used to draw them up disappears; it is certain today that he was merely the mechanical instrument which the Spirit of God put into play in order to show the path he wanted to be followed by those whom he had predestined and preordained for the work of his mercy, in calling them to form and maintain our poor, little and modest Society.
Eugene realized that he has been an instrument of God in bringing the Oblates and our Rule to birth.
While it is the Rule of the Missionary Oblates, it captures the spirit of St Eugene and is thus the foundation of the spirit and mission of our Mazenodian Family, who are an integral part of the charism.
Happy Feastday to each of you!
Thank you for sharing the birth of the congregation and the approval of the constitution
“They are not an unimportant detail, they are no longer simple regulations, merely pious directions; they are Rules approved by the Church after most minute examination.”
While I am not an Oblate religious, I join with them in choosing to let their Rule of Life guide me in all that I do. This living expression of our shared charism has become foundational within me according to the vocation which the Lord has given me, and all the members of this Mazenodian/Oblate Family.
“Growing in faith, hope and love, we commit ourselves to be a leaven of the Beatitudes at the heart of the world.” (C11)
Unable to be and do any of this on our own, we join as a community, a family so that together we can say yes to being pilgrims of hope in communion.
A Blessed and Happy Feast Day to each and every one of you!