Father Joseph Henri Lavigne had been at Notre Dame de L’Osier since his ordination six years earlier. He was an accomplished mission preacher in the area, but had problems with authority. He had written to Eugene to complain about his current superior. Eugene’s reply:
My dear friend, your letter hurts me deeply… It shows me a deep discontent against your superior, the good Father Vincens, whom everybody loves and esteems as he deserves. I readily forgave you the bit of ill-humor that you held against me because I had gone contrary to a few of your ideas; my heart of a father was full of love for you who are doubly my son. Your letter is an enigma for me.
Letter to Fr Joseph Lavigne at ND de L’Osier, 27 October 1848, EO X n 991
REFLECTION
Eugene considered himself a father to each of his Oblates, and doubly so when he had been the ordaining bishop who conferred the priesthood on one of his sons. Eugene always considered the Congregation as a family characterised by the spirit of oblation which was expressed in charity and missionary zeal. The same ideal continues to be so today in the large Family gathered around his charism and spirituality.
“Indeed, in Christ Jesus I fathered you through the Gospel.” (1 Corinthians 4:15)
“…the Congregation as a family characterised by the spirit of oblation which was expressed in charity and missionary zeal.”
During the first half of my Oblate Studies Program I was properly introduced to the OMI Constitutions and Rules, and while I had met her many times before, I did not know her. (This small green book was and continues to be authored by the Holy Spirit and Oblates is a living expression of the charism which some of us Lay Oblate Associates who find it to be foundational – not something memorized, but rather a gift to be realized and lived within us.) So when it was entered into our lives in the course I questioned it. And the response from our professor was to tell me not to worry about it because it was only for the religious Oblates.
My response was one that I had used for much of my life when confronted by authorities who said I would never be able to do any good: “I’ll show you!” This as I picked up the book to try and read it, and somewhere along the way I realized it was indeed a gift from the Holy Spirit, a gift that would eventually become a part of me…
I now realize that my response was from a deeper reality hidden within myself, where my struggles and pains lived hidden from myself. The Holy Spirit had worked from within me and through Fr. Santucci OMI, and the image to me is that of the hands of a master potter, forming me and drawing out the hidden beauty from within the clay. She is the living expression of the Constitutions. I realize my small green book that had been shared with me was authored by the Holy Spirit as well as the human hands that held the pen.
My intentions were not pure, but the hurt and the wounds continue to be healed. Perhaps it was the same for Fr. Lavigne within the community to which he was sent…