HE HAS A GOOD HEART AND HAS SHOWN GREAT GENEROSITY IN BEING READY TO ASSURE HIS SALVATION BY A WAY THAT IS SO DIFFICULT

Posted on June 27, 2024 by franksantucci

In earlier entries https://www.eugenedemazenod.net/?p=5368 and following) we had met the Canadian Father Pierre Fisette, who had been sent to work in France. He was a very likeable person, but his vanity, lack of piety and prayerfulness had worried Eugene, who despaired of his behavior. Yet Eugene persevered in being a loving father and accompanied him. Eugene’s perseverance paid off, as we see in this letter he wrote to Bishop Bourget of Montreal.

Shall I add a few words about the Canadians over here? Fisette has remained with the Trappists after having passed through the Chartreuse. He has been a novice for some months at Aiguebelles.

[…] I pray God that Fisette will persevere with the Trappists. He has written to me several times and I to him for he retains for the Congregation and for me personally an extraordinary affection. Poor child! I love him ever so much. He has a good heart and one should add that he has shown great generosity in being ready to assure his salvation by a way that is so difficult. This is heroism. Pray, Monseigneur, also for him and never forget me before the Lord in return for the veneration and the friendship I have for you.

Letter to Bishop Bourget of Montreal, 12 February 1848, EO I n 93

REFLECTION

Fr. Fisette’s conversion was not a flash in the pan. He remained a Trappist monk for thirty years until his death in the Trappist monastery that he had founded in Staouéli in Algeria.

Saint Monica prayed for seventeen years for her son’s conversion and when it happened was able to say: “Son, for my own part I no longer find joy in anything in this world. What I am still to do here and why I am here I know not, now that I no longer hope for anything from this world. One thing there was, for which I desired to remain still a little longer in this life, that I should see you a Catholic Christian before I died. This God has granted me in superabundance, in that I now see you His servant to the contempt of all worldly happiness. What then am I doing here?”

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1 Response to HE HAS A GOOD HEART AND HAS SHOWN GREAT GENEROSITY IN BEING READY TO ASSURE HIS SALVATION BY A WAY THAT IS SO DIFFICULT

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate says:
    June 27, 2024 at 13:54

    This morning we reflect on the depth and tenderness of Eugene’s love for Fr. Fisette. “He was a very likeable person, but his vanity, lack of piety and prayerfulness had worried Eugene, who despaired of his behavior.” And so Eugene called for him to come over to France from Canada. It was not long before Eugene sent him to Corsica to work; it was there that he met the Trappist Monks who he felt God was calling him to. It was through the Oblates that he met the Trappist Monks, and his heart found a home.

    There is a young Oblate Associate who I have never met in person, but who I have come to love so dearly even though we have never met in person. I have often wondered if she would become an Oblate Sister and yet in May she admitted that she had always wanted to become a nun, but she was now preparing for her upcoming marriage. I wrote to her telling her how happy I was for her and her fiancé and that I would pray for them both on the day of her wedding. Today I received a copy of her wedding notice with the date of her marriage. My immediate response was to share the joyous news with the Beloved, our crucified Saviour. (As if he did not already know!)

    I myself came to be here, a member of our Oblate/Mazenodian Family, but the path that the Spirit led me on was through the Poor Clares and then the people of Madonna House who led the way for me to find a home for my heart within the Oblate/Mazenodian Family. Never would I have been able to imagine that my heart would find a home here, and where I was to spend my life loving others; the ultimate gift of love, gratitude and joy with most who I walk with. Together we “…share in the charism in a spirit of communion and reciprocity…” (R37a)

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