A SEA VOYAGE OF AROUND 230 DAYS
As the Oblate Congregation grew and became more widespread we find that Eugene’s letters do not always give too many details of the missions. For this reason, I think it important to fill in the details with some narrative. We may not be able to hear the words of Eugene speaking, but through the lives and achievements of the Oblates, we hear his charism and his spirit fully alive.
The first group of 5 Oblates, under Fr. Ricard, had travelled to Oregon via sea to New York, and from there, “they traveled by ship, stagecoach, steam ship, on foot, covered wagon and horseback to reach their destination. Finally, the 2000 mile Oregon Trail would have left them exhausted. Yet, when they arrived, they were ready to begin at once to establish their mission among the native peoples of the area. ( Ron Young, The Mission of the OMI in Oregon, p.69).
The second group were carrying much-needed supplies. On November 29, 1849, we had read in Eugene’s diary that Fr. Louis D’Herbomez (27) and Brothers Gaspard Janin (51) and Philippe Surel (30) had set sail for Oregon. As there was no Panama Canal, they had to go right around the continent of South America.
I yesterday received a letter from Rio de Janeiro from our Fr. d’Herbomez who is on his way to Oregon and who, on February 14th, had only reached so far, after leaving Marseilles in November.
To Fr. Bellon at Maryvale, April 21, 1850, EO III n 38
They reached San Francisco on July 19, 1850 – a sea voyage of around 230 days! Six weeks later they finally arrived at their destination in Oregon.
Ron Young writes (p. 102)
The small group was sent with twenty-two pieces of freight filled with basic supplies and long-awaited money for the Oregon Mission. Unlike their predecessors, these missionaries would travel the entire journey by sea from France, around Cape Horn, to San Francisco. From San Francisco they traveled to Portland, Oregon, aboard the ship Caroline. Continuing onward, they traveled to Fort Vancouver up to the Columbia River.
REFLECTION
These ships were no luxury cruise liners with air conditioning and refrigeration, and one can only admire these missionaries and all the personal discomfort they were prepared to undergo for the salvation of souls.
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Last week many of the members of the Oblate Charismatic Family in Lacombe Canada Province entered into conversation with each other via zoom. Acknowledging our diminishment in this part of the world we looked at “Restructuring”, at what that meant for each of us? In a world that seems to tear down buildings and physical structures were we to be abandoned and torn down in order to find a new and better way?
What wonderful conversations we had with each other. The word hope was shared over and over again. And our shared thoughts gave body to the word conversion and it deepened within us. There was no sense of “us versus them” but rather we looked at reciprocity as we come together and walk as pilgrims of hope in communion… We don’t necessarily know what this will look like in our world in another ten or twenty years, but we are willing to step forward, to work with one another, nourishing not only ourselves but all those we meet. One dared to ask what it meant to be a missionary in today’s world. How are we sent.
I secretly wonder if those missionaries arriving on the various shores of North America, and traveling across many lands to arrive in what is now called Sri Lanka and South Africa, I wonder if those early Oblates might not have found ways to deepen their faith and to restructure themselves so as to better suit the new world that they were living in.
In a world where the word annihilation is hinted at, we see the tender shoots of love daring to shoot through the parched earth right here in our own gardens of life. The harvest will come in God’s time and not without some privations and struggles…