THE RULE EXPRESSES EUGENE’S EXPERIENCE OF OUR CRUCIFIED SAVIOR

Posted on February 25, 2025 by franksantucci

Eugene’s life changed at the foot of the Cross when he realized that he was poor and needed the Savior. He then became aware of the poverty of people in France, and later throughout the world, because they did not know Jesus Christ as their Savior and companion on life’s journey. For this reason God called him to become a priest, and later to invite others to join him in what was to become his Oblate Family.

The very first article of his very first Rule (1818) reflects Eugene’s pilgrim journey:

The purpose of the Institute of the Missionaries of Provence

is first of all to form a group of priests who live together

and who strive to imitate the virtues and examples of our Savior Jesus Christ

principally by dedicating themselves to preaching the Word of God to the poor.

1818 Rule

It is in imitating our Savior Jesus Christ in his preaching the Gospel to the poor that we find the reason for the existence of our Oblate Charismatic Family. Each of us, in his or her own specific way, is called to share our experience of the Savior’s presence in the poverty of our hearts.

Through the witness of our lives we are “preachers” of the good News to those who need Him.

In 1826 the Church officially recognized that in our Constitutions and Rules we find the means of doing this.

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One Response to THE RULE EXPRESSES EUGENE’S EXPERIENCE OF OUR CRUCIFIED SAVIOR

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:
    February 25, 2025 at 13:24

    “Each of us, in his or her own specific way, is called to share our experience of the Saviour’s presence in the poverty of our hearts.” Frank’s words not mine and yet there is a familial ring to them. As a member of our Oblate Charismatic Family, my heart has found a home. We are called to be sons and daughters of St. Eugene de Mazenod and it is with each other that we will find our way home to God. It is then that our beings will break through the bonds of our physical bodies into the freedom of total being.

    It is in sharing the Constitutions and Rules of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate that we live and become fully alive. Our shared Rule of Life enables us to break free of false gods and the chains of empty lives. And even when we end up in different parts of the country and world, we become preachers in our own rights and in the way we live as Children of God.

    Old fashioned words perhaps as I think of the words found in the “Constitutions and Rules” and which could sound so finite, so lessening: yet they free us to become who God has chosen and created us to be. We are not little “mini-mes’” but rather we are a part of that which is so much greater than just ourselves; we each come with our own small gifts which blossom into life with the gifts of others.

    And so we give thanks as we begin another day…

    Reply

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