IN COMMUNION WITH THE PASTORS WHOM THE LORD HAS GIVEN TO HIS PEOPLE, AS LONG AS THE SPIRIT OF OUR OBLATE VOCATION IS OBSERVED (C6)

Posted on July 16, 2025 by franksantucci

Our love for the Church inspires us to fulfil our mission in communion with the pastors whom the Lord has given to his people. (Constitution 6)

Writing to Oblate Fr. Bellanger in Algeria, Eugene stressed:

I am delighted that you accompanied Bishop Pavy to Philippeville; by seeing you at close quarters he will understand still more readily that our missionaries are priests who are most devoted to the bishops and that their whole ambition lies in taking on their own shoulders some of the burden that lies so heavily on those of the Prelates… I am most anxious that the Bishop be fully aware of this since it is a basic principle of the Congregation… All I ask is that the bishops facilitate the means of maintaining among our members who are consecrated to their service, the spirit of their holy vocation, regularity and religious discipline.

Letter to Fr. Jean Baptiste Bellanger at Blida, Algeria, 10 November 1849, EO IV (Africa) n.10.

Oblates as “men of the Bishops” need to ensure that” the spirit of their holy vocation, regularity and religious discipline” be acknowledged and respected. The bishop in Algeria did not respect this, and so Eugene was forced to remove the Oblates from Algeria a year later.

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One Response to IN COMMUNION WITH THE PASTORS WHOM THE LORD HAS GIVEN TO HIS PEOPLE, AS LONG AS THE SPIRIT OF OUR OBLATE VOCATION IS OBSERVED (C6)

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate says:
    July 16, 2025 at 15:49

    I reread Constitution 6 straight through. Something happens within me as another light is turned on in the darkness and chaos of longing to be fully one, in communion with our family/community/Church and God.

    And that shed a particular light within me in relation to something Eugene himself said about love and how none of us are exempt from loving and being loved.

    Last night four of us Oblate Associates met together – two in Alberta and two in Ottawa. We each brought with us our gifts, strengths and sense of vocation and how we live that out. We nourished each other in the only way we could, sharing our dreams and dreads, joys and sorrows. We took part in a gift of technology.

    We all strive to become one with each other, walking with those who like us want to become sharers in the Charism and so living out our roles in becoming Cooperators of the Saviour. We need support and acceptance rather than just tolerance. We too desire to listen as Isaiah 54:2 invites us to enlarge the space of our hearts, to become more like Eugene.

    “Finally, in our hope for the coming of God’s reign, we are united with all those who, without acknowledging Christ as Lord, nevertheless love what he loves.”

    Reply

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