Once the mission was over in Grans, Eugene and the missionaries returned to Aix in March 1816. Forty years later Eugene reminisces about the activities of our first community:
[Fr. Tempier had remained in Aix during the mission in Grans] but certainly not in idleness. Service had to be provided in the church where I had arranged to have prayers for the faithful every evening. This prayer was always either preceded or followed by a subject for meditation.
Every day there were numerous young people (more than three hundred) members of my Youth Congregation who gathered in the choir of the church or played together in the large room of the house. On Sundays they assisted at Mass during which they received an instruction. In the afternoon, during or after Vespers, they were taught catechism, which did not mean that there was no public sermon.
I had also established the practice of accompanying the young people to the “Enclos” (the family country house) outside the town so that they could play at their leisure. The confessions of that little flock also had to be heard…; the work was really too much.
Diary of 5 September 1857, O.W. XXII
It is easy here to recognize the same spirit that motivated the parish missions in the villages – this is why Eugene referred to the ministries of our communities as being “permanent missions.” Here, for me, is the key to what should be the distinctive characteristic of every Oblate community and parish: centres of permanent mission.