OUR CHARISMATIC VOCATION IS TO WALK IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE APOSTLES (C3)

The community of the Apostles with Jesus is the model of our life. (Constitution 3)

Returning to Aix as a young priest, Eugene put into practice the apostolic model that he had learnt and lived at the Seminary of St. Sulpice.

I have said that my intention in dedicating myself to the ministry of the missions to work especially for the instruction and conversion of the most abandoned souls, was to follow the example of the Apostles in their life of devotedness and self-denial. I became convinced that, in order to obtain the same results from our preaching, we had to walk in their footsteps and as far as we could, practice the same virtues.

Eugene’s Memoires, quoted in Rambert, I p. 187

Three years after leaving the seminary, Father Eugene used the model that had become his vision when he invited Henri Tempier to join him in:

an establishment which will steadily furnish our countryside with fervent missionaries. These will ceaselessly engage in destroying the empire of the demon, at the same time as providing the example of a life worthy of the Church in the community which they will form.

If presently we are not more numerous, it means we wish to choose men who have the will and the courage to walk in the footsteps of the apostles. It is important to lay solid foundations.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 9 October 1815 EO. VI n 4

Whatever our way of life, each of us is invited to live our baptism walking in the footsteps of the apostles with Jesus.