Having read about the importance for Eugene of his practice of oraison yesterday, today I go back to a text on the same topic, written while he was a seminarian. It was Eugene’s first Christmas away from home since he had returned to France. It is Christmas morning and he speaks of the Midnight Mass in which he had lived communion (“oraison”) with his mother – she in Aix and he in Paris:
… Dearest Mother, do you really think that I was not beside you last night? … Indeed yes, darling mother, we spent the night together at the foot of the altar, which for me represented the crib in Bethlehem; together we offered our gifts to our Saviour and asked him to come to birth in our hearts and strengthen us in all that is weak, etc. You know my heart all too well, since it was formed from your own, so you will have a very clear understanding that it is as active and goes through the same feelings as your own….
Let us often look for one another in the heart of our loveable Master, but above all share often in his loving Body; it is the best way to bring us together, for, as we each of us find our common identity in J.C., we become but one thing with him, and through him and in him we become one thing with one another.
Last night my thought was you would have wanted to honour the coming of this blessed Child, born for us, by laying him down in your heart. As I had the same happiness at practically the same time, I united myself to you with all my soul. Do you not wonder at the greatness of our soul? How many things it takes in at the same time! What an immense extent it covers in a flash! It is ravishing. I was adoring J.C. in my heart, I adored him in yours, I adored him on the altar and in the crib, I adored him in the heights of heaven…
Letter to his mother, 25 December 1808, O.W. XIV n. 37
I find myself being filled with gratitude when I think of all the things I have learned from and with Saint Eugene, of his invitation to walk with him and his Oblates and for sharing his charism and way of life.
More than thirty years ago I experienced God, the love of God in a way that was life-changing, transformative. The love that I was given, that I experienced transported me from one realm to another. I could say only that God had created me to love me, created me to love – and that the only way that I would be able to love, to live that love would be to love God first and foremost with everything that I was and only then would I be able to love others. I barely knew what I was saying, I could not explain it – but I knew it to be true. Set aside in order to become one with all. I moved far away from those I knew, those I loved but I took them with me in my heart.
“Let us often look for one another in the heart of our lovable Master, but above all share often in his loving Body ….for, as we each of us find our common identity in J.C., we become but one thing with him, and through him and in him we become one thing with one another.” I have been given so many to love and the only way possible is through and in Jesus for his heart is big enough to hold all of us – it is his that stretches ours. I do it in prayer, in Oraison as Eugene called it.
This morning Richard Rohr said that we become who we gaze upon. Eugene said we find out who we are in Jesus, becoming one with him and so each other. Years ago I would have most likely scoffed at the idea of being able to become one with others in prayer, in and through Jesus. It is not magic that transforms me thusly. I thought when I began this reflection of the lines from Matthew (19:26) which say “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Another O happy day.
The first time I heard the word “Oraison” was back in 2010 at a special gathering of Oblates and Associates. What is that I asked silently, suddenly becoming totally unsure of myself for I had no idea what they were talking about as we gathered in a chapel to pray…
Thankfully Sandy Prather introduced it reminding others (and introducing me) that it was ‘sitting silently with God’. Now I gratefully join in with others here at home and around the world as I enter into the heart of Jesus, to just sit and be with the Beloved and letting God handle the logistics.
I remember Bishop Peter Sutton OMI as we parted at the end of a convocation a year later assuring me that we would meet in prayer. And we do.
United as one within the heart of the crucified Saviour, we share our affection for each other and all – be they friends or foe. It’s real – one the most real ways of being. A foretaste of heaven perhaps? I don’t know, but most assuredly it is a part of how we all journey together – as Pilgrims – in hope of communion with daring humility and trust…
What better way to begin my day, as I silently pray and wish a Happy Canada Day to all.