Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

Continuing to read Eugene’s letter to Father Honorat, we see his good advice on learning from the experience of others.

Never complain about a person to someone else. When you have observations to make, make them to the person himself without fuss and cordially… You know that a true friend can be compared to a faithful mirror in which one can see oneself as one is; if it reflects some imperfection, were it only a loose strand of hair, one is not annoyed with the mirror; on the contrary, one is thankful and relieved at having perceived it. Alius sic alius vero sic. [ ed. 1 Corinthians 7:7 “each has a particular gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.”]

You have something lacking to others, you lack something that others have. Be pleased with your share; you are well enough endowed.

Bring to fruition only what the good God has given you, removing any remains of the rough exterior which at times repels and deters people from taking profit from it.
 
This is advice in plenty. It pleases me to think that you will profit from it and that you know your duty. For the rest, I can tell you that I am perfectly satisfied with your letter and the sentiments you express therein.

Letter to Father Jean Baptiste Honorat (in Canada), 10 January 1843, EO I n 14

Father Honorat, superior of the first group of missionaries to Canada, was inclined to make decisions without consultation. Here Eugene gives him advice which is applicable to all of us in every walk of life.

This is not all. I want to know the opinions of the other members of the community which you ought to consider as your Council duty-bound and with whom, if they fail to adopt your ideas, you must not be annoyed …In the name of Heaven, amend yourself and cease taking upon yourself alone a responsibility which necessarily has to be shared by others…
 
It is thus, by giving others marks of confidence, by showing them deference, by knowing how to modify one’s own ideas and to adopt those of others that one gains their sympathy, their help and their affection. I say this, not to upset you but uniquely for your own good. Who will tell you the truth if I do not?

…Do you wish to avoid opposition in the future? Keep to the Rule. Hold your meetings regularly and transact matters at them consultatively without ever wishing to gain your objective by authority. You shall see what strength you will gain from this way of proceeding.

Letter to Father Jean Baptiste Honorat (in Canada), 10 January 1843, EO I n 14

Eugene de Mazenod was a man of immediate action, and it frustrated him that communications with Canada took so long as the only means of doing so was by letters which travelled by slow sailing ships. As Superior General his letters to the superiors dealt with many necessary matters.

Father Honorat had always had a craze for building and for altering existing buildings in France. Now he was starting to do the same in Canada, and Eugene was alarmed.

Would you like me, my dear friend, to speak frankly to you? I find it somewhat alarming that notwithstanding my recommendations you have not put a stop to the mania that you have always had to make and remake, to demolish and reconstruct. You must have let yourself go to excess in this respect to have created in Canada the same reputation that you had here, causing yourself to be ridiculed by priests in that country and obliging the Bishop himself to intervene. It was wrong of you to squander money belonging to the diocese at St. Hilaire and I expressly forbid you to squander ours at Longeuil where I am told you have already formed a thousand plans each more expensive than the others. I cannot in conscience give you carte blanche.
 
The obligation to consult your confreres does not suffice. I reserve to myself most explicitly the approbation of any plan whatsoever. Such is the practice in any well-ordered Society. Do you know that bishop though I am, I cannot alter a partition in my house without sending the plan to the Ministry? That is what I intend should be done in our houses everywhere. What you must first do is send me the plans of your property… Until I reply, touch nothing. You have rooms to sleep in, a refectory for meals, an oratory in which to pray, that is enough to begin with.

Letter to Father Jean Baptiste Honorat (in Canada), 10 January 1843, EO I n 14

Eugene, writing in the third person, as the “Director”, for the official Diary of the Youth Congregation spoke about the importance of his baptism anniversary on 2 August.

In the references that we have to Eugene’s birthday, we see them as occasions for reflection on his life and its direction. Two examples from his diary:

I do not believe that there is any other Congregation giving such a moving example in the Church.

With this typical Mazenodian hyperbole Eugene began 1843 on an exultant note as he surveyed the missionary activities of his sons.

All of its members are simultaneously employed in diverse countries in the two hemispheres to bring souls back to God and to wage violent war against Hell. To have missions in the dioceses of Marseilles, Fréjus, Aix, Avignon, Valence, Grenoble, Ajaccio, in England, in Ireland, in Canada and in the United States, is truly marvelous.

I have just received letters from Longeuil which should be printed. Father Telmon and Father Dandurand, who should have made his vows for Christmas, did marvelously well in the diocese of New York; in addition, the Bishop would wish to give them charge of the French church in his episcopal city, while the Bishop of Toronto  calls them to take over the mission to the Iroquois.

Vocations were starting to come forward in Canada:

The three priest novices, who are making ever better progress, are joined by an acolyte in his second year of theology and a college professor;several others have already taken steps towards admission, and the Bishop encourages and eases them on in spite of the lack of candidates for his own parishes.

Letter to Father Hippolyte Courtés, 4 January 1843, EO X n 785

In France it is the custom to send greetings to everyone for the new year (unlike the custom of sending Christmas wishes in some other parts of the world). Eugene responds here to the new year greetings of Father Courtès. He had been a member of Eugene’s youth congregation in Aix and one of the first novices to join the Missionaries in 1817 – ths having a special place in the Founder’s heart

It was with delight, my dear Courtès, that I read the letter you sent me for the New Year. I truly needed to hear from yourself the sentiments that you express to me so well and which correspond with those that I have always had for you.

Love imprints its character in my soul, it is indestructible. It is the final answer to all.

Letter to Father Hippolyte Courtés, 4 January 1843, EO X n 785

Eugene’s whole life was motivated by love as the final answer to all: love of God and love of others.

Bishop de Mazenod suffered when he saw people in Marseilles whose lives were far from good living. Once, for example, passing a group of people who were living lives of dissipation led him to express his pain at their situation in his diary:

The inability to reach such a great number of souls like them, the pain of seeing them losing themselves without being able to do anything to turn them away from vice and help them save themselves, causes me great pain and sorrow.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 22 April 1839, EO XX

How could he be close to this portion of his flock?

The inability to reach such a great number of souls by conventional means led him to invite the cooperation of many in the diocese to form various groups to reach out to all areas of society and their needs beyond the parish structures. The list is an extraordinary testimony of the closeness of the Pastor to all the flock, especially the most abandoned who were far away from the Church. Through charitable societies and works, not linked to the local parish structures he held out a helping hand. He established and supported a network of people through whom he could express his pastoral closeness to those in need.

Blessing the new house of the Sisters occasioned this grateful reflection:

How consoling for the heart of a bishop to see rising up around him, in the midst of this immense populace where so many vices abound, where so many Christians live in a perpetual state of apostasy, communities more or less numerous, but entirely animated by the best spirit which produces, so to speak, the counterbalance to the mass of iniquities which unceasingly call forth the anger of God, in order to appease it by the sanctity of their life. It’s a veritable compensation to offer to the Lord. Here are the just who would have saved Sodom, if it were present, from the devouring flames which reduced this guilty city to ashes.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 27 December 1842, EO XXI

During his time in Marseilles, Bishop Eugene was responsible for bringing in twelve congregations of religious sisters to meet the needs of the poor and abandoned in his diocese. When he could not “import” he was instrumental in the founding of four new congregations of sisters in the city.  In this extract from his diary, he speaks about one of these new foundations.

Mass at the Victimes du Coeur de Jésus [Victims of the Heart of Jesus] I solemnly blessed their chapel and gave the habit to two postulants. My method is to support the zeal of all those who wish to consecrate themselves to a life of perfection, to prayer and to penitence… As well, whatever may be said about it, I will always favor this type of vocation and the establishments that result from it.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 27 December 1842, EO XXI

Father Telmon was a missionary fireball whose enthusiasm knew no limits. We will come across many examples of this in later entries. His enthusiasm was not always practical, however, as this entry in Eugene’a diary shows.

Letter from Father Telmon who urges me to accept the proposal made by the bishop of Toronto to establish ourselves in his city. “Through this diocese, we would find ourselves in charge of missions to the indigenous. We would have the most vast field for the zeal of those who would have worked there and most promising for building up the morale of the novices of Europe. The Jesuits will be going there.”

What is to be done, my good Father Telmon, in order to be adequate for all the work, it would be necessary to be as numerous as these Fathers. The time has not yet come. Let’s be patient and wait until the good God gives the order.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 9 December 1842, EO XXI

Good advice for our daily lives and concerns.