Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

As these refections will pause for the month of December, I wish each of you a Happy Feastday for December 8, a fruitful Advent and all the blessings of Christmas.

We ask Mary Immaculate to accompany us :


Mary Immaculate is patroness of our Congregation. Open to the Spirit, she consecrated herself totally as lowly handmaid to the person and work of the Savior.


She received Christ in order to share him with all the world, whose hope he is. In her, we recognize the model of the Church’s faith and of our own.


We shall always look on her as our mother.

In the joys and sorrows of our missionary life, we feel close to her who is the Mother of Mercy.

Wherever our ministry takes us, we will strive to instil genuine devotion to the Immaculate Virgin who prefigures God’s final victory over all evil.

OMI Rule of Life,  CC&RR Constitution 10

I encourage you to consult the OMIWORLD website for some daily reflections: https://www.omiworld.org/daily-inspirations/ 

Eugene became a priest as a response to his awareness of God’s indescribable love for him. Here, in his retreat in preparation for his priestly ordination he prays to be able to make his priestly ministry a response of total love:

My God, double, triple, increase my strength a hundredfold that I may love you, not merely as much as I can, that is nothing, but that I love you as much as did the saints, as much as your holy Mother loved and loves you.

Notes made during the retreat in preparation for ordination to the priesthood,
December 1811, EO XIV n. 95

In Mary, the new priest saw a model to imitate to learn to love God and be an example to him of a total giving of self through his ministry.

The Sulpicians were vigilant to see that every priest whom they trained could say: “I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). Mary was given to them as a model of this attitude since Christ lived in her in the fullest sense of the word.

Casimir Lubowicki, “Mary” in the Dictionary of Oblate Values, https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/mary/

Eugene wanted this prayer to be prayed each day by the Oblates, and it has become a part of our spiritual tradition:

O Jesus, living in Mary, 

come and live in your servants,

in the spirit of your holiness,

in the fullness of your power,

in the perfection of your ways,

in the truth of your virtues,

in the communion of your mysteries.

Overcome every hostile power in your Spirit,

for the glory of the Father. Amen

The theme of Mary’s being united with Jesus, and thus being a model for his own unity with Jesus, returns often throughout the years that Eugene was at the seminary. On Christmas morning he wrote to his mother:

Dearest Mother, do you really think that I was not beside you last night? How could I fail, meditating as I was on the holy Mother of God, who had just been filled with consolation on giving the world its Saviour, and at the same time had to experience so vividly the poverty, weakness and misery to which she saw her Divine Master reduced for love of men, how could these tender sentiments fail to draw me close to you? 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 Savior and asked him to come to birth in our hearts and strengthen us in all that is weak, etc. 

Letter to his mother, 25 December 1809, EO XIV n 37

Once the decision had been made, and Eugene had requested this new name, he was filled with joy at having done the right thing.

Oblates of the Immaculate Mary. But this is a passport to heaven! How have we not thought of it sooner?

Letter to Henri Tempier, 22 December 1825, EO VI n 213

Why had he not thought of it before? In the coming days I will explore some of the texts that show the place of Mary in Eugene’s life before this decision.

Eugene “seems to become aware of the fact that, even if he had always loved Mary, he had not yet understood the essential role she played in the plan of Redemption. In searching for the patron who best expressed the goal of his Congregation – that is a person walking in the footsteps of Christ, committed to the apostolate of service and to the instruction of the poor – he had not thought of Mary. While in Rome, he understood who Mary really was. The title of the Congregation was thus born from a discovery that, in order to respond in an authentic way to the urgent needs of the Church, its members should identify with Mary Immaculate “to offer themselves” to the service of God’s plan of salvation like she did.”   Casimir Lubowicki, “Mary” in the Dictionary of Oblate Values, https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/mary/

Having decided to change the name of our Congregation, Eugene now asked the Pope to give us this name officially. When this request was eventually granted, Eugene was able to proclaim everywhere that it was “the name that the Pope has given us.”

At the same time, we ask Your Holiness that, in the Brief of Approval which the Missionaries request, you give them the name of Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary instead of Oblates of Saint Charles: this to avoid any confusion of names with other Congregations;

“As Father Fernand Jetté stated, the title of a religious family usually expresses its nature, essence and function. It really seems that the choice of the title Missionary Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary must have been the culmination of a new and deeper insight into the mission of the Congregation on the part of Father de Mazenod. He discovered Mary as the person who was the most committed to the service of Christ, the poor and the Church and saw her as the most comprehensive model of apostolic life as required by his Congregation.”   Casimir Lubowicki, “Mary” in the Dictionary of Oblate Values, https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/mary/

There will be a pause in these reflections during the month of December.

In the light of our forthcoming patronal feast on December 8, I would like to focus on Mary during these days of preparation.

During the day, I was busy preparing the petition to present to the Pope on the day he grants me an audience.

Roman Diary, 8 December 1825, EO XVII

This day was the feast of the Immaculate Conception and it was during the days of prayer in preparation for it that Eugene had had the intuition to change the name of the Oblates. In the last paragraph of the petition to the Pope we come across the use of this name for the very first time:

At the same time, we ask Your Holiness that, in the Brief of Approval which the Missionaries request, you give them the name of Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary instead of Oblates of Saint Charles

Petition for approbation to Pope Leo XII, 8 December 1825, EO XIII n.48

“When we choose a patron of a group we spontaneously think of a person who incarnates the qualities and activities of the group in the best possible way.” Fernand Jetté OMI

Writing to a public figure whose ideas on religious liberty he did not agree with, Eugene said:

I am sorry that the indiscretion of certain of our missionaries has led you to believe that I am one of your fiercest antagonists to be found in the ranks of your fellow Catholics.

I very definitely am not an enemy of any fellow Catholic. I agree that there are some whose political doctrines I do not share, but in all else I revere them most deeply and defend their good name with every bit as much zeal, and perhaps with more success than the staunchest supporters of their system.

However, I do not hide that my respect and affection for their person could never shake or unsettle my principles which spring from a simple faith; for these principles compel me to look upon the authority of the Head of the Church as my guide and the guide of my religious family, independently of any doctrinal decision or any solemn decree ex cathedra, etc. … Possibly, that is being too orthodox for times like these, but what one may say or think of my orthodoxy does not disturb me

Letter to Count de Montalembert, 24 October 1831, EO XIII n 78

The student house in Billens was made up of zealous young people with generous dreams. Some of these, however, were not quite practical, as Eugene commented to the superior, Fr Mille.

I urge you to deter Ricard from his plans of going overseas. That is out of the question for him; he should consider himself lucky that he is working ahead of time in the vineyard of the Father of the family. He should walk humbly before Him and not give himself up to idle dreams of a future that will perhaps never come.

It seems that Father Tempier’s words were wasted on you when he addressed you on the subject of the idle desires swarming inside Father Touche’s head.

Busy yourselves with your studies at Billens and let each one strive, with as much effort as possible, to acquire the virtues of his holy state. A man is being formed for every kind of ministry when it is obedience that assigns each one his duties.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Mille, 25 September 1831, EO VIII n 404

Father Mille was 33 years old, had been ordained a priest for only fifteen months and he was the superior of the Oblate scholasticate in Switzerland. He was young and inexperienced, but the political crisis in France had forced Eugene to appoint him to this responsibility. He was finding the burden heavy, and Eugene wrote to encourage him:

So if you renounce yourself entirely, together with your tastes and even the reasoning your mind may entertain, you will give a good account of yourself in the delicate task imposed on you. I am not trying to minimize your own estimate of the burden that weighs you down.

On the contrary, I agree that it could not weigh more heavily on your shoulders, but by living in close union with God, pondering frequently on the importance of your tasks and studying how men who have achieved success in this field have acted, you will achieve the same results.

Stay close to the God who has called you, reflect on the importance of what has been entrusted to you, and learn from others who have had more experience in this field. Good advice to all of us when we find the burdens of service heavy.

But you must apply yourself to your task and tell yourself again and again that God, Church and religious family will be demanding an account villicationis tuae [ed. “Give an account of your management” Luke 16:2]

 Go ahead finally with full confidence and quietly correct in the light of experience the small mistakes that come to light as you go on your way.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Mille, 25 September 1831, EO VIII n 404