Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

Fr. Jolivet was ordained priest on the Sunday preceding Ascension and said his first mass on Ascension Day, the delay no doubt being on account of not knowing how to say it well. He will set out shortly for England with Fr. Arnoux. Fr. Jolivet entered the Congregation in order to go to the foreign missions; that is what attracts him still. But he wrote me, on learning of his promotion to the priesthood, that he has no other desire at present than to obey. We must not lose sight, however, of the initial inspiration which brought him amongst us.

Letter to Fr Casimir Aubert, in England, 22 May 1849, OW III n. 27

Charles Jolivet was indeed to spend the rest of his life as a foreign missionary, firstly in the Anglo-Irish Province, and then becoming the second Vicar Apostolic in Southern Africa (1874-1903)

REFLECTION

Once the initial fervor dies down in any way of life because of life’s challenges, the words of Eugene can be applied:

To persevere in so meritorious an apostolate, one must hold fast to the spirit of one’s vocation with fidelity and fervour, living always as a good religious, united to God by the practice of all the virtues prescribed and recommended by the Rule.

Letter to Fr. Ricard in Oregon, 22 May 1849, EO I n 119

Not everyone who came to join the Oblates had a missionary zeal to go to the foreign missions. Eugene quotes one:

Here is a masterpiece from Palle, quite a model of holy indifference! “Oh, my Father, let me tell you I feel an extreme repugnance for foreign countries and especially for England. I do not know a word of English and I believe I will never learn for I have no aptitude for languages, etc. I beg you, Reverend Father, take this burden from me…  Really, my Father, there are others you would place on the pinnacle of happiness, while I would be miserable away from France, without knowing a single word of their language, useless for such a long time and so far from you….”

The rest of it is in this vein. He ends: “Oh, the good your reply will do to me. I await it as a sweet dew to reinvigorate my soul wilting with dread”. Have you ever heard anything so wretched? What can be done with such a spirit?

Happily, the majority of Oblates had more generous hearts:

How quickly my spirits are refreshed by this excellent Arnoux. Not a word of demur, not the slightest remark. Mother, country, no such considerations have been put forward. He sets forth because he is called upon. May God bless such members and may he grant us a great number of them!

Letter to Fr Casimir Aubert, in England, 12 May 1849, OW III n. 25

REFLECTION

“We’ve strayed from being fishers of men to being keepers of the aquarium” (Paul Harvey)

May this never be said about the members of the Oblate Charismatic Family, whose characteristic is oblation.

Eugene was careful in the choice of Oblates that he judged capable of being good missionaries in the trying conditions of evangelization in North America, Africa and Asia. Some of the men struggled initially but eventually settled down as good evangelizers.

The second batch of Oblates to be sent to Ceylon consisted of four priests. In choosing Fr. Frédéric Mouchel, the choice was made to provide Fr. Semeria, the superior on Ceylon, with a mature companion who would be his adviser. Mouchel was 47 years old and had been a priest for 18.

The essential thing is to send you virtuous and reliable men. They will perfect their English as all our foreign missionaries who have been sent to Canada have had to do, and even Bishop Bettachini himself. Fr. Mouchel has been working hard at this language for some time. One could say that he knows it, and that practice will help him to speak it even better. Moreover, you know his value and his virtues.

Letter to Fr Étienne Semeria, 20 January 1849, OW IV, n. 9

And

Our Fr. Mouchel shows constancy when he undertakes anything, and he is also such a good priest, such a good religious, he has such a good character, that he will be a real treasure for you. He will share your difficulties with you, and we are agreed that he will not discourage you. He knows English passably well and is quite ready to learn the other languages that are necessary for the exercise of your ministry. He is so good that he laughed when he heard of your fear that he might be too old for the difficult work of learning a new language.

Letter to Fr Étienne Semeria, 23 March 1849, OW IV, n. 11

His companions were 24 years old, of whom Eugene wrote: “Their devotion is worthy of their beautiful vocation. They leave with joy in their hearts, happy to have been chosen.” (Diary 23 March 1849)

REFLECTION

“That zeal which is kindled and sustained by a heavenly power, which makes us feel that we must speak or the very stones would cry out against us — this zeal, I say, is of an effectual kind, and the more of it the better.” (Charles Spurgeon)

Having sent his Oblate missionaries so far away, Eugene longed to hear from them and their missionary successes among the most abandoned.

You do not give me enough details on your way of life, where you live, and your ministry. When will you begin to win the unbelievers? Are you only on your island as parish priests of old Christians? I had always thought the idea was to convert the pagans. That is what we are made for rather than anything else. There are enough bad Christians in Europe without our having to go and look for them so far away. Give me plenty of information on this, even if all there is to report so far is hopes.

Goodbye, my dear son; I embrace you and bless you with all my heart.

Letter to Fr Etienne Semeria in Ceylon, 21 February 1849, EO IV n. 10

REFLECTION

Eugene’s spirit continues today in his Oblate Family:

“We are a missionary Congregation. Our principal service in the Church is to proclaim Christ and his Kingdom to the most abandoned. We preach the Gospel among people who have not yet received it and help them see their own values in its light. Where the Church is already established, our commitment is to those groups it touches least.

Wherever we work, our mission is especially to those people whose condition cries out for salvation and for the hope which only Jesus Christ can fully bring. These are the poor with their many faces; we give them our preference.” (OMI Constitutions and Rules, C 5)

In sending more missionaries to Ceylon, Eugene wrote to the superior of that mission.

I have no doubt that you will be very happy with the Fathers whom I am sending you… As for Fr. Mouchel, I do not think any missionary has ever had so clear a vocation. He has already studied English a good deal, and you can look on him as a man truly devoted… 

Everywhere they are admirable for their zeal and their charity. If it is hot in Ceylon, it is certainly cold on Hudson’s Bay, and all our missionaries on missions to the Red Indians, whether they are French, Irish or Canadian, are certainly leading a harder life than the one that he is so weak as to complain about.

Then he shares family news from North America:

We have as yet no news of Fr. Lempfrit’s arrival in Oregon, and it takes eight months for a letter to arrive. I recently sent them some shoes, some shirts, some trousers and so on. They have nothing, living among those Indians.

Letter to Fr Etienne Semeria, 21 February 1849, EO IV n. 10

REFLECTION

“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light” (J.K. Falconer)

Eugene always marvelled at the inventions of his time. A few years earlier the telegraph had been invented by Morse and others, and Eugene marvelled at its speed of communication:

Would to God that we had so swift a means of communicating with Ceylon: the telegram, which was composed in Paris at 2 o’clock today, reached me at 8 minutes past 5; three hours and eight minutes for a journey of two hundred leagues is wonderful.

He had just received a letter from Ceylon 42 days after it was sent! His letter continued:

We have as yet no news of Fr. Lempfrit’s arrival in Oregon, and it takes eight months for a letter to arrive.

Letter to Fr Etienne Semeria, 21 February 1849, EO IV n. 10

REFLECTION

Eugene wanted to have a constant relation with his missionaries, and we often come across his frustration at having to rely on delivery by slow ships crossing oceans as his only form of communication. Had he lived today, he would have made constant use of social media to stay in touch with his missionary family.

“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” (Isaac Asimov)

The beginnings of the Oblate mission in Ceylon, in the area of Jaffna, were not as smooth as Eugene had hoped. There were many factions in the church as we will see in the future. More urgent was the sending of new Oblate missionaries to the territory, but the Bishop of Jaffna had taken the grant from Rome for his own use and not to pay the voyage of the new Oblate missionaries. Eugene wrote to Fr. Semeria, the Oblate superior:

My dear Fr. Semeria, your letters always give me the greatest pleasure, but they upset me when you persist in asking me so urgently to send you missionaries. You know, my dear son, that the Vicar Apostolic has reserved to himself all the allowance that the Propagation of the Faith was to make for Ceylon. This is the most annoying thing a man could possibly do. By refusing the help that we had a right to expect from the Propagation of the Faith, he has made it absolutely impossible for us to send the missionaries. If the Propagation of the Faith had given us the money necessary to pay for the journey, the missionaries would have arrived in Ceylon long ago.

Letter to Fr. Etienne Semeria, 20 January 1849, EO IV n. 9

REFLECTION

A sobering thought about mission: it cannot happen unless we have the financial means to support the missionaries and their work. A moment to give thanks to the countless benefactors of our missions from 1816 until now. Without our Missionary Associates and Lay Associates, our missionaries could not have been as successful as they have been. The beauty of this support is that the Lay members of our Oblate Charismatic Family have understood that they are not just supporters of the Oblate mission, but co-workers, “co-missionaries” – each one according to their situation and state of life. What a gift!

Together with Mary and St Eugene we stand in wonder and awe at the birth of our Savior.

A Blessed Christmas to each of you and your loved ones.

The daily reflections will begin again with the arrival of the Magi on January 6.

“They will always regard her as mother” Eugene had written when we officially became Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate after our papal approbation in 1826. He asked us to have a “tender and filial devotion.” Throughout his whole life he was accompanied by Mary – because of this Rule that he quotes in his retreat notes:

Devotion to Mary must also characterize us: At least once a day they will pay a visit to the Blessed Sacrament and a visit to the Blessed Virgin, towards whom all the missionaries will cultivate a special devotion, and to whom they will always look up as to their Mother
They will recite the rosary every day, and will leave nothing undone to make the faithful most fervently and trustfully devout to this Immaculate Virgin and the most holy Mother of God. 

Retreat notes, October 1831, EO XV n. 163

Eugene died during the praying of the Salve Regina, at these words: “Turn then, most gracious Advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus, O merciful, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!”

Father Fabre describes the scene:

We recited the entire Salve Regina, which our well-loved Father understood and followed fully. At the words: Nobis post hoc exilium ostende, he opened his eyes slightly; at each invocations: O clémens, o Pia, he made a slight movement; at the third: O Dulcis Virgo Maria, he breathed his last. His beautiful soul was in the presence of God. (Circular Letter to the Congregation 26 May 1861)

REFLECTION

Because of his life-long closeness to Mary, she did indeed accompany him to the fruit of her womb: Jesus. May we learn to look on her as mother and as our faithful faith-companion on our Christian journey to be shown the fruit of her womb at its fulfilment in our own death.

Writing from Rome, where he was to participate in the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Eugene wrote to the Oblates in Marseilles.

On the feast day itself, we must expose the Blessed Sacrament at eleven o’clock of the morning, which will be the hour during which the Pope will proclaim the announced dogmatic definition and, after the prayer “pro gratiarum actione,” we shall sing with a holy enthusiasm the “Tota pulchra es,” etc. This is the least we can do to express our joy and gratitude on the occasion of this great event over which no one ought to rejoice more than we, who are children of Mary Immaculate, we, the members of a Congregation which does battle under this beautiful name, a truly personal prerogative through the intervention of the very Head of the Church, the great Pope Leo XII.

In advance I approve everything that you will do to make the feast of the Immaculate more solemn than ever. Let the holy mountain [ed. of Notre Dame de la Garde] be lit up twice as much as what is done for the feast in August. Fires of rejoicing are to be organized, not to forget that there be one at Montolivet, we have to light up all the windows of our house at La Garde, the facade of Le Calvaire. In a word, do all that you can to express the enthusiastic joy that all true sons of Mary are experiencing.

Letter to Fr Casimir Aubert in Marseilles, 28 November 1854, EO XI n 1255

REFLECTION

“The Immaculate Virgin however invites us not to fix our eyes on her but to pass beyond, and as much as possible, to enter into the mystery in which she was conceived: the mystery of God who is One and Three, full of grace and fidelity. As the moon shines with the light of the sun, so the immaculate splendour of Mary is totally relative to that of the Redeemer. The Mother leads us to her Son; passing through her, we reach Christ. For this reason, Dante Allighieri notes fittingly: “that her radiance alone can dispose you to see Christ”. (Pope St John Paul 2)