Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

After his strong words regarding the duty to live by the spirit of the Rule of Life, Eugene stressed that the cement that keeps the Oblate body together is love:

Charity is the pivot on which our whole existence turns.

Charity begins with God, and our call is to give everything to God in loving oblation.

That which we ought to have for God makes us renounce the world and has vowed us to his glory by all manner of sacrifice, were it even to be our lives.

The way in which Oblates express this love for God is by means of our consecration in religious life through the vows:

It is in order to be worthy of this God to whom we are consecrated that we have vowed to renounce ourselves by obedience, riches by poverty, pleasures by chastity.

Then Eugene points out that it is the actual living out of the practice of renunciation of self through obedience that leaves a lot to be desired.

I have no complaint about this last article. I have little to say about the second, but the first is not understood by certain individuals. Whence the disorders that I have had to deplore. Let us not cease to meditate on this point that is so important; that we are not religious by observing it as badly as we have up to now

Letter to Hippolyte Guibert, 29 July 1830, EO VII n 350

It is this charity in obedience, in oblation of self to God for others, that makes us truly religious.

This does not apply only to religious. As lay members of the Mazenodian Family, what does this say to us? All who are united by the charism, are called to oblation in whatever way of life we have. The charity of oblation is the pivot of each relationship and action… The cement that holds our Mazenodian spirituality together.

“The call and the presence of the Lord among us today bind us together in charity and obedience to create anew in our own lives the Apostles’ unity with him and their common mission in his Spirit.”  CC&RR , Constitution 3

We must be filled with our spirit and live only by it…

Those who have not grasped this, as a result of not having made a good novitiate, are among us like dislocated parts of the body. They make the whole body suffer and are not themselves at ease. It is indispensable that they put themselves back in their place.

Letter to Hippolyte Guibert, 29 July 1830, EO VII n 350

What makes an Oblate an Oblate? What makes a member of the Mazenodian Family truly a member of the Mazenodian family? It is not the work we do, no matter how successful and helpful to the poor and those in need. It is living by the spirit that came to us by St. Eugene, enshrined in the Constitutions and Rules, that we become what we are truly meant to be. Or else we risk becoming a loose association of “lone-ranger priests” or a club of “charitable workers” – dislocated from what the Savior intends us to be.

Each Oblate through his oblation assumes responsibility for the common heritage of the Congregation, expressed in the Constitutions and Rules and our family tradition. He is exhorted to let himself be guided by these norms in creative fidelity to the legacy bequeathed by St. Eugene de Mazenod.

CC&RR, Constitution 168

We must be filled with our spirit and live only by it. This is self-evident without it being necessary to explain it.

What makes the Oblate what he is, and distinct from any other religious in the Church? What characteristics make a member of the Mazenodian Family distinct from the members of any other ecclesial group or family? It is the family spirit expressed in our Rule of Life and lived for over 200 years.

Just as we have in a Society a common dress, common Rules, so must there be a common spirit which gives life to this particular body. The spirit of Bernardine is not that of the Jesuit. Ours also is our own.

Letter to Hippolyte Guibert, 29 July 1830, EO VII n 350

“On February 17,1826, the new Congregation and its Constitutions were formally approved by Pope Leo XII. For the Oblates, the Founder’s Preface to the Constitutions will always be an unrivalled expression of his charism and a bond of unity for the Congregation. Here, then, is that text which each succeeding generation of Oblates has treasured as its Rule of Life” Foreword to the Preface and the Oblate Constitutions and Rules.

We must be filled with our spirit and live only by it…

Just as we have in a Society a common dress, common Rules, so must there be a common spirit which gives life to this particular body.

Letter to Hippolyte Guibert, 29 July 1830, EO VII n 350

Eugene was constantly insistent on fidelity to our God-given spirit.

First companion of mine, you have from the first day we came together grasped the spirit which must animate us and which we must communicate to others; you have not deviated in the slightest from the path we resolved to follow; everyone knows this in the Society and they count on you as they count on myself.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 15 August 1822, EO VI n 86

See https://www.eugenedemazenod.net/?p=1803

This spirit is the particular Gospel inspiration that God gave to Eugene “one Good Friday,” and which became the heart and dynamism of every aspect of his life and ours. It is the spirit expressed in and taught to us by our Rule of Life:

The Constitutions and Rules set out a privileged means for each Oblate to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. They are inspired by the charism lived by the Founder and his first companions; also, they have received the approval of the Church. Thus, they allow each Oblate to evaluate the quality of his response to his vocation and to become a saint.

CC&RR, Constitution 163

I am still grieved, my dear friend, by what I have seen at Notre Dame du Laus.

Eugene had discovered, during his visit to the Oblate community in Laus, that the young Father Guibert was having difficulty in maintaining the correct Oblate spirt in the community. He was young learning how to be a community superior and had tried to reestablish a more faithful observance of the Rule, but encountered resistance based on health and work pressure, and had made concessions far too generously.

May it be God’s will that my exhortations have produced the effect that I have the right to expect. I hope that each will have told himself that he is rigorously obliged to observe our Rule strictly.

Where would we be if we were only faithful to it in the houses that I can supervise myself? Once that is achieved, we will still be far from realizing the goals that we propose; we must be filled with our spirit and live only by it. This is self-evident without it being necessary to explain it.

Letter to Hippolyte Guibert, 29 July 1830, EO VII n 350

Throughout his life, Eugene insisted on the primacy of living every aspect of Oblate life according to the precepts of the Rule of Life. In this Rule was expressed the God-given spirit of how to live, pray and evangelize as a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate – and which is shared by the whole Mazenodian family today

On his way to Switzerland, Eugene stopped at Notre Dame du Laus where he made a canonical visitation

Hippolyte Guibert had been appointed superior of the community a year before, when he was 26 years old. He had some difficult persons in his community who did not always maintain the prescriptions of the Oblate Rule of Life – and he had allowed concessions.

Eugene shared his unhappy reaction to the situation with Henri Tempier, his confidant:

We must never permit these concessions, they are allowed for a while and then we forget to maintain the precept and it is thus that abuses creep in.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 11 July 1830, EO VII n 347

…There is no doubt that Fr. Guibert possesses better than anyone of his house the spirit of our vocation; he might have been mistaken in his way of doing things but in substance he is right.

Eugene had a few days in ND du Laus on his way to Switzerland, and had had to rectify the situation, because conformity to the Rule was essential for the life and successful ministry of the missionaries:

With only three days to spend in this community, I have had to act with a mixture of mildness and firmness.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 26 July 1830, EO VII n 349

Eugene was absent nearly seven months from Marseilles, because of bad health. He undertook a journey into Switzerland on July 6, on the explicit orders of his doctors and of Fr Tempier. It was also an opportunity to help his sister, Eugenie de Boisgelin to take her mind off the sorrow caused by the death of her daughter Nathalie. (REY p 486)

This letter gives us a glimpse into the affectionate and caring nature of Eugene for his family.

Since you cannot come, my dear mamma, and I am obliged to postpone my journey to Aix, I will write you two words to express to you the regret I feel at not seeing you at the time when I was looking forward to embrace you.

I came twice to spend 24 hours in St. Joseph’s, my usual refuge when I want to enjoy a little tranquility. There is no way I can manage to write even one letter in Marseilles…

 My plan is always to go to Aix for the elections, that is to say on the 22nd of this month. We shall be able to return together to prepare for the journey to Freiburg, which I undertake only because my sister has a real need of it. This woman is always more angelic, and it is not possible to be more virtuous, but she needs to have some diversion from her sorrows. The journey will be appropriate to do this.

If she did not have so much distaste for milk, I would count on this food to fatten her a little; But she does not want to try. Perhaps the milk of Switzerland will nauseate her less.

And you, what benefit did you get out of your thermal baths? It seems to have happened on purpose, that you were disturbed when you were determined to take them properly. God grant that the care you have given to my uncle [ed. her cousin Francois Roze-Joannis] will not have wearied you, and will cause all the fruit of these healing waters to be lost! I hope the patient is better, and I shall be glad to learn that your pains have calmed a little.

… Goodbye, very dear and good mother. I kiss you with all my heart. Remember me to my uncle. I greet my brother and I am your very affectionate son. Everyone is well at the bishop’s house.

Eugene

Letter to his mother, 15 June 1830, OMI General Archives, Rome, AGR FB I-9

Eugene had learnt to be patient in regard to rushing into new missionary ventures. The previous year, 1829, he had gone to the Kingdom of Sardinia to see about an Oblate establishment there, but his haste had been futile and nothing had come of it. Now he took the question of sending missionaries to Algeria much more calmly – and relying on longer discernment and prayer.

… On that occasion, I took the resolution never to rush the time of Providence and in the future to allow myself to be led quite gently by it, to let it speak twice, lest I not understand its adorable designs very well.

Letter to Bishop Billiet, 7 June 1830, EO XIII n.74

It was advice he gave to two of the Oblate communities who were pressurizing him to send Oblates to the newly-opened opportunity for evangelization in Algeria.

… I see by the letter of Honorat that they are much too concerned with Algeria. Tell the two houses that that is enough. When the time comes, if indeed it comes, then we shall see. For now, let each mind his business, let each prepare for any eventuality by study and by piety and let them await without commotion and without care for the good God to show us his plans.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 1 August 1830, EO VII n. 351

The Bishop of Marseilles proved to be far more enthusiastic than his nephew on this occasion. In fact, on July 11, without first consulting the Founder, Fortune proposed, in a letter to the Grand Aumonier, that the Oblates of Mary Immaculate be sent into Algiers. These men, he wrote

have been earnestly begging me to request Your Eminence for the favor of being among the laborers of the vineyard who will go to spread the faith in this conquered land. No community could possibly be better suited to carry out this great work. Our constant dealings with Algeria, the ease with which the Arab language can be learned in Marseilles and even spoken with natives of that country because of the large number of Levantines living in our city, all contribute to further the hope that these Oblates will be assigned to this holy undertaking.

The following day, in practically the same words, Bishop Fortune sent the same request to Prince de Polignac [ed. He was the prime minister and foreign minister of France]. On July 15, he ordered a solemn “Te Deum” of thanksgiving to be sung at the Cathedral the following Sunday.

Leflon 2 p. 332

The revolution in Paris, which broke out a couple of weeks later, put an end to these missionary plans. Nineteen years would pass before the Oblates would go to Algeria as missionaries in 1849.

The Oblate Missionaries themselves eagerly sought the “signal favor of going overseas and being the first of our Fathers to have the happiness of bringing the light of the Gospel to these poor people.” Even Tempier volunteered to be one of the vanguard. (Leflon 2, p. 332). The scholastic brother Ricard had written to Eugene:

“…on learning of the capture of Algiers you could not restrain your tears; as for me, I assure you that since hearing these happy tidings I rest no more …. Right at the beginning of this war, you showed very clearly that if it were possible, you would establish a mission in these infidel parts; a surprising success has just crowned the efforts of our troops and not doubting to see your plans soon realized, I have not been able to await your return in order to solicit the great favor of crossing the sea …” (Letter of Pascal Ricard to Eugene, July 1830, in Rey I, p. 486).

Eugene responded through Fr Tempier:

I beg you to say to Brother Ricard that his letter gave me the greatest pleasure; let him be at peace while awaiting God’s good time. The Lord will manifest his will to us when it pleases him, we will try to aid his plans but I am alarmed at the smallness of our numbers when considering a colony.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 15 July 1830, EO VII n 348