Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

An insight into the daily life of Bishop de Mazenod, Bishop of the second-largest diocese in France, Superior General of a missionary Congregation in four continents. He writes to Fr Casimir Aubert, who had been his secretary for Oblate affairs but who had had to be sent to England to bring some order to the nascent Oblate province.

What a sight my desk is! At this moment, there are at least 150 letters, amongst which a great number are waiting for a reply… Has a Superior General ever been left alone who must correspond with the four quarters of the world and who for the ledger, monstrous as it is, is obliged to copy those of his letters of which he must keep a record. It is thus that I have compiled, since my return, twelve enormous pages of this immense register, the great in-folio that you know about, entirely written by my hand in small characters.

I want you to know, before stones are thrown at me, that last Friday I sat down at my desk at seven o’clock after coming down from the chapel and that I did not stir from it until six o’clock in the evening when they came to fetch me for dinner. I had not even left the place to take the cup of chocolate that they bring me at midday for my collation and it is a bishop who is almost a septuagenarian that is made to do this grind!

Letter to Fr. Casimir Aubert, Visitator in England, 24 November 1849, EO III n 33

REFLECTION

I am always amazed by the energy and amount of work that Eugene was able to do. The key to his ability is found in the focus given to him each day in his time of morning prayer of the breviary, meditation and Scripture reflection and his evening oraison (sometimes late at night). These he never missed.

“If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do.” (Lucille Ball)

We are busy preparing for the departure of Fr. d’Herbomez, Bro. Surel and Bro. Gaspard for Oregon. What a mission that is! You would not believe what our dear Fathers suffer there, as cheerfully as anybody in the world. The last time Fr. Chirouse wrote to me he said that he had sent a Father to Fr. Pandosy who had nothing to live on, but that he had in his larder a dog and two wolves which would be enough for him until Lent. He had made himself a soutane from a blanket.

I sent them a little parcel of shoes, trousers and so on. This time Fr. d’Herbomez is taking them everything from a needle to an anvil, 22 packages altogether. It is amusing. But what will not be amusing is remaining 7 or 8 months at sea, for they will have to go round Cape Horn.

Letter to Fr. Etienne Semeria, 10 November 1849, EO IV n 13.

Writing to Fr. Casimir Aubert, Eugene gave more details.

Tempier is immersed too and I pity him. One has no idea of the trouble he had to go to for the departure to Oregon of Fr. d’Herbomez and the two brothers, Surel and Janin. It is unbelievable! And amusing too for that matter to see a Vicar General hunting through the shops for a miscellany of all sorts of things, from a needle to a plow and an anvil. Toys, trumpets, whistles, glass beads of every colour, seed of every kind, striped shirts, caps and bonnets. Nothing could be funnier than to see people coming to ask seriously where the general store of Monsieur Tempier was to be found. At last our dear evangelists took their departure and with the help of God they will arrive in seven or eight months. How edifying they were!

Letter to Fr. Casimir Aubert, in England, 24 November 1849, EO III n 33

REFLECTION

A sea trip of 8 months around the southernmost point of South America, knowing that they would face a mission of hardship and many challenges once they arrived in Oregon! In our world of instant communication it is almost impossible for us to comprehend the hardships that these courageous missionaries had to undergo. Yet, they went joyfully because they had given their lives to God in oblation to be able to bring the Gospel to people who had never heard of it. They were indeed cooperators of the Savior, and it was this conviction that made sense of their way of life and made them generous.

How many personal hardships and sacrifices are we prepared to endure in order to be Christ-bearers today?

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.