As we prepare to celebrate the feast of St Eugene on May 21, I invite you to reflect on what he means for you.
Pope Paul VI said of him at the beatification
“Eugene de Mazenod was a man passionately in love with Jesus Christ and unconditionally committed to the Church.”.
Father Marcello Zago, Superior General at the time of the canonization invited us to relate with Saint Eugene under these headings:
A saint for us to imitate.
A founder for us to follow
A teacher to listen to.
A father to love.
An intercessor to invoke.
Pope John Paul II said of Eugene at his canonization
“Blessed Eugene de Mazenod, whom the Church today proclaims a saint, was a man of Advent, a man of Coming. He not only looked towards that Coming, but, as Bishop, and founder of the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary immaculate, he dedicated his whole life to preparing it.
His expectation reached the intensity of heroism, that is, it was characterized by a heroic degree of faith, hope and apostolic charity. Eugene de Mazenod was one of those apostles who prepared modern times, our times.”
May this famous saying of St Irenaeus be your focus as you celebrate the feast of St Eugene: “The glory of God is the human person fully alive because he/she has been redeemed by Jesus Christ.”
May Eugene accompany each of us on our pilgrimage to become “fully alive”!
PRAYER
God our Father, we thank you for having called Saint Eugene de Mazenod to follow Christ the Saviour and Evangelizer.
Passionately in love with your Son Jesus and sharing in his compassion for humanity Eugene put himself unconditionally
at the service of your Church for the evangelization of those most in need.
Through his intercession help us to reach out with the healing touch of Christ who calls us to holiness and to mission.
May we build communities which are signs of your presence,
and share the Good News of salvation with all peoples.
For this we dedicate ourselves, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint Eugene de Mazenod, share with us your love for Christ.
Saint Eugene de Mazenod, help us to stand firm in goodness.
Saint Eugene de Mazenod, be with us in all our efforts.
Saint Eugene de Mazenod, pray for us.
(Eugene’s ninth “road sign” for the pilgrim)
St Eugene de Mazenod communicated his zeal for the salvation of souls to his missionary family and sent them into difficult mission situations, where others did not want to go.
In doing so, he always accompanied them with a father’s love and prayer-filled protection. The sentiments he expresses to Brother Charles, on the occasion of his oblation, are his ongoing sentiments today for every member of his extended charismatic family when we make a commitment in whatever form our state of life permits.
Now you are consecrated to God for life and beyond by your oblation; and I must add in all humility but with great consolation, that thereby I have become your father. I do not know you personally; but since the affection that unites me with my children is essentially supernatural, it is enough for me to know that the Saviour Jesus Christ, our common Master, has received your vows, has adopted you and has marked you with the seal that makes us what we are, so that we are united in the most intimate bonds of charity and that I am bound to you forever as you are to me.
Letter to Brother Charles Baret, at Notre Dame de L’Osier, 18 August 1843
WORD OF GOD
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he[ is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.
I John 3: 1-2
PRAYER
God our Father,
by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you called St. Eugene de Mazenod
to gather a missionary family
to announce the Gospel
especially among the poor and most abandoned.
May we ourselves be encouraged by his fatherly love and prayers for us,
and receive through his intercession
the particular graces we ask for as pilgrims of hope.
(Eugene’s eighth “road sign” for the pilgrim)
Eugene, like Jesus, had a sharp eye for discerning where the most abandoned were and then responding to the best of his ability.
It seems to me that our duty is to rush to where there is the most urgent need
Eugene’s letter to the Pastor of Barjols, 20 August 1818, EO XIII n 14
“They will have a compassionate charity for the misery of the poor and they will count themselves happy to be able to relieve, in their needs, these suffering members of J.C.”
Eugene de Mazenod’s Rule for the members of his Christian Youth Association EO XV, n. 135
He described his missionary family as persons
who are always ready to move quickly at all times and at the least sign to that place where obedience shows us that some good is to be done
Eugene’s letter to the Archbishop of Aix, 16 December 1819, EO XIII n 27
THE WORD OF GOD
And let people learn to devote themselves to good works in order to meet urgent needs, so that they may not be unproductive.
Titus 3:14
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”
Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” [“pauperibus evangelizantur” of the OMI crest)
Matthew 11:3-4
PRAYER
God our Father,
by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you called St. Eugene de Mazenod
to gather a missionary family
to respond to the most urgent needs.
May we ourselves be your eyes to look with compassion on the world
and be your hands and hearts in responding.
May we receive through the intercession of Saint Eugene
the particular graces we ask for as pilgrims of hope.
000000(Eugene’s seventh “road sign” for the pilgrim)
Saint Eugene’s life journey was always accompanied by Mary, whom he loved as mother. Looking back on his life he wrote in his will:
To this end, I invoke the intercession of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God, daring to remind her in all humility, but with consolation, of the filial devotion of my whole life, and of the desire I have always had to make her known and loved, and to spread her devotion everywhere through the ministry of those whom the Church has given to me as children, who have had the same desire as myself…
Eugene de Mazenod’s will, 1 August 1854, E.O. XV n. 191
BIBLICAL REFLECTION
Pope Francis said this to the Mazenodian Family at the recent General Chapter:
“Mary the pilgrim, Mary journeying, Mary who arose in haste to go and serve. After saying her “yes” to God through the archangel Gabriel, she departed in haste to go to her cousin Elizabeth, to share the gift and to place herself at her service. In this too, may Mary be an example to you, for your life and for your mission”
PRAYER COMPOSED BY OUR SUPERIOR GENERAL, FR CHICHO ROIS
(It applies to every category of member of the wide Mazenodian Oblate Family)
Come walk with us Mary, pilgrim of hope in communion. Give us your hand and your smile.
Teach us to look with the heart, to discover the merciful passage of God. Teach us to look at those whom no one looks at and discover that they are the ones chosen by Jesus as signs of His presence: the small and poor, the humble and vulnerable. Make us worthy to walk with them every day.
Take care, Mother, of our common home and our Oblate home. Help us discover what we need to do to make the planet and our communities a home where Jesus can be born. May our communion be the seed and leaven of universal brotherhood for the world.
At the foot of the cross and the crucified, teach us, Mary, to look at the world with the eyes of the crucified Saviour. As we contemplate you, Mary, may we commit ourselves to collaborating with the One who will bring God’s definitive victory over evil.
We are your Oblates: give us your smile, as you have done since our beginning. She intercedes for us, together with Saint Eugene and all the Oblate saints who have preceded us and make us embark on bold paths to become authentic pilgrims of hope in communion, who live and announce the Gospel. Amen.
***
Novena petition:
May we receive through the intercession of Mary and Saint Eugene the particular graces we ask for as pilgrims of hope.
(Eugene’s sixth “road sign” for the pilgrim)
Looking at the Cross on Good Friday, Eugene was overwhelmed the love of God who gave everything for him. The response of this young man was oblation: giving everything to God in response.
What more glorious occupation than to act in everything and for everything only for God, to love him above all else, to love him all the more as one who has loved him too late. Ah! this is to begin already here below the blessed life of heaven. That is the true way to glorify him as he wants.
Eugene’s Retreat Journal, December 1814, EO XV n.130
Oblation became the central characteristic of his life as a person, as priest, as founder, as Superior General and as Bishop. It is this spirit that members of the Mazenodian Family are called to absorb and assimilate.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has left to us the task of continuing the great work of the redemption of mankind.
It is towards this unique end that all our efforts must tend;
as long as we will not have spent our whole life and given all our blood to achieve this, we having nothing to say;
especially when as yet we have given only a few drops of sweat and a few spells of fatigue.
Eugene’s letter to Henri Tempier, 22 August 1817, O.W. VI n. 21;
THE WORD OF GOD
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”
Isaiah 6:8
For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:37-38
PRAYER
God our Father,
by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you called St. Eugene de Mazenod
to gather a missionary family
to announce the Gospel
especially among the poor and most abandoned.
May we live by the spirit of his oblation
to act in everything and for everything only for you to love you above all else
Through St Eugene’s intercession may we receive
the particular graces we ask for as pilgrims of hope.
(Eugene’s fifth “road sign” for the pilgrim)
The characteristics of the Mazenodian pilgrim are found in St Eugene’s last testament to his missionary family:
Among yourselves practice charity, charity, charity – and, outside, zeal for the salvation of souls.
This was our distinguishing sign from the very beginning. After two weeks of the intensity of living the experience of doing a parish mission together for the first time – where they worked day and night practically non-stop, Eugene exclaimed:
Among us missionaries, we are what we should be, that is to say that we all have one heart, one spirit, and one thought; it is admirable! Our consolations, like our hardships, are unequalled.
Letter to Fr Henri Tempier, 24 February 1816, EO VI n1 0
Community is not a geographical reality, but a way of life practiced comprising even distance and physical separation:
This is the only way of reducing distances, to be at the same moment in our Lord’s presence, it is so to speak like being side by side. We do not see each other, but we sense each other’s presence, hear each other, lose ourselves in one and the same central point.
Letter to Fr. de l’Hermite, January 10, 1852, EO XI n 1096
THE WORD OF GOD
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Mt 18:20
I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you…
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.
I Corinthians 1:2-6;10
PRAYER
God our Father,
by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you called St. Eugene de Mazenod
to gather a missionary family
to become community in heart and mind.
May we ourselves grow in unity and bear witness before the world
that Jesus lives in our midst
and unites us in order to send us to proclaim God’s reign.
May we receive through the intercession of Saint Eugene
the particular graces we ask for as pilgrims of hope.
(Eugene’s fourth “road sign” for the pilgrim)
Here we have the vocation of everyone connected with the charism and spirituality of Saint Eugene: to be pilgrims of hope to those who are the most abandoned.
Will we ever have an adequate understanding of this sublime vocation! For that one would have to understand the excellence of our Institute’s end, beyond argument the most perfect one could propose to oneself in this world, since the end of our Institute is the exact same end that the Son of God had in mind when he came down on earth…
“For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” [Luke 19: 10], he was sent especially to evangelize the poor: “He has sent me to evangelize the poor” [Luke 4:18].
And we have been founded precisely to work for the conversion of souls, and especially to evangelize the poor
Eugene de Mazenod’s retreat notes, October 1831, EO XV n. 163
Writing to the Missionaries. leaving France to minister to indigenous peoples in 1855, Eugene leaves no doubt as to who the poor are:
You are leaving to conquer souls, and certainly we can say those of the most abandoned souls, for can there be any more abandoned ones than those of the poor indigenous people whom God, by an extraordinary privilege, has called us to evangelize?
… when, faithful to your vocation, you become the instruments of his mercies over these poor unbelievers whom you snatch from the devil who had made them his prey, and you thus extend the Kingdom of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.
Letter to the Missionaries at Rivière Rouge, 28 June 1855, EO II n 211
THE WORD OF GOD
Jesus unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
Luke 4:17-19
Later. to prove to John the Baptist that he was the Messiah, Jesus said:
“Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”
(Matthew 11:4-5).
PRAYER
God our Father,
by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you called St. Eugene de Mazenod
to gather a missionary family
to announce the Gospel
especially among the poor and most abandoned.
May we ourselves respond to the God of love who saves us,
and calls us to be pilgrims who witness to those who are the most abandoned in our society today.
Convinced of God’s love for us, may we receive through the intercession of Saint Eugene
the particular graces we ask for as pilgrims of hope.
(Eugene’s third “road sign” for the pilgrim)
It was the Savior who had to speak through his co-operator, as Eugene wrote in his Rule:
The missionary – lest his preaching be in vain – will pray and get others to pray to the Divine Master of hearts, to deign to accompany the words of his minister with that powerful grace, which moves and converts souls, and without which all words are but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
Eugene de Mazenod’s 1826 Rule Part I, Chapter 3, §1, Art. 24.
Eugene certainly drew the crowds through his style of preaching. Marius Suzanne, who was a novice in 1820 during the mission in Aix, described Eugene’s technique of communicating the Saviour, and the reaction of his listeners:
The following Tuesday I attended the morning sermon at the Metropolitan Church of St. Sauveur. If I was astonished by the extraordinary crowd of people of all ages, both men and women, who had gathered since four thirty, I was even more so by the discourse that Fr. de Mazenod gave us.
You cannot imagine, my dear friend, the soft and flowing eloquence of this man of God. He does not seek to shock, to make sinners tremble and to terrify them. He works his way into the soul without effort, and awakens the most tender feelings there. Something pure and soft that flows from his heart fills you and refreshes you with that heavenly dew that the Prophet speaks about. You forget him entirely.
He was explaining in Provençal the first words of the Lord’s Prayer. He developed them with such facility, he expressed himself with a wealth of feelings so natural and so touching that we were moved to tears. They indeed flowed from all eyes, softly and quietly.
A great number of sinners were converted. Three courtesans [ed: prostitutes who attract wealthy clients], among others, made their confession that same evening.
SUZANNE M., Quelques lettres sur la mission d’Aix, Chez Pontier, Imprimeur-libraire, Aix, 1820, p. 6-7.
THE WORD OF GOD
Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
But how shall they ask him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them unless someone sends him? That is what the Scriptures are talking about when they say, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace with God and bring glad tidings of good things.” In other words, how welcome are those who come preaching God’s Good News!
Romans 10:13-15
PRAYER
God our Father,
by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you called St. Eugene de Mazenod
to gather a missionary family
to announce the Gospel
especially among the poor and most abandoned.
May we ourselves be inflamed with his zeal
for announcing and witnessing to the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Savior
and receive through his intercession
the particular graces we ask for as pilgrims of hope.
(Eugene’s second “road sign” for the pilgrim)
It was Eugene’s love for the Church that led him to dedicate his life to her, the Body of Christ, as a priest:
So do not grudge, dear mother, do not grudge this poor Church, so terribly abandoned, scorned, trampled underfoot but which even so was the one who gave birth to us all in J.C., the homage that two or three individuals out of the whole of France (a small number I count myself happy to be one of) wish to pay her of their liberty and life.
And what reason could you possibly have for wanting me to delay any longer from committing myself, and devoting to the Spouse of J.C., which this divine Master formed by the shedding of all his blood, every moment of a life I received only to use for God’s greater glory.
Eugene’s letter to his mother, 11 October 1809, EO XIV n. 61
Love for the Church was the constant beacon that led him to gather a missionary family:
Our Lord Jesus Christ has left to us the task of continuing the great work of the redemption of mankind…
This spirit of being wholly devoted to the glory of God, the service of the Church and the salvation of souls, is the spirit that is proper to our Congregation, a small one, to be sure, but which will always be powerful as long as she is holy.
Letter to Henri Tempier, 22 August 1817, EO VI n 21
A year before his death, Eugene the pilgrim continued to express his faithfulness to these important signposts:
How is it possible to separate our love for Jesus Christ from that we owe to the Church? These two kinds of love merge into one: to love the Church is to love Jesus Christ and vice versa.
We love Jesus Christ in his Church because she is his immaculate spouse who came out of his opened side on the cross…
Pastoral Letter to the Diocese of Marseille, 1860
THE WORD OF GOD
… even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Ephesians 5, 25-27
PRAYER
God our Father,
by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you gave St. Eugene de Mazenod
an unconditional love for the Church.
May we ourselves be inflamed with his love for the Church, the Body of Christ
and receive through his intercession
the particular graces we ask for as pilgrims of hope.
(Eugene’s first “road sign” for the pilgrim)
Eugene expressed the goal of his life’s pilgrimage, and the signpost for each day, in this way:
You, you alone will be the sole object to which will tend all my affections and my every action. To please you, act for your glory, will be my daily task, the task of every moment of my life. I wish to live only for you, I wish to love you alone and all else in you and through you.
Notes made during the retreat in preparation for priestly ordination, December 1-21, E.O. XIV n.95
Twenty years later, he shows that God’s love continues to be the pointer as he quotes freely from the first Letter of John in this reflection:
Let us love God because of his infinite perfections, let us love him also because he first loved us, ” since he himself first loved us” but “dearest, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another,” and take note: “Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth” like all those who love with the head, “but in works and truth”. Oh! no! He who does not love does not know God, since God is love. [ed. 1 John 3, 18; 4, 8. 10-11. 19]
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 4 September 1837
PRAYER
God our Father,
by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you enabled St. Eugene de Mazenod
to express his love for you in these words:
“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.”
May we ourselves be able to love you as Eugene did,
and receive through his intercession
the particular graces we ask for as pilgrims of hope.
