Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God. (2 Tm 1:8)
How happy they are to be able to sacrifice themselves for their brothers whom they are sanctifying, saving, placing in glory, at the price of their lives, like our Divine Master who died for the salvation of people! How admirable they are! But also, how fortunate, these dear martyrs of love! What a beautiful page in the history of our Congregation!
Letter of Eugene de Mazenod to Fr. Bruno Guigues describing the heroic ministry of the Oblates during the cholera epidemic, 1 August 1835, EO VIII n 529
REFLECTION
Lord Jesus, give me the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting my teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes me strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for me. Jesus, give me strength in my weakness. Amen.
Wendy van Eyck
And today the LORD is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you;
and provided you keep all his commandments, he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made, and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God, as he promised.
(Dt. 26:17-19)
You are God’s children, the brothers of Jesus Christ, heirs to his eternal kingdom, chosen portion of his inheritance; you are, in the words of St. Peter, a holy nation, you are kings, you are priests, you are in some way gods, You are gods, children of the Most High.
So lift up your spirits, that your defeated souls may breathe, grovel no longer on the ground: You are gods, children of the Most High. (Ps. 81:6).”
Eugene de Mazenod’s sermon to the poor of Aix en Provence, 1813
REFLECTION
Father, I thank You that You can heal broken hearts and bitter memories and damaged self esteem. Thank You that patterns can be erased and reversed. Thank You that You turn nobody’s into somebody’s. Jesus, I ask You to help people to begin seeing themselves today through Your eyes of love.
Adapted from: https://www.reunioncommunity.org/post/2017/11/12/seeing-yourself-as-god-sees-you-seeing-through-god-s-eyes
Go first and be reconciled with your brother. (Mt. 5:24)
This time I admit that we must even redouble our gratitude for the marvels of this beautiful mission of Zicavo: we have to shed tears of joy.
From here. I see you surrounded by all these bloodthirsty men who become like lambs at your call, the daggers falling from their hands: they forgive and embrace each other. Oh how beautiful this is! And this moving response: now that their arms, loaded as they were to kill their enemies, now that these latter no longer existed, it was only right that they be shot off in your honour. Yes, that is superb!
Letter of Eugene de Mazenod to Fr. Etienne Semeria in Corsica, 16 October 1841, EO IX n 741
REFLECTION
Lord, though the human race is divided by dissension and discord, yet we know that by testing us you change our hearts to prepare them for reconciliation.
Even more, by your Spirit you move human hearts that enemies may speak to each other again, adversaries join hands, and peoples seek to meet together.
By the working of your power it comes about, O Lord, that hatred is overcome by love, revenge gives way to forgiveness, and discord is changed to mutual respect.
(Preface for Reconciliation II)
As a child I used to hear from the books of my forefathers that you, O LORD, always free those who are pleasing to you. Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you, O LORD, my God. (Esther 4: 16)
“We need to have some courage and confidence in God who shows us the road and will not abandon us when we act in his name and for his glory.”
Letter of Eugene de Mazenod to Fr Eugene Guigues in Canada, 5 December 1844, EO I n 50
REFLECTION
LEAD, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home—
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene—one step enough for me.
(John Henry Newman)
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “”Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” (Jon. 3:1)
Go forth, beloved sons, you and your companions chosen by us, to the task entrusted to you, so that in these distant regions of the earth which have been assigned to you, you may always work to promote the glory of God and the salvation of souls … May the angels of God assist you. On our part we will never cease to implore for you an abundant shower of graces.”
Eugene de Mazenod’s Mandate as Superior General sending the Oblates to the new mission of Oregon, 22 January 1847, EO I n 78
REFLECTION
Loving God, the Apostles were the first missionaries of the Gospel commissioned by your son, make us messengers of your love and hope to the people we meet in our everday lives.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Mt. 6:8)
“It is true that I have always put all my confidence in the goodness of God… and I ought to avow, if ever I have prayed as much, never have I prayed with so much consolation (effect of an absolute but filial confidence) to the point of speaking to our Lord as I dare believe I would have done had I had the happiness of living when he moved about this earth to spread his goodness and grant to each what he asked.”
Letter of Eugene de Mazenod to Fr. Henri Tempier, 16 February 1826, EO VII n 224
REFLECTION
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Thomas Merton
“I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Mt. 25:40)
“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
REFLECTION
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
(St. Teresa of Avila)
For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. (Rom. 5:17-19)
“O my God, don’t I have every reason to devote myself entirely to your service, to offer you my life and all that I am, so that all that is in me may be employed and spent for your glory? For by how many titles do I belong to you? Not only are you my Creator and Redeemer, as you are all men’s, but you are my special benefactor and applied your merits in an altogether special way to me; my generous friend, you forgot all my acts of ingratitude to help me as powerfully as if I had been always faithful to you; my tender father, who carried this rebel on your shoulders, warmed him against your heart, washed his wounds.
Eugene de Mazenod, Retreat Notes EO XIV n 95
REFLECTION
Lord our God, in every age you call a people to hear your word and to do your will.
Renew us in these Lenten days: washed clean of sin, sealed with the Spirit, and sustained by your living bread, may we remain true to our calling and you alone. Grant this through Christ, our liberator from sin, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, holy and mighty God for ever and ever.
(Sacramentary, Sunday I Lent)
Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners. (Lk. 5:32)
It was felt that, coming from the mouth of the One who is Himself “eternal life”, it is still “spirit and life” (Jn 6:64), it has brought life to those who have received it; it [the Word] has been like a celestial light that has come to invest their souls and has made them know the truth”
Bishop de Mazenod’s Pastoral Letter on the Missions, 1844
REFLECTION
Living Lord,
Your love has held me and kept me through my sinfulness. Now may your hope and healing lead me quickly to a place of restoration. O Lord the oil of your healing flows through me like a living stream. I will keep my eyes on you, and trust in you. I give you all that I am, and rest in your peace. I hold tightly to your promises. They are like a spring that overflows with goodness.
Adapted from https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/prayer-index/prayers-for-healing
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn… (Is.58:6-8)
Charity embraces everything; and for new needs, it invents, when necessary, new means: spiritual help, bodily help, bread for the soul, bread for the body; instruction for ignorance; advice, guidance, support for weakness; asylum for virtue or for penance; pious sentiments, sweet consolations, supernatural strength for the dying; All kinds of good works are being generated in the name of Jesus Christ.
Bishop de Mazenod’s Pastoral Letter 7 Feb. 1847
REFLECTION
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like. (Saint Augustine)
