Eugene reminds the Missionary Oblates, whom he is sending to Oregon, that they are continuing the mandate given by Jesus to the apostles.

I say nothing of how magnificent in the eyes of Faith is the ministry you are going to fulfil. One must go back to the birth of Christianity to find anything comparable. It is an apostle with whom you are associated and the same marvels that were wrought by the first disciples of Jesus Christ will be renewed in our days by you, my dear children, whom Providence has chosen amongst so many others to announce the Good News to so many slaves of the demon who huddle in the darkness of idolatry and who know not God.

This is truly the real apostolate which is renewed in our times. Let us thank the Lord for having been deemed worthy to be participants therein in so active a manner.

Letter to Fr. Pascal Ricard, 8 January 1847. EO I n 74

REFLECTION

“Missionaries of Christ are not sent to communicate themselves, to exhibit their persuasive qualities and abilities or their managerial skills. Instead, theirs is the supreme honour of presenting Christ in words and deeds, proclaiming to everyone the Good News of his salvation, as the first apostles did, with joy and boldness.” (Pope Francis)

May I present Christ through the witness of my actions and words today.

Eugene prayerfully discerned the choice of Oblates to respond to the invitation to establish the first missionary community in the United States. He understood it as a call from God, and wrote:

Respond with joy to this call, be faithful to your vocation and count on the most abundant blessings of God and on a recompense proportionate to the excellence of the great mission you are going to fulfil.

Letter to Fr. Pascal Ricard, 8 January 1847. EO I n 74

REFLECTION

“Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.” Saint Mother Teresa

God, grant me the light of grace I need in my vocation to live each moment fully in your presence. May I focus on the quality of my life as opposed to the quantity of my achievements.

The Oblate chosen to inaugurate the mission in the United States was 41 year-old Fr Pascal Ricard. Eugene wrote to inform him of this choice:

The new diocese of Walla Walla is in rather a beautiful country where the harvest of souls will be very abundant. I must have a man to put in charge of this mission who is mature and experienced and whom I can recommend to the new Bishop, who has already become one of our friends, as a dependable and wise religious since, for the time being, our Fathers are to educate nearly all his clergy.

And for my part I need to confide the direction of our men only to an elder son of the family on whom I can rely entirely since he must be placed at such a great distance from myself with the members chosen from our Society. So there, my dear Father, is where you are called by Divine Providence.

Letter to Fr. Pascal Ricard, 8 January 1847. EO I n 74

REFLECTION

“Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.”   (Viktor E. Frankl)

How conscious am I about my specific mission in whatever I do today?

The Missionary Oblates had arrived in the east of Canada in 1841. Now, five years later, they were invited to establish themselves in the west coast of North America. Eugene de Mazenod wrote to an Oblate in France:

Bishop Blanchet, Bishop of Walla Walla, brother of the Archbishop of Oregon, wants to entrust his interesting mission to our Congregation; he wants the Fathers of our Society to work with him to extend the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in the regions entrusted to his care. By this preferential choice, the work of the Congregation will extend from sea to sea, and by spreading out we will range from Canada to the United States.

Letter to Fr. Pascal Ricard, 8 January 1847. EO I n 74

REFLECTION

“Dear brothers and sisters, I continue to dream of a completely missionary Church, and a new era of missionary activity among Christian communities… Indeed, would that all of us in the Church were what we already are by virtue of baptism: prophets, witnesses, missionaries of the Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the ends of the earth!” (Pope Francis 2022)

How can I be a witness today in my ordinary everyday life?

Father Adrien Telmon’s missionary zeal in caring for others was indefatigable, but at a price. He had eventually fallen ill and needed to be cared for by the Grey Sisters in Ottawa. Eugene’s letter of gratitude to them for their care is filled with the plea to make Fr. Telmon see the foolishness of his endless activity which affected his health.

“Would to God, my dear Sisters, you had as much power to dissuade this Father from throwing himself into a whirl of activities as you have charity to cure his illness… Tell him that this is not willed by God and consequently no one in the world can demand him to ruin his precious health.”

Letter to the Grey Nuns of the hospital of Bytown, 30 July 1846, EO I n 68

REFLECTION:

“Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home.” Saint Mother Teresa

Loving God, may the care I take of myself be motivated on my being there for others.

Father Adrien Telmon, one of the Oblate pioneers in Canada, was a whirlwind of activity! Highly talented, creative and impulsive, he zealously threw himself into countless missionary projects in France, and now in Canada. Eugene was concerned for his welfare.

I come back to your health. I see with deep sorrow that it is considerably weakened by the excess of work you have taken upon yourself. You have never known how to be moderate, my dear child. Yet you know the value I set on your existence and all I hope from your zeal and intelligence. Why make yourself incapable of acting for lack of measuring your strength?

Eugene de Mazenod to Fr. Adrien Telmon in Canada

REFLECTION

“If you don’t take a Sabbath, something is wrong. You’re doing too much, you’re being too much in charge. You’ve got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you’re not doing anything.”  (Eugene H. Peterson)

Lord, in our zeal to do good, help us to avoid burnout by listening to our bodies.

For more details please see: https://ost.edu/event/enlarging-the-tent/ 

A BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES

There will be a pause  in these reflections until Monday January 23.

One of the privileged moments of prayer for Eugene was to be able to unite himself with those he loved in the presence of God. In our Oblate tradition we have come to know this exercise as “oraison.” As a seminarian in Paris he wrote to his mother one Christmas morning describing how united he had been with her during Midnight Mass, despite the distance that separated them.

Dearest Mother, do you really think that I was not beside you last night? How could I fail, meditating as I was on the holy Mother of God, who had just been filled with consolation on giving the world its Saviour, and at the same time had to experience so vividly the poverty, weakness and misery to which she saw her Divine Master reduced for love of men, how could these tender sentiments fail to draw me close to you?
Indeed yes, darling mother, we spent the night together at the foot of the altar, which for me represented the crib in Bethlehem; together we offered our gifts to our Savior and asked him to come to birth in our hearts and strengthen us in all that is weak, etc.
You know my heart all too well, since it was formed from your own, so you will have a very clear understanding that it is as active and goes through the same feelings as your own.

Letter to his mother, 25 December 1809, EO XIV n 37

Who are the people I want to unite myself with before the crib in Bethlehem this year?