The major ministry of the Oblates in France was the preaching of parish missions. At the end of each one, a report was sent to Eugene. After 27 years of this ministry, Eugene’s sense of wonder never diminished at how God used the missionaries as instruments of mercy.
Father Vincens sent me a letter from Father Burfin who narrates the blessings of God poured out on the mission he has just given with Father Lavigne in the diocese of Grenoble. Our men continue to be the instruments of God’s mercy in these regions. Is there not something to be thankful for in being chosen to do so much good in the Church of God?
Why not write a summary of it? Everyone will be amazed; and it would be a record of which the Congregation could be rightfully proud.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 13 March 1843, EO XXI
Writing to Father Guigues, Eugene continued to enthuse:
Tell me just where our Congregation is not doing good things? Thanks be to God, we are working wonders. The dioceses of Aix, Avignon, Marseilles, Fréjus, Ajaccio, Valence and Grenoble: all are witnesses. Let them show me anywhere in France a Congregation which is present in so many places and is granted so many blessings by the Lord. Let us thank the Lord and ask Him as a reward that He set us to doing even more by sending us a goodly number of candidates fit for the holy work that His Church has confided to us.
Letter to Fr Eugene Guigues, 12 April 1843, EO X n 792
An invitation to us to maintain our sense of wonder at God ‘s ongoing work through people around us.
The Oblate community in Vico, Corsica, had heard about Eugene’s visit to Africa and the frightening storm on his return. They had expressed concern.
You were overly alarmed about the danger in my crossing over from Africa. The windstorms that forced us to lay over at Palma was an impulse of the Holy Spirit, which pushed us into that harbor to reconcile with God five unhappy Christians who otherwise would have died in their sins.
The storm was so fierce that the boat was driven to the islands of Majorca. The passengers disembarked in Palma, and Eugene saw that there was a ship nearby where the passengers were under quarantine. He arranged for two priests to visit the ship and administer the sacraments. Some of the people died a few days later.
Therefore I can have only thoughts of thanksgiving to give to the Saviour, who chose me to be the instrument of his mercies toward those souls who were doubtless predestined to glory.
Letter to Father Semeria in Vico, Corsica, 18 February 1843, EO X n 790
Sometimes, what appears to be a misfortune, turns out to be an instrument that God uses for good.
Letter from Fr.Guigues. Always stubborn in the reflections which he presents in favor of his house at l’Osier. Quite far from agreeing to release from this house the person who would be needed elsewhere, he has the nerve to request two more of them. Uniquely occupied with the prosperity of the establishment at whose head he finds himself, he reprimands Father Aubert for having dared to undertake the formation of two of them in England and in Ireland.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 18 February 1843, EO XXI
Eugene responded to him immediately that for the future good of the new missions that were opening up in Canada, England and Ireland, it was essential for the Oblates in France to make sacrifices. It was essential that the new missions be soldily founded, and then they would grow by themselves when local candidates joined the Oblates.
I realize that I am not fortunate enough to have you share my views. No matter what I say, you continue to consider matters only from the point of view of your current surroundings.
According to you, everything must give way to the local interest which you feel called upon to defend…
Thus, while recognizing that it would be advantageous to be able to furnish all our houses with an abundant staff, I believe that, rather than lose the present opportunity that opens for our Congregation the doors to three large kingdoms, it is better to leave them shorthanded for a spell, convinced as I am that there is not a single member of our Society who would not wish to somehow multiply himself to bring such a gain to our Society and to enlarge the sphere of the immense good it is called to accomplish. This is a short-term effort for which we will be quite compensated when very soon these far-distant countries will be able to take care of their own needs.
I therefore do not want you to blame Father Aubert who is fulfilling his task with intelligence and dedication. There are always painful moments in the stages of a Congregation’s life as there are in the usual course of any life. What is essential is to have confidence in the Lord and to ask him for his light in favour of the one who must govern, without ever putting shackles on those solutions which he must take for the general good, even though something is taken away from the good of such and such a locality.
Letter to Father Eugene Guigues (at Notre Dame de L’Osier in France), 18 February 1843, EO X n 789
A new experience for the Founder, who until now had personally known every Oblate: the lifetime commitment of a new Oblate whom he had never met! He writes in his diary:
Letter from Father Dandurand from Longueuil. This Father writes to tell me that he is beginning a retreat in order to make his oblation on Christmas day. His letter is full of pious sentiments. He will be the first fruits of Canada. We are able to give thanks to the Lord, because he is a very good individual.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 22 January 1843, EO XXI
Eugene now wrote directly to the first Canadian Oblate:
I could not receive, my dear Father Dandurand, a more agreeable gift for the holy season of Christmas than the letter you wrote on the occasion of your approaching oblation. When it was delivered to me, your consecration to God had already taken place and you were decidedly one of us, that is, you had become member of a body which has Mary for Mother and which, under her patronage, wherever her members are to be found, wages the battles of the Lord to destroy the empire of the demon and spread with all its might the Kingdom of Jesus Christ…
You are the first fruits of this fine country of Canada to which the Master of the Vineyard has sent the workers of our family. For this reason I owe to you my dearest affection and you can count on it.
I hope your example will soon be followed by men of goodwill and devotion like yourself. Already Father Leonard and Father Durocher follow in your footsteps. The good God will grant that we shall see others imitate these fine priests of whom much good has already been reported to me.
Take care to preserve, all of you, the family spirit which animates us. I love you already as my children. Consider me as your father. A day will perhaps come when it will be granted to me to see and embrace you as I actually do in spirit. I give you my blessing and recommend myself to your prayers.
Letter to Father Damase Dandurand, 22 January 1843, EO I n 15 b
Sentiments which surely Saint Eugene continues to express today every time there is a new member of the Mazenodian Family
The community in Canada had been on a bumpy ride with several strong personalities interacting – not always smoothly. By now they had come to a more united lifestyle and Eugene recognized this.
At this moment your house at Longueuil is certainly one of our most regular houses and well you know that it is indeed by the Providence of God that you recognize that it would be too ungrateful on your part, after receiving so many graces, if you were not to become ardent for the glory of God and your improvement. I am in perfect agreement with you and it is not as of today that I think so. How could you dream of accomplishing a mission like yours if you did not exert every effort to attain the perfection of your vocation? I thought I had made this plain enough to you when I sent you: “carry each other’s burdens” [ed Galatians 6:2]. Need I say to you: “and so you will fulfil the law of Christ”?
How is that the difference of temperaments is not effaced by the resolution to have but one will for good, to consider only God whether in the Rules you should observe, whether in the men with whom you are but one body and soul. The least clash in this supernatural order brings on grave inconvenience, disorders and consequently many sins.
But you want us to be no longer concerned with the past. I agree to this provided that in future you are such as you say you have become by the grace of God. But to this end, always be very deferential and respectful to each other… Be convinced that no one here below possesses every good quality, be satisfied with those you have received as your share, try to acquire more but do not demand that your brother possess numerically more than yourself. It is possible that he lacks some quality or some virtue that you think you have, but be quite sure that he has some on his side that are lacking in you. Put everything then in common for the advantage of all. You are all members of one body. Let each make good his own talent, then it will be the body that lacks nothing.
Letter to the first group of Canadian Missionaries, 17 January 1843, EO I n 15a
Continuing to read Eugene’s letter to Father Honorat, we see his good advice on learning from the experience of others.
Never complain about a person to someone else. When you have observations to make, make them to the person himself without fuss and cordially… You know that a true friend can be compared to a faithful mirror in which one can see oneself as one is; if it reflects some imperfection, were it only a loose strand of hair, one is not annoyed with the mirror; on the contrary, one is thankful and relieved at having perceived it. Alius sic alius vero sic. [ ed. 1 Corinthians 7:7 “each has a particular gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.”]
You have something lacking to others, you lack something that others have. Be pleased with your share; you are well enough endowed.
Bring to fruition only what the good God has given you, removing any remains of the rough exterior which at times repels and deters people from taking profit from it.
This is advice in plenty. It pleases me to think that you will profit from it and that you know your duty. For the rest, I can tell you that I am perfectly satisfied with your letter and the sentiments you express therein.
Letter to Father Jean Baptiste Honorat (in Canada), 10 January 1843, EO I n 14
Father Honorat, superior of the first group of missionaries to Canada, was inclined to make decisions without consultation. Here Eugene gives him advice which is applicable to all of us in every walk of life.
This is not all. I want to know the opinions of the other members of the community which you ought to consider as your Council duty-bound and with whom, if they fail to adopt your ideas, you must not be annoyed …In the name of Heaven, amend yourself and cease taking upon yourself alone a responsibility which necessarily has to be shared by others…
It is thus, by giving others marks of confidence, by showing them deference, by knowing how to modify one’s own ideas and to adopt those of others that one gains their sympathy, their help and their affection. I say this, not to upset you but uniquely for your own good. Who will tell you the truth if I do not?
…Do you wish to avoid opposition in the future? Keep to the Rule. Hold your meetings regularly and transact matters at them consultatively without ever wishing to gain your objective by authority. You shall see what strength you will gain from this way of proceeding.
Letter to Father Jean Baptiste Honorat (in Canada), 10 January 1843, EO I n 14
Eugene de Mazenod was a man of immediate action, and it frustrated him that communications with Canada took so long as the only means of doing so was by letters which travelled by slow sailing ships. As Superior General his letters to the superiors dealt with many necessary matters.
Father Honorat had always had a craze for building and for altering existing buildings in France. Now he was starting to do the same in Canada, and Eugene was alarmed.
Would you like me, my dear friend, to speak frankly to you? I find it somewhat alarming that notwithstanding my recommendations you have not put a stop to the mania that you have always had to make and remake, to demolish and reconstruct. You must have let yourself go to excess in this respect to have created in Canada the same reputation that you had here, causing yourself to be ridiculed by priests in that country and obliging the Bishop himself to intervene. It was wrong of you to squander money belonging to the diocese at St. Hilaire and I expressly forbid you to squander ours at Longeuil where I am told you have already formed a thousand plans each more expensive than the others. I cannot in conscience give you carte blanche.
The obligation to consult your confreres does not suffice. I reserve to myself most explicitly the approbation of any plan whatsoever. Such is the practice in any well-ordered Society. Do you know that bishop though I am, I cannot alter a partition in my house without sending the plan to the Ministry? That is what I intend should be done in our houses everywhere. What you must first do is send me the plans of your property… Until I reply, touch nothing. You have rooms to sleep in, a refectory for meals, an oratory in which to pray, that is enough to begin with.
Letter to Father Jean Baptiste Honorat (in Canada), 10 January 1843, EO I n 14
