The 31 year-old Henri Tempier, who had lived 3 years of intense community life in Aix, now found himself at ND du Laus with one Oblate student and one postulant. Zealous missionary that he was and obedient religious, he still suffered on the human level and asked to return to Aix. This letter that he wrote to Eugene gives us glimpses of his loneliness<\/p>\n
\nMy dearly beloved Father,<\/h5>\n
Your letters give me life, your words are a balm which soothes my heart; it seems to me that when I have the happiness to receive one of them and to read it, that I am close to you, that I hear you. Oh! that the illusion could become a reality!<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He suffers because Eugene is experiencing difficulties with some of the diocesan priests in Aix, and he would like to be there to support him.<\/p>\n
\nI would then be able to go to Aix immediately to soften a little the troubles that you speak about in detail. I sense how your heart is put to all kinds of tests.<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Then he feels guilty because he has added extra burdens to Eugene by complaining about his own situation in Laus:<\/p>\n
\nBut how could I have increased those difficulties by writing you things that have possibly grieved you? I don’t know: it must be that I have a hard heart. Oh! I insist that such is not the case, and that I would never want to grieve someone who is so good, so kind to me.<\/h5>\n
So, attribute my relating of our miseries to an excessive sorrow I feel from being separated from you and see in that my lack of virtue whereby I lose the merit of all I do. I don’t think I have said anything which might be contrary to the spirit of submission. If i have asked a little too strongly to be relieved of my duties, it is always according to your will, for I insist that I want only what you desire. I wanted to tell you all these things because, even though you already know them, I still love to write to you.<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Letter from Henri Tempier to Eugene de Mazenod, 20 July 1819,<\/em>
\nOblate Writings II.2, n. 16<\/p>\nEugene found it impossible to replace Henri Tempier without compromising the quality of the missionary work in Laus and its religious spirit of unity with Aix. He was to remain there for over four years, and from time to time he asked to return to Aix. The reply was always the same, as we see in this letter of 1822 in which Eugene was replying to the same request:<\/p>\n
\nWhat I wished in beginning this letter was to tell you, my dear friend, how touched I was by the sentiments you expressed to me in such an edifying manner in your last letter. I recognized from the first page the true religious, the honest man, the good heart, my dear Tempier through and through. I thank the good God unceasingly for having brought us together and I pray him to fill you more and more with his spirit for our greater common good.<\/strong><\/h5>\n
You ought to feel yourself that I cannot possibly yield to your wishes…<\/strong><\/h5>\n
All these things together make you realize well enough that it is not possible, for the moment, that I recall you definitively to my side…<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Letter to Henri Tempier, 22 August 1822, O.W. VI n.86<\/em><\/p>\n
Our present Rule of Life touches on this:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will find our support in friendship and in fraternal life, in apostolic commitment to all, in self-denial and in prayer\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
CC&RR Constitution 18<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Friendship needs no words – it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.”\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Dag Hammarskjold<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 31 year-old Henri Tempier, who had lived 3 years of intense community life in Aix, now found himself at ND du Laus with one Oblate student and one postulant. Zealous missionary that he was and obedient religious, he still … Continue reading