Having taken a long digression to explore what was behind Eugene\u2019s choice of the name of Oblate s of Mary Immaculate, it is time to return to the narration of the events as they unfolded in Rome. Eugene had left Marseille on October 26 and arrived in Rome on November 26. On December 9 he wrote to Tempier, expressing his longing to be back with his Oblate family in France:<\/p>\n
\nWere I to listen to my feelings, I now have had my fill of Rome; I cannot accustom myself to live in separation from those I love, I have no pleasure away from them. Oh! how happy we will be in heaven when we are all there together! Then there will be no more journeys, no more separation and although absorbed in God we will love our friends more than ever.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Eugene then touches on a point that was essential for his life and welfare \u2013 the need to express affection. His personality was such that he need to be surrounded by affection. He needed people around him that he could love, and he needed to experience the warmth of their friendship in his regard. Often when he expresses this sentiment of his affectivity he points to the affectivity of Jesus, which some ascetics and mystics tried to ignore. For him, Jesus was the model for our affective life.<\/p>\n
\nHis intuitive vision of God did not prevent Jesus Christ from loving people, and amongst them, some more than others. That is how it is, however it pleases refined mystics to wish to give us, for the sake of perfection, another nature which assuredly would not be worth that which we have from God. So much so that there is no happiness for me, separated from those who are mine!<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He was lonely and also frustrated with the slow pace of the Roman church officials \u2013 hence his longing to be back in the loving environment of his religious family.<\/p>\n
\nJudge from that how saddened I must be at seeing how matters proceed here. It is a world in which there are nine months of vacation in the year. Business in consequence is done very slowly.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Letter to Henri Tempier, 9 December 1825, EO VI n 211<\/em><\/p>\n
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\u201cWords were never invented to fully explain the peaceful aura that surrounds us when we are in communion with minds of the same thoughts.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Eddie Myers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Having taken a long digression to explore what was behind Eugene\u2019s choice of the name of Oblate s of Mary Immaculate, it is time to return to the narration of the events as they unfolded in Rome. Eugene had left … Continue reading