{"id":2845,"date":"2015-08-26T05:00:25","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T03:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=2845"},"modified":"2015-08-24T03:07:11","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T01:07:11","slug":"from-routine-to-a-way-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=2845","title":{"rendered":"FROM ROUTINE TO A WAY OF LIFE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout his life, Eugene\u2019s retreat notes and diaries are filled with programs and timetables for a disciplined spiritual routine. He produced spiritual programs for himself as a priest, missionary and bishop. He produced programs for the youth congregation and for the Missionary Oblates. It was a habit of spiritual routine that he acquired from Don Bartolo Zinelli in Venice.<\/p>\n

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It was in the school of this holy priest that I learnt to despise worldly vanities, to taste the things of God: far removed from all dissipation, from every contact with young people of my age, I did not even give a thought to what constitutes the object of their desires. I went to confession every Saturday, to communion every Sunday. The reading of good books and prayer were the only distractions I allowed from the careful pursuit of my studies. I heard and served Mass every day, and every day too I recited the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.<\/strong><\/h5>\n
I had derived from my pious reading a certain attraction for mortification, and child as I still was, I made it a rule to fast every Friday, and in Lent on three days in the week; my parents did not notice. I often placed planks under my blankets, and on Saturdays, so as to be more sure of waking early so as to spend more time in church, I slept quite simply on the ground on a simple blanket. My health came to no harm at all from it, and I persevered with this regime for as long as I lived in Venice.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Looking back on this period of his life, he recognized the beginning of his vocation to the priesthood and religious life.<\/p>\n

\n
If I have related these facts, it is only to highlight the graces I was blessed with from my earliest childhood, and how deeply I must humble myself for not having derived greater benefit from them. It is from then that I date my vocation to the clerical state, and perhaps to a more perfect state, and certainly if we had stayed only one year more in Venice, I would have followed my saintly director and his brother, now a priest, into the religious Congregation they chose, and in which they both died in the exercise of an heroic zeal.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Diary of the Exile in Italy, EO XVI<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a desire that vanished when he left Venice, and that the sight of the Cross one Good Friday, nearly a decade later, would re-awaken in him. Similarly, the routine taught to him by Don Bartolo, would be at the basis of his spiritual timetable in later life. \u201cRegularity\u201d is a word we constantly come across in Eugene\u2019s Oblate writings.<\/p>\n

\"200\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cRoutines are normal, natural, healthy things. Most of us take a shower and brush our teeth every day. That is a good routine. Spiritual disciplines are routines. That is a good thing. But once routines become routine you need to change your routine.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Mark Batterson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout his life, Eugene\u2019s retreat notes and diaries are filled with programs and timetables for a disciplined spiritual routine. He produced spiritual programs for himself as a priest, missionary and bishop. He produced programs for the youth congregation and for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[141],"class_list":["post-2845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-spirituality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}