{"id":2962,"date":"2016-01-05T05:00:28","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T03:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=2962"},"modified":"2016-01-04T01:17:36","modified_gmt":"2016-01-03T23:17:36","slug":"our-bicentenary-a-patchwork-of-events-and-impressions-in-preparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=2962","title":{"rendered":"OUR BICENTENARY: A PATCHWORK OF EVENTS AND IMPRESSIONS IN PREPARATION"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\u201cJust as the child is father to the man, so the impressions of one’s youth remain the most vivid in manhood\u201d (Gustav Stresemann). As I reflect on how God prepared Eugene to bring a missionary group into existence, I recognize a patchwork of events and impressions in his life that remained vivid and gave a specific color and quality to the Mazenodian Family that was born on 25 January 1816.<\/p>\n

\"EM<\/a>Eugene was born into a noble family and did not lack anything: loving parents, a large house filled with servants, a good primary school, and all the material possessions he needed. The French Revolution took all that away and he experienced exile away from his country of birth, moments of insecurity and fear and even poverty when they had to rely on the charity of others. These impressions were later to make him aware of and sensitive to others who were suffering as immigrants, or in poverty or in fear \u2013 the very people he founded the Oblates to serve.<\/p>\n

\"EMEugene\u2019s father was a judge who wrote and spoke well. From him, Eugene inherited
\nthe ability to be an outstanding and persuasive preacher. He learnt to treat everyone with justice and to relate easily with all classes of society. He learnt to understand and respect the law, and was able to use these skills to draw up several Rules of Life for the youth congregation and for the Missionaries.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

His mother came from a very wealthy middle class family. From her he learnt business and financial skills that would serve the organization of the Oblates and the Diocese of Marseille with efficiency \u2013 not to forget the considerable financial aid that she gave to the mission of the Oblates in providing the money necessary for various projects.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He had had good teachers and mentors \u2013 especially Don Bartolo Zinelli in Venice. From them he learnt the importance of spiritual guidance in human and faith development. As a priest, missionary and bishop, he spent his life ministering as a guide to people who were in need \u2013 and founded a missionary group to dedicate itself to evangelization and faith development among the most abandoned.<\/p>\n

His warm, sensitive heart led him to a sensitivity to the needs of others and a search for the most loving response possible. He had a passionate, fiery character and was a born leader. When he did explode in anger, he would go out of his way to make amends when he realized that he had hurt others. (https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=27<\/a> \u2013 begins some revealing reflections which he wrote on his personality)<\/p>\n

God used all these characteristics, weak and strong, to mold his instrument into a missionary priest and religious and founder of the Oblates. God was preparing this \u201cjar of clay\u201d to receive a treasure:<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.\u201d \u00a0\u00a02 Corinthians 4:7<\/p>\n

As we journey with Eugene towards January 25, let\u2019s pause to reflect on how God has molded us into jars of clay containing a treasure. When we have done this at a personal level, let\u2019s think of how the large Mazenodian Family has been a huge container for the Savior\u2019s love and mercy for 200 years.<\/p>\n

The child is indeed the \u201cfather of the man\u201d \u2013 all that God has done in our lives, in good times and in bad, has molded us to bear fruit \u2013 to be fruitful and bring the love of the Savior to birth in situations of abandonment.<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cJust as the child is father to the man, so the impressions of one’s youth remain the most vivid in manhood\u201d (Gustav Stresemann). As I reflect on how God prepared Eugene to bring a missionary group into existence, I recognize … 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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962","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=2962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}