{"id":3056,"date":"2016-03-07T05:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T03:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=3056"},"modified":"2016-03-07T01:13:13","modified_gmt":"2016-03-06T23:13:13","slug":"our-founding-vision-the-exclusive-possession-of-the-missionary-oblates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=3056","title":{"rendered":"OUR FOUNDING VISION: THE EXCLUSIVE POSSESSION OF THE MISSIONARY OBLATES?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"associates_characteristics\"<\/a>

How OMI Lacombe province presents the characteristics of an Associate\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

I am writing this from Vancouver, where I have just completed a retreat weekend with 35 members of our Mazenodian Family in British Columbia: representatives of two lay associate communities who meet monthly, 5 Oblate missionaries, and dedicated people from four Oblate-connected parishes.<\/p>\n

These groups exist as a direct fruit of the first Oblate evangelization of this area 167 years ago, and of our foundation 200 years ago.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Constantly ringing through my mind are the words of Eugene:<\/p>\n

\n
Charity for our neighbor is an essential part of our spirit. We practice it first amongst us by loving each other as brothers, by considering our Society only as the most united family which exists on the earth, by rejoicing over the virtues, the talents and other qualities that our brothers possess just as much as if we possessed them ourselves.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Letter to Hippolyte Guibert, 29 July 1830, EO VII n 350<\/em><\/p>\n

When he wrote these words we were only a Society of around 30 Oblates. Today, that we are all over the world, we can easily replace Eugene\u2019s word \u201cSociety\u201d with \u201cMazenodian Family\u201d \u2013 which he desires to be \u201cthe most united family which exists on the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

I am constantly humbled and overjoyed when I encounter people, from all walks of life, who know and love St Eugene, and are nourished by his charism and spirituality \u2013 and live it in their personal lives and share it with others in their communities and in their service to the most abandoned. It is easy to recognize in them the same zeal and enthusiasm of the first community of founding visionaries in Aix 200 years ago.<\/p>\n

It is a wake-up call to those of us who were the original bearers of the charism, and who are seemingly dying out in this part of the world: St Eugene\u2019s charism is not \u201cowned\u201d by the Oblates. It is a charism belonging to the universal Church and is the gift and the patrimony of every member of the large Mazenodian family, in all its many forms and expressions.<\/p>\n

The more convinced we are that each of us forms part of a large ecclesial missionary family, the more effectively will we be Eugene\u2019s \u201cmost united family which exists on the earth\u201d in the radiance of our lives and example and in the quality of our dedication to the evangelization and service of the most abandoned.<\/p>\n

That is what various groups of people experienced 200 years ago when they came in contact with the life of the first community in Aix. Can the same be said of all our communities around the world today?<\/p>\n

\"FOUNDING<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am writing this from Vancouver, where I have just completed a retreat weekend with 35 members of our Mazenodian Family in British Columbia: representatives of two lay associate communities who meet monthly, 5 Oblate missionaries, and dedicated people from … 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-3056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056","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=3056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}