I often speak of Eugene\u2019s ministry as being one of leading others to his same experience of the Savior. Here we have yet another example. He shares with Henri Tempier, the spiritual strength and consolation that his relationship with the Savior gives him.<\/p>\n
\nBefore speaking to you about business, I will encourage you in your trials and all the perplexities into which you are plunged by present events and by all those with whom you have dealings. It is precisely in such circumstances that one ought to make one’s soul fly as high as it can go, sustaining its constancy and energy, multiplying all the resources of our intellectual faculties so as never to allow ourselves to be cast down by adversity, or overcome by the obstacles and difficulties.<\/strong><\/h5>\n
I know that our ministry of peace often presents painful difficulties because it is attached to all the duties of conscience, but God will communicate to us the light of his spirit if we invoke him with confidence.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
From all the difficulties that Eugene had suffered in the past, and from his present sufferings, he is able to encourage Henri Tempier by pointing him to his same source of strength:<\/p>\n
\nAfter all, tribulations are envisaged by Providence as a means of sanctification for the elect. Far from giving in to the tiresomeness of life mingled with the bitterness of adversity, it is then that one must resolve to live in greater conformity with our divine model and serve his Church with the most perfect absence of self-interest.<\/strong><\/h5>\n
A day spent in this disposition gains more merit for us in heaven than years in happiness and prosperity.<\/strong><\/h5>\n
I simply communicate to you the thoughts that are most familiar to me in the sorry position in which I find myself. They are true, let us not be convinced otherwise.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Letter to Henri Tempier, 2 September 1830, EO VII n 362<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.\u201d\u00a0 2 Corinthians 1:3-4<\/p>\n
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I often speak of Eugene\u2019s ministry as being one of leading others to his same experience of the Savior. Here we have yet another example. He shares with Henri Tempier, the spiritual strength and consolation that his relationship with the … Continue reading