Committed to preaching the Gospel to the most abandoned and to be ministers of God\u2019s compassion in the sacrament of reconciliation, Eugene continued to explain the ministry of the Missionaries in his Rule of Life:<\/p>\n
\nArticle 3 The direction of youth<\/strong><\/h5>\n
The direction of youth will be considered an essential duty of our Institute.<\/strong><\/h5>\n
The Superior General will appoint one or more of the Missionaries to this occupation, which he himself will participate in diligently, insofar as his other responsibilities permit.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Five years\u2019 earlier, Eugene\u2019s spiritual director had instilled into him that this was \u201cthe work of works: give it all your efforts, deploy all your zeal to form them well\u201d (REY, Histoire I, p. 151) and it is clear that Eugene had learnt this lesson well when he wrote:<\/p>\n
\nThey will account to him for the state of the Youth Congregation, which must be established in all our houses with the same care and the same attention as the novitiate itself.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
1818 Rule Part 1, Chapter 3, \u00a73. Direction of youth<\/em><\/p>\n
Each Missionary had \u201cthe duty of knowing the names of each congregant. \u201c Remembering that at the time of writing there were nearly 300 members in Aix, this was no mean task!<\/p>\n
He also stressed the closeness of the Missionaries to the youth by insisting that they also have \u201cfrequent contact with their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
The youth ministry was clearly not something to be added on to the existing other ministries if and when the Missionaries had time. It was an essential aspect of the mission of each house.<\/p>\n
[The Youth Congregation has been dealt with in great detail in entries above. You can find them all on the website, more specifically in the entries from 12 July (https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=121<\/a>) to 3 August 2010 and from 28 September 2011 (https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=1009<\/a>) to 17 January 2012]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Committed to preaching the Gospel to the most abandoned and to be ministers of God\u2019s compassion in the sacrament of reconciliation, Eugene continued to explain the ministry of the Missionaries in his Rule of Life: Article 3 The direction of … Continue reading