{"id":4830,"date":"2021-07-28T02:00:17","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T00:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=4830"},"modified":"2021-07-25T03:38:29","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T01:38:29","slug":"how-consoling-for-the-heart-of-a-bishop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=4830","title":{"rendered":"HOW CONSOLING FOR THE HEART OF A BISHOP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bishop de Mazenod suffered when he saw people in Marseilles whose lives were far from good living. Once, for example, passing a group of people who were living lives of dissipation led him to express his pain at their situation in his diary:<\/h3>\n
\n

The inability to reach such a great number of souls like them, the pain of seeing them losing themselves without being able to do anything to turn them away from vice and help them save themselves, causes me great pain and sorrow.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Eugene de Mazenod\u2019s Diary, 22 April 1839, EO XX<\/em><\/h3>\n

How could he be close to this portion of his flock?<\/h3>\n

The inability to reach such a great number of souls by conventional means led him to invite the cooperation of many in the diocese to form various groups to reach out to all areas of society and their needs beyond the parish structures. The list is an extraordinary testimony of the closeness of the Pastor to all the flock, especially the most abandoned who were far away from the Church. Through charitable societies and works, not linked to the local parish structures he held out a helping hand. He established and supported a network of people through whom he could express his pastoral closeness to those in need.<\/h3>\n

Blessing the new house of the Sisters occasioned this grateful reflection:<\/h3>\n
\n

How consoling for the heart of a bishop to see rising up around him, in the midst of this immense populace where so many vices abound, where so many Christians live in a perpetual state of apostasy, communities more or less numerous, but entirely animated by the best spirit which produces, so to speak, the counterbalance to the mass of iniquities which unceasingly call forth the anger of God, in order to appease it by the sanctity of their life. It\u2019s a veritable compensation to offer to the Lord. Here are the just who would have saved Sodom, if it were present, from the devouring flames which reduced this guilty city to ashes.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Eugene de Mazenod\u2019s Diary, 27 December 1842, EO XXI<\/em><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bishop de Mazenod suffered when he saw people in Marseilles whose lives were far from good living. Once, for example, passing a group of people who were living lives of dissipation led him to express his pain at their situation … 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-4830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830","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=4830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}