{"id":54,"date":"2010-06-04T19:31:44","date_gmt":"2010-06-04T17:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=54"},"modified":"2012-03-04T12:17:27","modified_gmt":"2012-03-04T10:17:27","slug":"a-sensual-priest-is-in-my-eyes-a-deformed-monstrosity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=54","title":{"rendered":"A SENSUAL PRIEST IS IN MY EYES A DEFORMED MONSTROSITY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Starting off with some observations on how the future\u201d Father de Mazenod will dress,\u201d Eugene touches on two themes that will be important for him in the future. The first is his criticism of priests who do not live by the standards of their calling \u2013 to which he gives fuller expression in the Nota Bene of 1818. The second is his conviction of the need for a small apostolic group to respond to the needs of the suffering Church. Both ideas are foundational in the Rule that he gave to the Oblates.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Please don\u2019t forget to have sent on the Hebrew books I asked you for in one of my letters; I need them more than I need shirts. My underclothes are in fairly good condition. This doesn\u2019t surprise me so much as my soutane, for although I only have the one for winter and the one for summer, they still don\u2019t have any holes in them, although they are a little threadbare. It is true I chose a good, really heavy cloth. Thanks be to God, I don\u2019t think I can be accused of luxury or being over-particular about myself, and I hope no one will ever be able to find fault with me on that account, as I am firmly resolved never to change. An ordinary soutane, woollen cincture, hair uncurled, this is and always will be the way Father de Mazenod will dress.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> I really don\u2019t know what people think they are achieving when they are forever adorning and pampering this wretched carcass that is destined to be food for the worms and is never less manageable than when it is treated gently. But what is pitiable in the case of people in general is shocking in a minister of the Cross. A sensual priest is in my eyes a deformed monstrosity, to be pointed out in the street, but it is all too true that you would often need more than ten fingers to do it.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> So let\u2019s pray to the Lord to grant his Church, not so much a larger number of priests, as a small but well chosen number. Twelve Apostles were enough to convert the world &#8230;<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Letter to Madame de Mazenod, 6 January 1810, O.W. XIV n. 66<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting off with some observations on how the future\u201d Father de Mazenod will dress,\u201d Eugene touches on two themes that will be important for him in the future. The first is his criticism of priests who do not live by &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=54\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters","tag-priesthood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","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=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}