{"id":5946,"date":"2025-01-10T01:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T00:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=5946"},"modified":"2025-01-09T11:00:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T10:00:02","slug":"the-essential-thing-is-to-send-you-virtuous-and-reliable-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=5946","title":{"rendered":"THE ESSENTIAL THING IS TO SEND YOU VIRTUOUS AND RELIABLE MEN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eugene was careful in the choice of Oblates that he judged capable of being good missionaries in the trying conditions of evangelization in North America, Africa and Asia. Some of the men struggled initially but eventually settled down as good evangelizers.<\/h3>\n

The second batch of Oblates to be sent to Ceylon consisted of four priests. In choosing Fr. Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Mouchel, the choice was made to provide Fr. Semeria, the superior on Ceylon, with a mature companion who would be his adviser. Mouchel was 47 years old and had been a priest for 18.<\/h3>\n

The essential thing is to send you virtuous and reliable men. They will perfect their English as all our foreign missionaries who have been sent to Canada have had to do, and even Bishop Bettachini himself. Fr. Mouchel has been working hard at this language for some time. One could say that he knows it, and that practice will help him to speak it even better. Moreover, you know his value and his virtues.<\/strong> <\/em><\/h3>\n

Letter to Fr \u00c9tienne Semeria, 20 January 1849, OW IV, n. 9<\/em><\/h3>\n

And<\/h3>\n

Our Fr. Mouchel shows constancy when he undertakes anything, and he is also such a good priest, such a good religious, he has such a good character, that he will be a real treasure for you. He will share your difficulties with you, and we are agreed that he will not discourage you. He knows English passably well and is quite ready to learn the other languages that are necessary for the exercise of your ministry. He is so good that he laughed when he heard of your fear that he might be too old for the difficult work of learning a new language.<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

Letter to Fr \u00c9tienne Semeria, 23 March 1849, OW IV, n. 11<\/em><\/h3>\n

His companions were 24 years old, of whom Eugene wrote: \u201cTheir devotion is worthy of their beautiful vocation. They leave with joy in their hearts, happy to have been chosen.\u201d (Diary 23 March 1849)<\/h3>\n

REFLECTION<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cThat zeal which is kindled and sustained by a heavenly power, which makes us feel that we must speak or the very stones would cry out against us \u2014 this zeal, I say, is of an effectual kind, and the more of it the better.\u201d (Charles Spurgeon)<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eugene was careful in the choice of Oblates that he judged capable of being good missionaries in the trying conditions of evangelization in North America, Africa and Asia. Some of the men struggled initially but eventually settled down as good … 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,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5946","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=5946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}