The life experience of Eugene had led him to come into direct contact with the wounds inflicted on the Church by the French Revolution, and with the void left by the destruction of the ancient religious orders.<\/p>\n
In exile in Venice, he had spent several years with Bartolo Zinelli,\u00a0who longed for the re-establishment of the Jesuits. Returning to Aix as a young priest, in 1812,\u00a0he lived with Brother Maur, whose Trappist monastery had been destroyed and the monks dispersed. In 1815 his buying the old Carmelite convent in Aix, made possible because the sisters had been chased away and their convent desecrated. With each disappearance, the people who made up the Church were impoverished. The particular example and ideals offered by each Order to the Church and world was no longer there \u2013 nor the good humanitarian works that they were known for. Thus Eugene feels that his little group was called to make up for that emptiness in Provence.<\/p>\n
\nI cannot express how much I would wish that our little community would recall to the eyes of the Church the fervour of the religious Orders and regular Congregations that shone brightly with virtue in the first periods of their establishment.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Eugene dreamt that the small community of Missionaries fill this gap through their actions, by being healers to the people of God, and by allowing themselves to grow personally in God\u2019s light and life:<\/p>\n
\nIt seems to me that, although few in number,<\/strong><\/h5>\n
we could do much good,<\/strong><\/h5>\n
console the Church for so many wounds that consume her on all sides,<\/strong><\/h5>\n
and make ourselves holy in a way that is most consoling and happy.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Letter to Henri Tempier, 12 August 1817, O.W. VI n. 20<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The life experience of Eugene had led him to come into direct contact with the wounds inflicted on the Church by the French Revolution, and with the void left by the destruction of the ancient religious orders. In exile in … Continue reading