During the course of 1818 requests continued to come in from the parish priests of the surrounding villages for the Missionaries to conduct a parish mission in their parishes. Here are two replies of Eugene where he had no choice but to refuse.
If only I had an army of good gospel workers at my disposal! You would not then have long to wait to see all those you need gathered around you. Alas! We have such a small number of them. The whole diocese is feeling the need that you are experiencing. We have been using our feeble means to come and help various pastors for three years now and the Lord has been pleased to bless abundantly the people we have evangelized.
But what are 4 or 5 missionaries for such a vast diocese? My heart bleeds when I see myself forced to put off to another time so excellent a work on which the salvation of so many souls depends. I can’t describe it to you, it’s a real torment for me which I suffer at every request I receive… It’s truly heart-wrenching when I have to tell you that it is impossible for us to come to your place this year.
Eugene concludes with a prayer for more vocations to the Missionaries:
While we wait, let’s ask the Lord who knows the needs of his people to provide us with the means of meeting them.
Letter to the Pastor of Salernes, 15 June 1818, O.W. XIII, n.13
He repeated the same sentiments to another pastor’s request:
Alas! How it costs me to refuse you: this year we can scarcely fulfill the promises we made three years ago, and requests have continued to come in since them. Next year, if the Vicars General do not take it on themselves to decide on which parishes should have preference, we will be obliged to cast lots, for there are so many requests and so little means to respond to them. Let’s recommend the matter to God who will perhaps be pleased to send workers to labour in such an abundant harvest that is ripening on all sides.
Letter to the Pastor of Rougiers, 30 October 1818, O.W. XIII, n.18
“Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only.” Samuel Smiles