Eugene’s major use of time and energy from 1813 to 1816 was in the youth congregation. In the diary he frequently recorded the events. Some of them give us a good insight into the joys and difficulties of this youth ministry.
This day the 26th all the congregants who had made their first communion, and who had not taken part in the beautiful ceremony of February 2 last year, renewed their baptismal promises and made their act of consecration to the Blessed Virgin between the hands of the Director.
Everything was done in conformity with the regulations, with solemnity, and especially with such piety that many shed tears of happiness. God has tangibly poured his grace into the well-disposed hearts of most of the congregants, who were beside themselves with joy and bore witness to it in the most expressive way and in most touching terms when they came out of the chapel.
This day was doubly precious for a number of them who had the happiness to receive in the morning the sacrament of confirmation, after being prepared for it by a series of daily instructions, and by a day of retreat that they spent entirely in the garden of the Director.
Diary of the Aix Christian Youth Congregation, 26 June 1814, O.W. XVI
The Youth Congregation was dedicated to Mary Immaculate and all who became full members made an act of consecration to Mary Immaculate.