Jacques Joseph Marcou was 14 years old when he attended the very first meeting of Eugene’s Youth Congregation in 1813. From that moment his life had been closely associated with Eugene, who had accompanied him in his spiritual and Christian development. As he grew into adulthood, Marcou had close contact with the Missionaries of Provence and discerned a vocation to become one of them. In December 1821, at the age of 21, he began his novitiate at ND du Laus.
It is with fatherly joy that Eugene wrote to encourage him as he prepared to become one of the Missionaries.
I have never lost sight of you and have silently regarded with satisfaction the direction that the Spirit of God inspired you to take;
Eugene had stood back so as to have given freedom to the vocational discernment of this young man
nevertheless, whatever consolation I might have permitted myself to feel in directing your first steps towards the sanctuary, just as I had directed you as a youth in the paths of virtue, I purposely wished to stand aside
so as not to risk being an obstacle to divine inspirations in the choice you had to make
by revealing to you my desires which might have influenced in perhaps too human a manner the decision that you ought to take.
Letter to Jacques Marcou, November-December 1821, EO VI n 78
“We have… unbroken fellowship with Him. A father never sends his child away with the thought that he does not care about his child knowing that he loves him. The father longs to have his child believe that he has the light of his father’s countenance upon him all the day – that, if he sends the child away to school, or anywhere that necessity compels, it is with a sense of sacrifice of parental feelings. If it be so with an earthly father, what think you of God?” Andrew Murray
One word comes forth this morning – love. I see and experience this in my own life, beginning of course with God (ever constant and the foundation of all), with my family, with some mentors and special friends over the years, with some of the Oblates, and even with myself and how I love and relate to others.
I don’t think that I have every really reflected on this aspect of love in my life before and although it is not overwhelming it is so very entirely awesome, full of wonder and gratitude, and a sense of comfort, as if in the reflection alone there comes a sense of being touched and held.
Just as the love given to me is always (I believe) constant it is not always readily apparent and immediately ‘touchable’. And just the sheer truth and force of that fills me – this gift given so freely connecting us all like a bunch of invisible cords stretching out so that we are never separated. Even as I write this the images of some who I love come immediately to mind and I see the connections between us. How else to explain the joy that comes when we see another whom we love growing and finding their place in this life, their place with God on the path chosen. This morning I have been given the gift of being able to see God in a close friend whom I love greatly. I celebrate her today.
God within, the true instigator of all of life and love, teaching, guiding, waiting, watching. I am so grateful for the life God has given to me and receive such great joy in seeing where God is taking/bringing those I love. To be able to take joy in another’s goodness and being – pure gift.