Having decided to change the name of our Congregation, Eugene now asked the Pope to give us this name officially. When this request was eventually granted, Eugene was able to proclaim everywhere that it was “the name that the Pope has given us.”
At the same time, we ask Your Holiness that, in the Brief of Approval which the Missionaries request, you give them the name of Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary instead of Oblates of Saint Charles: this to avoid any confusion of names with other Congregations;
“As Father Fernand Jetté stated, the title of a religious family usually expresses its nature, essence and function. It really seems that the choice of the title Missionary Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary must have been the culmination of a new and deeper insight into the mission of the Congregation on the part of Father de Mazenod. He discovered Mary as the person who was the most committed to the service of Christ, the poor and the Church and saw her as the most comprehensive model of apostolic life as required by his Congregation.” Casimir Lubowicki, “Mary” in the Dictionary of Oblate Values, http://www.omiworld.org/dictionary.asp?v=9&ID=1056&let=M&pag=4
and further, if you are agreeable and if you approve, to make it clear that Father de Mazenod, who was thereto named by unanimous vote of his co-workers, be and remain the superior of the Society of the Missionary (from now on called, if it pleases Your Holiness) Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary.
The most humble, faithful and devoted son of Your Holiness,
Father de Mazenod, Vicar General of Marseilles
Petition for approbation to Pope Leo XII, 8 December 1825, EO XIII n.48
As was the custom at that time, the Superior General was elected for life, and Eugene was merely asking the Pope to ratify what had been decided by the Missionaries in 1816 and 1818.
“His mother said to the servants: ‘Do whatever he tells you’.” John 2:5
This has opened a whole new avenue of thought, reflection and even reading this morning. Whether intended or not it has become an invitation to look at my devotion to Our Lady, at my relationship with Our Lady. Do I have a relationship with Our Lady and if so what does it look like? How do I see her?
Many years ago at a time when I was struggling with myself and with the Church I took a ‘holiday from church’. During my time away (from the church not God, but not attending liturgies) I found that I desperately missed two things; the sacraments and the community. If on occasion I would attend a funeral or something else very special there was one particular person who would come up and ask me how I was and remind me that I was missed. She had a gentleness about her that was so totally non-threatening, and as I look back I am also reminded her name was Mary. Eventually I returned. I chose to return by attending the children’s Christmas Eve celebration and I chose to do it with Mary, Our Lady. Sitting in the very last row, the furthest away from Our Lady’s altar that one could be I asked Our Lady to hold my hand so-to-speak, she had been through it all and knew her son, she also knew how much I loved him and the struggles that arose out of that. I knew that it was only as a child somehow that I could come back and that was only with her guidance and help that I would be able to make it. She was my mother, my Maman but this was something different. And she was a woman in a man’s world and knew what it would be necessary to let go of in order to be okay in that/this world. We became better acquainted she and I, and it was at that time that I began to pray the Hail Mary as a mantra, breathing in and out so that eventually it would be a prayer ever on my lips without my having to consciously say it, as I breathed I prayed the words.
A year ago I was blessed to have a small experience with Mary as I prayed before the Oblate Madonna in Rome. I say the rosary daily (with the odd exception) and most days my heart sings the Magnificat. But I do not spend a lot of time ‘thinking’ about her on a daily basis and my prayer to her is not deliberate, but rather one born of habit and can be sometimes rote, without much thought.
This morning has invited me to look more closely at Mary, Our Lady, Our Mother, at the one who took my hand one Christmas Eve and so promised to bring me home to her son. I need to not stop looking, and perhaps a good start will be to read the whole article by Lubowicki and then spend time later in the day reflecting on that.
It is only as I close I am struck by a thought. When I first read Franks reflection I wondered about the quote from John’s gospel. As I leave here it is with thoughts of Mary’s oblation which began with the Annunciation but was lived out at the wedding at Cana; ‘do whatever he tells you’, give your all.
In reading the referenced document written by Casimir Lubowicki, I was struck by the following…
“The title of the Congregation was thus born from a discovery that, in order to respond in an authentic way to the urgent needs of the Church, its members should identify with Mary Immaculate “to offer themselves” to the service of God’s plan of salvation like she did.”
…and…
“Consequently, we have here a mystical and real identification through which each Oblate becomes Mary herself, living and serving in today’s Church.”
An uh-huh moment for me. If you strip away all the other teaching, readings and history about the Oblates, this is the essence of what it means to be an Oblate. I am touched beyond expression. It is indeed mystical thing. This explains what I have seen in the eyes of each Oblate I have met and indeed in the eyes of each Associate that I have met.
Thanks be to Mary Immaculate for showing me how to be with God, how to be with Jesus and just plain how to be.
good ah-ha and well put.