WE AIM TO FORM GOOD MEMBERS OF OUR CONGREGATION WHO ABSORB ITS SPIRIT AND ADHERE TO IT

Posted on March 3, 2022 by franksantucci

Eugene was always conscious that the Missionary Oblates were not his creation, but a gift of the Holy Spirit. For this reason he insisted on the importance of understanding and living by its spirit.

Father Temper was due to go for an official visit to the community where the novitiate was situated.

At L’Osier, you will have to recommend that more seriousness be required from the novices. They are all young, inclined therefore to be unrestrained and to childish pranks. I insist that this defect be corrected and I pray that some attention be given to what I recommend. That is in the order of things, there as everywhere else in the Congregation.

Another area which you will have to remedy is that we be not content merely to form good clerics, good religious if you will; but that we aim to form good members of our Congregation who absorb its spirit and adhere to it.

 If my information is correct, nothing is being done to obtain this result; and we must return to this again and again to form that kind of second nature which will produce such good results.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 14 August 1844, EO X n 851

He was concerned that not sufficient time and effort was being spent on this task of self-understanding of our identity. Today we use the Biblical expression “charism” to talk about this spirit. As members of the Mazenodian Family we are urged to absorb the spirit of our charism and to let it be our daily guide.

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1 Response to WE AIM TO FORM GOOD MEMBERS OF OUR CONGREGATION WHO ABSORB ITS SPIRIT AND ADHERE TO IT

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:
    March 3, 2022 at 12:03

    This morning I dare to sit and reflect on how God has called me to be. I think about this spirit that Eugene de Mazenod speaks and writes of. I notice that I use the present tense – only because this spirit that was given to him is still alive today in his Oblates and in his Honorary Oblates, and yes within his many sons and daughters who are committed Oblate Associates and more. This is a statement of what my life is all about.

    One of the things that I have learned as I have studied, reflected and shared each morning in this holy place, is that I along with many other lay persons have been called to make our own oblations and give ourselves to God. It is not about our state of life, whether we are recognized by the Church as religious or lay; or whether we are able to fully take part in all of the sacraments including Holy Orders and Matrimony. I, we live as God has called us and stand in the light that God has surrounded us with.

    This morning as I look at how my day is a celebration of my life. It is my birthday and I claim myself, my being as it has been given to me by God. As it has been shared with me by St. Eugene as one of his daughters who stands in his light and the light of the many members of his Mazenodian Family. I am still on the journey of my life. I claim this – this is all a part of my identity. And Eugene’s charism which has been shared with me and has gratefully become a part of my being is alive within me. It is in my heart that loves so greatly and beats so fiercely, and that ministers and serves the many people who I meet and are a part of my daily life.

    Today I dare to claim the spirit which has become imbued within me: Eleanor, child of God, daughter of St. Eugene de Mazenod, elder within my parish family, lover of the poor and abandoned, and pilgrim on the journey of life.

    This is how today I renew my oblation, giving thanks to God for having created me to love and be loved.

    “We must lead men [and women] to act like human beings, first of all, and then like Christians, and finally, we must help them to become saints.” We do this together, with each other, and then with all who we meet, seeing all through the eyes of our crucified Saviour.

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