” So your strength is failing you? Why don’t you tell your mother about it?…Mother! Call her with a loud voice. She is listening to you; she sees you in danger, perhaps, and she–your holy mother Mary–offers you, along with the grace of her son, the refuge of her arms, the tenderness of her embrace…and you will find yourself with added strength for the new battle.” (Saint Josemaria Escriva)
“They will always regard her as mother” Eugene had written when we officially became Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate after our papal approbation in 1826. He asked us to have a “tender and filial devotion.” Throughout his whole life he was accompanied by Mary – because of this Rule that he quotes in his retreat notes:
Devotion to Mary must also characterize us: At least once a day they will pay a visit to the Blessed Sacrament and a visit to the Blessed Virgin, towards whom all the missionaries will cultivate a special devotion, and to whom they will always look up as to their Mother
They will recite the rosary every day, and will leave nothing undone to make the faithful most fervently and trustfully devout to this Immaculate Virgin and the most holy Mother of God.
Retreat notes, October 1831, EO XV n. 163
Eugene died during the praying of the Salve Regina, at these words: “Turn then, most gracious Advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus, O merciful, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!”
Father Fabre describes the scene:
We recited the entire Salve Regina, which our well-loved Father understood and followed fully. At the words: Nobis post hoc exilium ostende, he opened his eyes slightly; at each invocations: O clémens, o Pia, he made a slight movement; at the third: O Dulcis Virgo Maria, he breathed his last. His beautiful soul was in the presence of God.
Circular Letter to the Congregation 26 May 1861
Because of his life-long closeness to Mary, she did indeed accompany him to the fruit of her womb: Jesus. May we learn to look on her as mother and as our faithful faith-companion on our Christian journey to be shown the fruit of her womb at its fulfilment in our own death.
I am Fr. Poncian OMI Jaffna Province, Sri Lanka. I use to read the Relflections and benefited for my spiritual journey
I cannot help but be touched by the words of Father Fabre as he describes Eugene’s dying moments. Eugene himself played a part in all of this – he was not passive and simply letting it happen to him. He actively took part by opening his eyes slightly and making a slight movement with each invocation.
Oh that I do not just allow death to happen, but that I actively take part in it – for it will be the beginning of a new way of being without the limits of time and space.
In my lifetime I have experienced the gift of being able to walk with some as they were dying. I had loved each one of them before they got sick and that love only deepened as I accompanied them in their last journey home. And with most of them I was there on the last day in their life on earth to pray the rosary with them and then tenderly kiss them goodbye telling each that Our Lady was there, waiting through the goodbyes and the letting-go to walk with them into new life – as Eugene said to the fruit of her womb – Jesus.
I smile now as I think of each of them. In recent years I think of how I pray to and with Mary. It was/is she who models and teaches me to stand at the foot of the cross – not alone but with her and the other women there.
I do not always consciously think of her as being right beside me in my struggles and sorrow, and in my joys and celebrations; but I trust that she is, I believe that she is. And I promote her unashamedly with those I know and love, promising them what had been promised to me. I draw upon her strength for myself…
O Gentle, O Loving, O Sweet Virgin Mary…