MAY THE MOST HOLY AND IMMACULATE VIRGIN MARY, OUR LOVING MOTHER, KEEP YOU ALWAYS UNDER HER PROTECTION

As Superior General, whenever Eugene sent Oblates to the missions outside of France, he entrusted them to Mary Immaculate’s care. Here are just two examples.

When he sent Father Semeria and the first community to Ceylon:

Now go forward, beloved Son, to the work that is entrusted to you together with those whom we have chosen to be your companions in those distant parts of Asia, for the greater glory of God, which we must further there and everywhere.

May the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, our loving Mother, keep you always under her protection. May the angels of God assist you. And as for Us, beloved son in Christ, we will not cease to implore for you an abundant rain of divine grace from heaven.

Act of Appointment of Fr. Etienne Semeria to Ceylon, 24 October 1847, EO IV n 1 (Ceylon)

In 1851 Eugene sent Henri Tempier on an important and delicate mission to visit the Oblates and assess their religious and missionary life in Canada. It is with this wish that he missioned him:

Go then in the name of the Lord, well-beloved son, towards that part of our family which is separated from us by so great a distance, which we have always present and intimately united to us, following it as we do with all the affection of our heart. Accomplish faithfully for its good the ministry that has been entrusted to you. May the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, our most loving Mother, keep you continually under her protection; may the Angel of God also be propitious to you in your going and in your coming back; during this time, we shall not cease to implore from heaven an abundant shower of graces for you.

Letter to Henri Tempier en route to Canada, 1 May 1851, EO II n 145

REFLECTION

“As sailors are guided into port by the shining of a star, so Christians are guided to heaven by Mary” (Saint Thomas Aquinas)