Insisting that Tempier and the community had to work to continue to “make of our home an earthly paradise” Eugene stressed some of the qualities necessary for this to be achieved. They were to avoid self-centredness, to be zealous for God and for mission, and to have a loving family spirit. These
will establish it in more solid a manner than all possible orders and laws.
However beautiful as these ideals are, human limitations and external influences make it necessary to have a personal and a communitarian self-discipline to achieve them and build on the foundations. As with any human achievement clarity on the goals is necessary and then a commitment to the discipline necessary to achieve and maintain the ideals. Hence the charge:
Hold the reins of discipline firmly, for this is the way to ensure perseverance.
Carelessness, as I see it, is the beginning of destruction.
Insist that dissipation not enter by all the doors and windows that our ministry prevents us from closing.
There will be more virtue in being faithful to the rules when we observe them in spite of the obstacles that ceaselessly occur…
Letter to Henri Tempier, 12 August 1817, O.W. VI n.20
We must be able to live in a certain way with “qualities necessary for this [life] to be achieved…’ less we become those smouldering wicks that Eugene warned us of.
I see here the beginnings of a Rule of Life – not a list of petty laws meant to control and overcome the diversity which God gave life to, but rather a way of ‘being and walking-with’. Community can be so difficult, messy, vulnerable… A Rule of Life that calls forth life and graces from within each of ourselves, to aid us in recognizing the beauty of all of God’s creation.
“…we are called to be Oblate missionaries in this time and place. […] In so doing, we risk finding ourselves among the marginalized of our community, our society and our church […] that together we may help one another experience the love of God, so we may be healed and give of ourselves in the continuous unfolding of the reign of God within creation.” (from OMI Lacombe Province Mission Statement)
I discover and attempt to go deeper with God, with St. Eugene, with all the members of this Mazenodian Oblate Family to which I belong and with all of creation… walking together as pilgrims [who are] in hope of community…