At this moment in Aix there were 5 Missionaries and 7 novice-seminarians and every indication that the group would continue growing. There were also some university students living in the house, but we do not have records to indicate how many they were. This growing group of youthful energy needed a Rule of life in order to function properly. For a while Eugene and the Missionaries were working on producing this Rule:
In the meanwhile, until we decide what must be added to the Rules…
From the beginning Eugene had been the superior of this group, and as they prepare for more permanent structures he reflects:
God is my witness that it is not my ambition to be in command. That is so true that I cannot take it upon myself to give orders and just the word ‘superior’ upsets a certain interior feeling which resists every time it is pronounced,
It is strange to read this because Eugene spent his life giving orders – from his childhood until his death! He was an instinctive and natural leader – yet at this moment he struggled with the word “superior” and with the concept of having a role in which he had to give orders.
Aware that a group of people cannot be effective unless there is order, and this entailed having a superior of the community
but I quite insist on order which cannot exist where there is no subordination.
He now gives his understanding of the figure of the superior in relation to God
Let them give me a superior and I swear to him in advance to be entirely submitted to him and promise him to act only by his will which will be, in my eyes, that of God whose instrument he will be in regard to me.
Today, Constitution 81 of our Rule of life expresses the same idea in this way:
“Our Superiors are a sign of the Lord’s loving and guiding presence in our midst. They call us to live up to our Oblate vocation and provide us with the support we need.”
Eugene is tired of all the battles he has had to carry as the Superior regarding outside forces in Aix and in Paris, and he wishes that someone else take on the responsibility:
Please God you would wish to grant me this favour! That will come about, I hope.
Letter to Henri Tempier, 4 November 1817, O.W. VI n. 29