From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   May 21st - St. Eugene de Mazenod   
      
   Born during a time in history when divorce was rare, Eugene de Mazenod had   
   far   
   from an ideal family life. Prayers to St. Eugene can be supportive for the   
   victims of nuptial tragedies who feel overwhelmed, by interceding for them   
   as   
   they endure the pains of divorce and troubled family life.   
      
   The breakup of a marriage can destroy all sense of security and open the way   
   to   
   a world of uncertainty.   
      
   Adults often feel humiliation and a sense of failure, while children may   
   feel   
   inappropriate guilt and a deep fear of parental abandonment. St. Eugene can   
   provide hope and encouragement for those trying to recover from the myriad   
   disappointments of a divorce, together with support for the survivors of   
   broken   
   families, as he himself was the son of parents whose marriage ended   
   acrimoniously.   
      
   Born on 1st August 1782 in Aix-en-Provence in southern France, Eugene de   
   Mazenod   
   was a member of the French nobility. His mother, Marie-Rose Joannis was of   
   the   
   bourgeois, convent educated and wealthy. Charles-Antoine, his father, was an   
   aristocrat, educated in the classics but poor. A serious factor in the   
   marriage   
   was the constant interference from Marie-Rose's jealous mother and neurotic   
   sister. When she wed Charles-Antoine, Marie-Rose's family stipulated that   
   the   
   dowry given by them remain in her name.   
      
   In 1791, during the French Revolution, the de Mazenod family was forced into   
   exile in Italy to avoid the guillotine. In 1795, leaving her husband and son   
   behind in Venice, Marie-Rose returned to France with Eugene's sister. Once   
   back   
   home, she divorced Eugene's father, took back her maiden name and aided by   
   her   
   mother's shrewdness, successfully recovered her dowry. She later wrote to   
   her   
   ex-husband saying "You now have nothing."   
      
   After eleven years in exile, Eugene returned to Aix at his mother's request,   
   where he struggled to reunite his family. He also endeavored to regain the   
   family's holdings which had been lost during the revolution.   
      
   While in Venice, the young Eugene had been befriended by Don Bartolo   
   Zinelli,   
   "It was there that I discovered my vocation to the priesthood."   
      
   On 12th October 1808 Eugene entered the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris.   
   After   
   his ordination on 21st December 1811, Fr. de Mazenod declined the first   
   assignment offered to him, the prestigious position of Vicar General to the   
   Bishop of Amiens. Instead, he asked to work with the poor and   
   disenfranchised   
   people of Aix. Rather than the French used by members of the upper class,   
   the   
   young priest spoke patois, the language of the commoners.   
      
   In 1815, he felt the need to have companions who would live in community   
   with   
   him and share his apostolate. He purchased a disused Carmelite convent, with   
   its   
   adjoining church, and his small band of priests began preaching missions   
   throughout the French countryside, calling themselves the "Missionaries of   
   Provence".   
      
   Pope Leo XII gave Fr. de Mazenod full approval for this new congregation on   
   17th   
   February 1826, and gave them the new name "Oblates of Mary Immaculate".   
   Eugene   
   said "this name is a passport to Heaven".   
      
   Eugene de Mazenod became Bishop of Marseilles, France, in 1837 and his   
   influence   
   extended not only locally but throughout the world. In 1841, at the request   
   of   
   Bishop Burgess of Montreal, four Oblate priests and two brothers went to   
   Canada   
   and began the congregation's missionary outreach.   
      
   Before his death, his congregation of over 400 men had spread to ten   
   countries   
   throughout the world. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate arrived in Ferment,   
   Western   
   Australia in 1894, spreading to Victoria in 1926, Sexton in New South Wales   
   by   
   1948 and Queensland in 1953.   
      
   De Mazenod died as Archbishop of Marseilles on 21st May 1861 and his tomb is   
   located in the chapel of that city's cathedral. When he died his heart was   
   removed and preserved-a custom not uncommon in the 19th Century. A portion   
   of   
   the preserved heart was placed in a reliquary and taken to the United States   
   in   
   1964. The re-gilded reliquary was then enshrined in the Blessed Sacrament   
   Chapel   
   at the Oblate-owned "Lourdes Grotto of the Southwest" in San Antonio, Texas.   
      
   Efforts to have Bishop de Mazenod canonized began in 1926 and were rewarded   
   with   
   his beatification by Pope Paul IV, on Mission Sunday 19th October 1975. On   
   3rd   
   December 1995, he was proclaimed a saint by Pope John Paul II.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Some Sayings of St. Eugene   
      
   To love the Church is to love Jesus Christ, and vice versa.   
      
   We glorify God in the masterpiece of his power and love...it is the Son whom   
   we   
   honor in the person of his Mother.   
      
   Leave nothing undared for the Kingdom of God.   
      
   Learn who you are in the eyes of God.   
      
   Practice amongst yourselves charity, charity, charity . . . and zeal for the   
   salvation of souls.   
   --Saint Eugene to Oblate members as he lay dying   
      
   I find my happiness in pastoral work. It is for this that I am a bishop, and   
   not   
   to write books, still less to pay court to the great, or to waste my time   
   among   
   the rich. It is true...that this is not the way to become a cardinal, but if   
   one   
   could become a saint, would it not be better still?   
      
   If priests could be formed, afire with zeal for men's salvation, solidly   
   grounded in virtue-in a word, apostolic men deeply conscious of the need to   
   reform themselves, who would labor with all the resources at their command   
   to   
   convert others-then there would be ample reason to believe that in a short   
   while   
   people who had gone astray might be brought back to the long neglected   
   duties of   
   religion. We pledge ourselves to all the works of zeal that priestly charity   
   can   
   inspire... We must spare no effort to extend the Savior's Empire and destroy   
   the   
   dominion of hell.   
      
   Every religious congregation in the Church has a spirit all its own; it is   
   inspired by the Spirit of God to respond to the needs of the Church to work   
   for   
   the salvation of souls. By our particular vocation we are involved with the   
   redemption of humanity... May we, by the sacrifice of our whole being, so   
   cooperate as not to render His redemption fruitless for ourselves and for   
   those   
   we are called upon to evangelize.   
      
   Servants! Farmhands! Peasants! Poor! Come and learn who you are in the eyes   
   of   
   God. You poor of Jesus Christ, you afflicted, unfortunate suffering, infirm,   
   diseased: all you who are burdened with misery, listen to me! You are the   
   children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, co-heirs of His   
   eternal   
   kingdom, His cherished inheritance. Lift up your minds: you are the children   
   of   
   God. Look through the tatters that cover you. There is an immortal soul   
   within   
   you made to the image of God, a soul redeemed at the price of the very blood   
   of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)