“In the Name of God, Let Us Be Saints”

 

Eugene de Mazenod, OMI, February 18, 1826, announcing that the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate had been approved by the Church.

December 3, 2020 celebrates 25 years since Pope John Paul II led the canonization of Bishop Eugene de Mazenod, OMI at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  Saint Eugene is the Founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.  Qu’Appelle House of Prayer is one of the many current ministries of the Oblates who work in 65 countries.  Today a simple celebration of grateful remembering took place at the House of Prayer during the daily 10:00 Eucharist.  Along with Chantelle and Glenn, and two guests presently at the house, a few people (respecting Covid) from the local parish participated.  The local area and parishes have long been “Oblate country.”

The liturgy was an occasion for selecting highlights from this remarkable man’s life, passion, commitment and vision.  As Glenn said, “I might be going a little long, but we get to do this only once every 25 years!”  Some added to the sharing with appreciative comments about the service of the Oblate house of prayer.  Perhaps it is both providence and coincidence that the house of prayer began exactly 3 months to the day before the canonization of the Founder.

Surrounded by Advent décor, and the sun-filled beauty of the Valley hills, it was a time for tender awareness and deepened gratitude, a moment of a sustained and shared stance of child-like wakefulness to the divinity of just what is, a long loving look at Saint Eugene to whom for the moment, and with each other,  we were united by grateful love.

The reflective time of sharing was concluded with a statement of Archbishop Bernard Panafieu, much-later successor to Eugene as Archbishop of Marseilles.  As written in Canonization Chronicle # 11 (OMI Information),  February, 1996, quoting L’Osservatore Romano:

“Eugene de Mazenod is not a stained-glass window saint of starchy bearing and angelic looks. He is made of clay and full of our own contradictions.  Highly sensitive.  A tendency to be authoritarian.  He is no man of half measures and compromise.  John Paul II will not present him as a model but as a sign of what the grace of God can do in a man’s heart.”