Oblate Studies – No Ordinary Course
Imagine what it is like to have your heart opened with a brilliant light that seeps into the dimmest corners and cracks. And then to suddenly find in the midst of that brilliance endless fireworks that seem to dance and hover only to be overcome with more light which dances with its own music creating a symphony that enlivens every sense within you. This has been in part what my heart has experienced during the second course offered in Oblate Studies: “Founders, Charisms and Their Expressions in Constitutions and Rules”.
“Let this course shine a light on the first course (Eugene de Mazenod, History, Spirituality, and Mission)” wrote our professor Fr. Frank Santucci, OMI. And it has surely done that – with a brilliance that continues to light up even the dimmest corners of my heart.
We began looking at “Charism”, what that one word expresses, the depth that it holds and what it looks like within the Church. We were introduced to the charisms of St. Benedict, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Brother Roger Taizé, Chiara Lubich and the Folkolare Movement and our own St. Eugene de Mazenod, exploring the different expressions of the gifts given by the Spirit to these Founders and Foundress, and how they served the needs of the Church at a specific time, and their relevancy today. These lessons were much more than a guided tour down one-way streets as our professor introduced us to the feel of the neighbourhood and its life. There was required reading, rich in content and even the ‘requirement’ was somehow invitational with instructions like “get a feel for the charism of each one as you read […] each one is a living incarnation of a charism that was born – “that moment when His eyes met mine” (Pope Francis) Each step of the way we were invited to stop, discuss, reflect and take it all in so that it could become a part of each of us – and to share what we had received.
We were introduced to the characteristics of a ‘founder or foundress’ and got to know each of the five founders a little more deeply, and with them what the charism, what the gift each of them had been give to use, in service to the Church and how they shared that with others. This was the case whether the institutes that were founded were for consecrated life or with and for lay members – or both. A gift to see more clearly the Church that I love as she embraces, guards and carries the charisms and the institutes – the whole package. And again with every step there was the invitation to enter more deeply into reflection of what that looked like for and within each of us whether we were living as religious or as lay persons.
It all came together as we looked at the expressions of our founders and the charisms, given to them and how that was experienced and shared in the Constitutions and Rules. While other members from different families were invited over and over again to look at their own Rule of Life we looked at the Forward, the Preface and then the Constitutions and Rules of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. “The Church, that glorious inheritance purchased by Christ the Saviour at the cost of his own… from the Preface. We were accompanied each step of the way by many sources, most particularly by Fr. Fernand Jetté’s Commentary on the 1982 edition of the Constitutions and Rules. This as Fr. Santucci shared his interpretation of each of the first 10 Constitutions (and then later the remainder), and how each of them related back and forth from the Forward to the Preface; I began to see them as a whole, integral and a part of each other. We would be called back from our own thoughts wandering into the picture with a particular reference: “when his eyes met mine…” (Eugene’s Good Friday experience and seeing Jesus on the Cross). It was here that the fireworks were like a backdrop to all that I was learning and reflecting on, experiencing and then trying to share in the weekly assignments. Those fireworks have not yet dimmed, and the music still sings within me. The image before me as I try to express my experience of this course is that of an immense tapestry that is complete even as new threads are being woven into and through it.
In response to one of our recent assignments when were asked to give our own interpretation of the first 10 Constitutions. This was my response, my interpretation of Constitution 1.
Constitution 1 – Our Call – the opening words “the call of Jesus Christ”…’within the Church’ (for I am finding it hard to separate one from the other – they are distinct as is each member of the trinity and yet they are one). My call from Jesus, our crucified Saviour, as expressed within the sacrament of Baptism, in and with and through, the Church draws me together, to be a part of those whose hearts are ‘Oblate’ (from the word oblation and the congregational name). They call to me, to follow him and share in his mission – within the Church; very much a part of my parish and my family – for those who have not heard or been able to listen to the voice of Jesus, whose eyes have not yet been caught by his, our crucified Saviour. That I could somehow share my experience which perhaps might lead them towards an awareness, an experience of their own. As a lay person within this Mazenodian Family and united with others I would hope to help lead others. I think of Mary Magdalene’s song in “Superstar” and the way I have found to love, just as He calls me to. This is how I evangelize the poor. It is both active and contemplative – somehow one comes from the other.
How I would love to hear the interpretations of others!
By: Eleanor Rabnett – Provincial Associate
