Day EIGHT: In the Spirit of Sacrifice and Self denial

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Text from the Cardinal:

You began by forsaking everything, (…) exchanging language, clothing and food, habits for those of people to whom you want to give the light. After having done all this, having been made all things to all men, according to the expression of the Apostle (…) you seek only one thing: life for these poor souls and for you, with the grace of God who will make you persevere in this work, through persecutions and a cruel death if necessary … (I.42).

Poverty – Two Obligations: Not to be attached to wealth; not spend unnecessarily what we have … ‘My share of inheritance and my cup, it is you, Lord’. How is it missing in the Society? – Order and poverty, two necessary virtues, especially with poverty. What do we see in the houses, and even here in the Mother House! (I.316).

No doctrine is more certain than this one, and God has been pleased to remind us of it on every page of Holy Scripture: without obedience, there is no real virtue, no single grace of God, and no apostolate. On the contrary, with perfect obedience, all this is guaranteed to us. (I.59) if pride, self-esteem, or the spirit of rebellion should reign, it would be exposing oneself to death, for oneself and for others, and in this case, it would be better, a hundred times, that you never existed. So, among all the virtues I wish you, the virtue of obedience is the first and even the only truly indispensable virtue, because nothing can supply it and only it guarantees all the others … (I.59).

Reflection:

Lavigerie was a well-disciplined man. He wanted to impart the same discipline on his missionaries inviting them for a life of self-denial, self-sacrifice and self-control. This is expressed in living fully the evangelical counsel of obedience, poverty, and chastity. Missionaries are constantly challenged to move beyond the pursuit of pleasure and security and comfort. There is no true discipleship without self-denial, self-control and self-sacrifice. It is in this line that we have to understand “the visa for martyrdom” that Lavigerie proposed to the novices before sending them into mission. throughout the training, he constantly came back to the necessity of being ready to suffer a thousand evils for the salvation of those without faith. The lifestyle in a distant land, exposed to so much risk and fatigue, requires a ‘more than ordinary zeal’. Lavigerie writes: The virtue proper to a Missionary is zeal. Zeal is the perfection of charity (I 52-53).

Intention:

We pray that we may be filled with a zeal that is more than ordinary, that is , an extraordinary zeal to serve God’s people in humility and self-sacrifice.