Day NINE: Contemplation in Action
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Text from the Cardinal: The Missionaries will be well convinced if they have faith: they know that no supernatural work can be done properly, and bear fruit, except by the grace of God. They also know that the grace of God is only obtained through prayer. Now, in our little Society, it must be said with regret and trembling, that we act and move around very much, but we pray too little. Undoubtedly, activity is indispensable to the Missionary, and it is not permissible for him to give as much time to prayer as do the members of penitential or contemplative Orders. However, at least it is necessary, while some and most fight in the plain, while others always raise supplicating hands on the mountain. (A2.174). Prayer, the spirit of prayer, is the…
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…
Day SEVEN: Passion for Unity
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Text from the Cardinal: I recommend, from the fountain of mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to all my children, and, if I could so, I would kneel in front of each of them individually to address this prayer to them, to preserve fraternal charity among them inside and outside. They would do horrible evil, and would certainly prevent the conversion of unbelievers if they were seen to be set at odds with one another, or divided among themselves, and all the more so if they were heard arguing with one another. By contrast, they will easily win hearts by the demonstration of perfect unity (A2.151). The first thing I recommend to you, my dearest daughters, because it is actually the most essential, is the spirit of mutual union and charity. It seemed…
Day SIX: Charity Above all
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Text from the Cardinal: Charity is the master weapon, because it is the one that penetrates hearts and inflicts wounds of eternal life. Let this be the secret of your action (I.52-53). In our relations with the unbelievers, we must be inspired by a supernatural love for them; we must love them as Our Lord loved His Apostles. We must want to die for them, just as Jesus Christ died for his Apostles. (I.320). When I speak of charity, I do not speak only of the charity of almsgiving, I speak of the charity which knows how to suffer, to give oneself, to sacrifice oneself if necessary, and which, by this demonstration, finally forces the most hardened ones to say, “Those are really God’s disciples” (P.88). Reflection: Lavigerie was a man with a…
Day FIVE: Passion for the people and their cultures
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Text from the Cardinal: “Be all things to all people to redeem some of them.” [A Missionary] ought to approach the local people through all external habits, by language first, clothing and food, in accordance with the example of the Apostle: “I made myself everything to all to save them all”(I.52) (translated from the Latin Bible). Reflection: To draw them to Christ, we must not make others like ourselves, but make ourselves similar to them. This deep conviction underpinned the early stages of Africa’s evangelisation: in relation to Arabs and Muslims, to the peoples of Central Africa, of the Middle East in the Holy Land. Lavigerie opposed the the excessive Italianisation of the Curia, which he said undermined the Catholicity of the Church. He also opposed the systematic Latinisation of Orthodox converts to…
Day FOUR: Passion for Mission
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Text from the Cardinal: “Be apostles, nothing but apostles.” My dear children, you are not ordinary travellers, you are not explorers, and yet you seem to copy in all your ways of doing and thinking what people like Stanley are about (…). You are apostles, you are only that; or, at least, the rest must come only in addition. I exhort you, resurrect in you these great thoughts of the apostolate. (…) I love you dearly, my dear children, but I would prefer to learn of your death than to see you miss the spirit of your vocation and become some type of African ‘Robinson Crusoe’, as I have told you sometimes. Lift up your hearts! This is the cry I send you through space to awaken your souls (I.121-122). The virtue proper…
Day THREE: Passion for Humanity
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Text from the Cardinal: “Nothing human is foreign to me.” “I am a man, and I am familiar with everything human.” (Terence, from Heautontimorumenos, v. 77). It is a cry that started from Rome, and which echoes throughout the universe. I am a man; injustice towards other people revolts my heart. I am a man; oppression is unworthy of my nature. I am a man; the cruelties against so many of my fellow-creatures instigate only horror within me. I am a man, and what I would like to be done to give me freedom, honour, the sacred bonds of the family, I want to do in order to restore to the sons of this unfortunate race, family, honour and freedom (E.98). Reflection: Through the correspondence with his missionaries on the field, Lavigerie became…
Day TWO: Passion for Africa
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Text from the Cardinal: “I have loved everything about Africa.” It is to you that I am now coming, O my dear Africa. I had sacrificed everything to you seventeen years ago, when compelled by a force that was obviously that of God, I left everything to dedicate myself to your service. Since then, what travels, what exhaustions, what sorrows! I recall them only to forgive and to express once again my invincible hope of seeing the portion of this great continent that once knew the Christian religion, to return fully to the light and the truth, and the one that has hitherto remained immersed in the most frightful barbarity, to come out of its darkness and death. It was to this work that I dedicated my life. But what is a man’s…
Day ONE: Passion for God
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Text from the Cardinal: “A strong and ardent attachment to Our Lord” Ultimately, under a variety of forms of expression, a single sentiment inspired them. This is the one Our Lord asked of Peter to make him Head of his Apostles; the one St. Augustine, the Doctor of our Africa and of the whole Church, proclaims the unique law of Christians; the one I took myself for my motto (Caritas): love, the love of God and that of so many abandoned souls. This love has supported me, in the midst of the hardships and privations that have worn my life out before its time. It is also this love that will give you strength, heroic self-sacrifice, and perseverance. Love them, then, as a mother loves her sons, in proportion to their misery and…