France experienced a great spiritual revival in the 17th century. A major figure in that revival was the outstanding home missionary St. John Eudes. John was the first-born of Isaac Eudes, a farmer of Normandy. The family was very devout and John showed a precocious spirituality; yet his parents wanted him to marry and carry on the family farm. By 1620, however, he had made a private vow of celibacy, so he declined their proposal.
In 1621 he began to study theology, with a view to becoming a diocesan priest. Then he changed his mind and joined the Congregation of the Oratory of France. He had the good fortune to be trained there by Pierre de Berulle and Charles de Condren. From them he inherited the idea that the priest, of all people, should strive most for perfection.
France at that time needed to be shaken up spiritually. One of the means undertaken was the parish mission, which had just been “invented.” Father Eudes was to become the country’s ablest domestic missionary. The mission plan involved two emphases in particular: sermons preached to large crowds, in church or in the open, and sacramental confession. As Eudes himself described this procedure, “The preacher beats the bushes and the confessors catch the bird!” As he went around from city to city, hamlet to hamlet, John kept his eyes open for other needs of the spirit. One thing he observed was that there was no special provision for women who had converted from a wayward life. Therefore, in 1641 he himself opened a house of refuge for these penitent women, with some Visitation nuns of Caen in charge. In 1650 this group of Visitandines decided to separate from their community and found another order devoted entirely to this sort of work. They called it the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge. (These sisters established a convent home in Buffalo in 1855, from which, in 1930, another convent was set up in Rochester. The Rochester convent, Holy Angels Home, closed many years ago).
St. John also decided that, given the importance of the priesthood for renewing spirituality, the training of priests should be a priority. Since the Congregation of the Oratory did not want to take on seminary work, Eudes set up, in 1643, a new community of priests without vows to specialize in seminary education. He called them the Congregation of Jesus and Mary. By the time of his death, these “Eudist Fathers” had charge of six French seminaries. Another of John’s responses was to those stricken by the plague. He insisted on caring for them with his own hands. So as not to risk carrying their disease to others during the epidemic of 1631, he lived for a while in a huge barrel in the middle of a field, eating food brought to him from a nearby convent.
St. John’s great devotion was to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He did not originate these devotions; it was St. Margaret Mary, from 1675 on, who was the chief promoter of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. But it was he who got the church to accept liturgical offices in honor of the Sacred Heart of Mary (1642) and the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1672). So he was one of the leading advocates of both of these devotions. His congregation adopted as their badge the symbol of the two hearts joined together.
Meanwhile, St. John continued his tireless work for the home missions. It was these efforts that eventually brought about his failure in health. In 1675 he preached a nine-week mission in the open air at Saint Lo. As a result, he fell ill from overexertion and was unable to give any missions thereafter. Eudes had converted souls not only by his preaching but by his example of personal devotion. He was especially reverent in the celebration of Mass. One of his most famous remarks was that to offer Mass properly one needs three eternities: the first, to prepare for it; the second, to celebrate it; the third, to give thanks for it. --Father Robert F. McNamara
Scripture(Eph 3:14-19)
I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you, in accord with the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Writings
(Year A). IT IS CERTAINLY TRUE that this adorable Heart [of Jesus] is a burning furnace of divine love, radiating its fire and game in all directions, in heaven, on earth, and even in hell: in heaven in the Church Triumphant, on earth in the Church Militant, and in purgatory in the Church Suffering, and to some degree even in the hell of the damned.
If we lift our eyes and hearts to heaven, to the Church Triumphant, what shall we see? We shall behold an innumerable army of saints, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors and virgins. What are all these saints? They are so many flames from the immense furnace of the divine Heart of Jesus. Is it not the love of that kind Heart which brought them into the world, enlightened them with the light of faith, and gave them strength to conquer the devil, the world and the flesh ? Is it not the goodness of that amiable Heart which adorned them with all virtues, sanctified them in this world and glorified them in the other; which kindled in their hearts the love they bear to God, inspired their lips with His divine praises, which is the source of all that is great and holy and admirable in them? If then one celebrates during the course of the year so many feasts in honor of these same saints, what a solemnity is due to this divine Heart which is the principle of everything that is glorious and noble in all the saints!
Let us come down to earth and see what is most worthy and great in the Church Militant. It is the holy Sacraments-the Sacrament of Baptism by which we are made children of God; Confirmation, which gives us the Holy Spirit; Penance, which washes away our sins and restores us to God's favor; the Blessed Eucharist, which feeds our souls with the flesh and blood of the Son of God, making us live by His life; Matrimony, which forms children for God, to serve and honor Him on earth and to love and praise Him forever in heaven; Holy Orders, which gives to the Church priests who shall continue the functions of the great High Priest and thus cooperate with Him in the great work of the salvation of the world, so that they bear the name and the character of saviours in Holy Scripture: Ascendent salvatores in montem Sion; and Extreme Unction, which at our departure from this world fortifies us against the enemies of our salvation, who at that last hour make their final endeavor to ruin us.
The seven Sacraments are so many inexhaustible fountains of grace and holiness, which have their source in the immense ocean of the Sacred Heart of our Saviour; they are so many flames of a divine furnace from which proceed all spiritual blessings. But the brightest of those flames is the most Holy Eucharist. It is true that this great Sacrament is a compendium of all the wonders of the power, wisdom and goodness of God, but it is also true that it is one of the fruits of the incomparable Heart of Jesus and one of the flames of that wondrous furnace.
And so this divine furnace, the adorable Heart of Jesus, diffuses everywhere its fiery flames, in heaven, on earth, and even in hell. O ineffable goodness! O wondrous love! O God of my heart, would that I possessed all the hearts that have ever been, are, and shall be, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, to employ them in loving, praising and glorifying Thee unceasingly! O Jesus, only Son of God, only Son of Mary, I offer Thee the most loving Heart of Thy divine Mother which is more precious and pleasing to Thee than all hearts. O Mary, Mother of Jesus, I offer Thee the most adorable Heart of Thy Well-beloved Son, who is the life and love and joy of thy Heart.(The Sacred Heart of Jesus)
Musical Selection(Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles)
O Heart of Mary, pure and fair, There is no stain in thee. In Adam's fall thou hadst no share, From every sin thou’rt free.
O Heart of Mary, pure and fair, No beauty can compare! From every stain of sin thou’rt free, O make us pure like thee.
As some fair lily ‘midst the thorns, Thou ‘mongst Eve’s daughters art: Celestial purity adorns thy chaste and loving Heart.
O chaste abode of fairest love, In thee the King reposed. Thou art the spouse, the mystic dove, The font, the garden closed.
Dear Heart, within thy holy realm, We'll dwell and ne'er depart, Till thou hast deeply placed our souls In Jesus' Sacred Heart.
Collect
O God,
who chose the holy priest John Eudes
to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ,
grant through his example and teaching
that we may grow in knowledge of you
and live faithfully by the light of the gospel.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit
