Father Dehon, deeply marked by the spirituality of the love of the Father that was revealed to men in the Heart of Christ, knew how to make this year-fling love into the impulse for a life consisting of a profound union with the Lord and an intense pastoral activity, also in the social field. He attributed the catastrophic situation of his times to man's moving away from the love of Christ. He was convinced that social transformation was possible, in a full and evangelical way, solely through a conversion to love of the Heart of Christ. At first sight this seems to be an expression without strength and therefore ineffective, considering that man is faced with the grave problems of our time. However in the Christian vocabulary there is no word with more strength. In fact, it is identified with the very force of Christ. Those who do not believe in love do not believe in what He said either: "I give you a new commandment: Love one another. Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other" (Jn 13:34).

The example and teaching of Father Dehon are very important for the Church of today; a Church that is committed to the building of a new civilization called by Paul VI "The civilization of love".

The life and work of Father Dehon can be synthesized in devotion to the Eucharist, in the reparatory devotion to the Heart of Christ. in his social action with the workers and the poor, and in his missionary spirit to make the Good News ever present, everywhere.

For this message to he authentic it must be transmitted whole, without mutilation and with all of its social implications. Therefore it must be assimilated; we must et ourselves be impregnated by it rather than by books. We must assimilate the Heart of Christ in the Eucharist where He is truly present. We must assimilate his great mystery of the love of God which impels us to love Him and in Him and through Him to love our fellow man.

The road followed by Father Dehon also seems valid for us today; the world around us needs our evangelizing presence and calls for it. The world calls for the missionary presence of a man who is deeply filled with the love of the Heart of Christ, who is capable of reaching out to meet everyone, above all the poorest. A man whose goal is to announce that love, reconciliation and social justice are possible and that the Gospel, taken in all its fullness, is the fermentation needed to transform people and society. The approach taken by Father Dehon still seems valid: the proposal of a strong experience of God in an original devotion to the love of the Heart of Christ, as a means for humanity. And with his experience he has pointed out the Church's identity with the poor and the lowly. He affirms that "the Kingdom of the Heart of Christ in society is the Kingdom of justice and goodness, of solidarity with the lowly and with the suffering" (Op. Sp., vol.1, p. 223).

The 150 years since the birth of the founder invite us to accompany him in the contemplation of the open side of Christ and to center our attention on the Eucharist in order to discover, starting from our origins, the roads to follow in the quest for a dynamic fidelity to Father Dehon's plan. We will thus feel ourselves strengthened in our vocation and in our mission. In fact we are called to enter into the movement of our Lord's redeeming love, giving ourselves to our brethren in Christ and with Christ. The Apostle John draws our attention to this fact: "The way we came to understand love was that he laid down his life for us; we too must lay down our lives for our brothers" (l Jn 3:16).

We may wonder how Father Dehon imagined his work and what his plan was. Doing this will help us to be faithful to the charism which the Spirit gave to the founder for the good of the whole Church. How did Father Dehon envisage his Congregation?

The spirit of the Congregation is an ardent love and a special devotion to the Heart of Jesus. whose virtues (goodness, sacrifice, humility...) the oblates endeavor to imitate. Deep friendship with the Lord and a life of union have always been the soul of Father Dehon, of his vocation and of his mission. When confronted with a tack of faith friendship with the Lord takes on a reparatory character. "Believing in love, that is our whole faith" (Fr. Dehon). It is love as the active presence of Christ in our own life: the love which is revealed in the open side and pierced Heart. These are evocative expressions of the love which accepts death as being the gift of His life for the love of man and as filial obedience to the Father (cf. Cst 2,3).

All this spurs us to love "as He did in deed and in truth" (Cst 1 8), to love "with and as Christ" (Cst 21). Without the spirit of love and immolation (total dedication up to extreme consequences) every work loses its reason for being. This is why we are invited to live love (Cst 20), to respond to love (Cst 23), to proclaim love (Cst 17) and to enter into the movement of love (Cst 21).

A Priestly Work of Reparation

In 1877 Fr. Dehon presented his Bishop with a plan for a priestly work of reparation. The purpose of the plan was a reparatory mission that was linked in a particular way to the clergy and to consecrated people with a double aspect:

a) Referring to the Heart of Jesus (message of Paray) with a Christ-centered dimension of reparation towards the Lord, which is realized through a life of love and immolation.

b) Referring to the Church and to its mission in the world with a strong emphasis on the mission of reparation as a commitment for the spiritual, cultural and pastoral preparation of the clergy. This emphasis also affirmed that the clergy must be the animater and the promoter of the human realization that constitutes all that he was to later define as the "Kingdom of the Heart of Jesus in souls and in society".

Father Dehon said: "My greatest work, that which is most fertile for the Church, must be my priestly work" (NQ. Nov. 1886). The Constitutions of 1885 already affirmed: "The work that refers to the priests, to their formation and direction, will be the most preferential".

His great passion for the social apostolate had, among its other fascinating aspects, the concept of contributing above all to the forming of a clergy which would be truly prepared which would be extremely sensitive to the problems of its time and which would be principally involved in the concrete history of mankind: "I wonder if my mission perhaps was not the promotion. among the clergy, of the principles and the works of a Christian social life" (NQ, February. 1918).

Considering today: the situation of the world, the Church, the clergy and consecrated people; it seems that the inspiration of Fr. Dehon is very relevant.

A Life of Oblation for Love

This is the soul, the spirit, the spirituality and the apostolic inspiration of the Institute. It is the charism of the foundation and of the founder. It is our way of reading the message of Christ and his attitudes. It is, therefore, the profound and constant attitude of our spirit. From the spirit of oblation for love we draw the motivation and criteria for our style of life (spirituality) and our apostolic choices.

Father Dehon wanted to make an "oblation of love" of his whole life. He united himself to the love of Christ, to His profound communion with the Father and to His dedication to mankind. The starting point is his gaze of faith at the pierced Heart of Christ. From this gaze his plan for reparation by means of a life of oblation for love was born. The Heart-love clearly indicates the style and the program of life that Jesus realized in order to carry the Father's plan to completion.

The Oblates must transform their actions into acts of love and reparation. They must make their whole life into a perennial offering, imitating the attitudes of Christ, of the Heart of Christ, having His same ideal of reparation. This is the soul of our vocation and our mission as Fr. Dehon intended it. A life of oblation is the result of love and union; it is the reason why the Congregation of the Oblates of the Heart of Jesus was founded. it is understood with Christ and by his example (Cst 16, 17, 21, 35). It has a repairing finality (Cst 6), with two directives: towards the Father (Cst 22) and towards our brothers and sisters, the human community (Cst 21).

Availability and Solidarity (Renunciation and Oblation)

According to Fr. Bourgeois, availability (Cst 18, 53, 55, 85) and solidarity (Cst 10, 22, 29, 38, 51, 67, 75, 140) sum up our firm disposition towards renunciation and oblation (cf. A. Bourgeois, Guide to Reading the SCJ Constitutions, p. 75ff). They clearly translate for us today what Fr. Dehon meant with the words renouncing and oblation. Therefore we must analyze them in order to learn how to be faithful today to the path proposed by the Founder.

Solidarity is the "firm and persevering determination to the commitment of ourselves to the common good: that is for the good of all and for each individual, so that everyone may be truly responsible for everyone" (SRS 38; EV X/2650). With solidarity one can adhere to the cause of suffering man: it is an effective commitment to man who is diminished by sin (cf. Gs 13: EV 1/1362). One takes part in the redeeming work of Christ (cf. 2Cor 5:1 8ff).

In this way, solidarity becomes a form of reparation that allows man to reach his ultimate goal: to orientate his own existence and to realize in it the image of God which, potentially, is present in man. Solidarity with mankind is achieved through solidarity with Christ, who is the only being with the capacity to realize the full restoration of mankind. To be solidly with someone means to be a vehicle of reparation. It means spending oneself for others: for the good of others and for the restoration of mankind.

Availability is the disposition-predisposition to accept the entreaties of others. Availability and solidarity (words of the psycho-sociological vocabulary that is relative to human and social relationships) do not express all that is contained in the tradition of the words "renunciation" and "oblation". This is why it does not seem opportune to abandon the language of Fr. Dehon. Nevertheless, as synonyms of oblation, they have a precise theological meaning and content, both for us and for Christ. The words "solidarity" and availability" have the advantage of making an oblation concrete, in any case, in the past. there has always been a danger of reducing oblation to a practice" (cf. the old Constitutions nn. 10-11) and to consider it merely a theme for a few pius thoughts.

Availability and solidarity show us how to live renunciation and oblation "in deed and in truth" (Cst 18).

In a certain sense. availability is a division of the time of our life of oblation: it is placing the length of our life and the use of our time at the disposition of attention. of acceptance and of service towards others. Service is shown in availability and is completed in the name of oblation. It is our very life, taken up and lived in an attitude of reparatory oblation. Father Dehon said: " Every Congregation has its own characteristics. The Oblates must give to all their actions the form of an act of love and reparation: it is a question of being or not being..." (CF. III, 4). To understand the importance that Fr. Dehon gave to this problem, it is enough to remember that on that day (June 18, 1880) he told the novices that they would have to repeat this, intention at least thirty times a day (cf. CF III, 4). Our very life must become an "answer of love" in the form of prayer and in the form of service to our brothers. to the Church and to the Gospel. It is a true liturgy and a spiritual sacrifice in union with the redeeming sacrifice of Christ.

In a certain sense, solidarity is our life of oblation in its spatial division; in other words, in our relationships with the world and with mankind in and through our union to the oblation of Christ, present in the life of mankind.

Solidarity means presence, attention, sharing, collaboration, participation, co-responsibility and communion. These words appear all through the text of our Constitutions, both regarding Christ (Cst 9, 10, 11, 19, 22, 23, 28...) and to describe our relationship with the world (Cst 2, 23, 25, 29...), or with our community life (Cst 67).

Availability and solidarity (renouncing and reparatory oblation) go hand in hand. It is not possible to have solidarity without availability, nor availability without a true and profound awareness of solidarity.

For us the life of oblation - of availability in solidarity and solidarity in availability - must be the stimulus that keeps us always active and interested in the new creation; in the restoration of man and the world; in our whole society and in human relations according to the Heart of Christ. And this all seems to be an extension of the path of Father Dehon, since he chose reparation in a life of oblation for love.

The Eucharistic Experience of Father Dehon

We were born from the experience of Fr. Dehon's faith and love. experience which our Constitutions describe as being "intimately united to the Heart of Christ" (4) and as a "union with Christ" (5) which springs from the depths of the heart. It is an experience of grace in the contemplation of the pierced Heart of Christ on the cross. Father Dehon experienced the presence of Christ as he became aware of the action and the infusion of His grace in himself. This active experience of the love of Christ filled all of his life, and made it better.

Turning his eyes to the pierced Heart, not only as a symbol but above all as a source and as a gift, Father Dehon became so sensitive to Sin that he sought and found the way to give an immediate and profound response. This response was with his oblation and reparation to the point of transforming his own existence into a life of love following the example of the life of Christ.

The founding father lived his experience of faith with a life of union to Christ. with total attachment to the sentiments of Christ. manifested and concentrated (made concrete) in the eucharistic sacrifice. We can affirm that his experience of faith is a reparatory, eucharistic experience, lived personally and then transmitted to his Congregation. For Fr. Dehon the eucharistic sacrifice is the culminating act of the daily life of every Christian; but above all for us, his religious. The contemplative dimension of his apostolic work revolves around the Eucharist, thus transforming his life into "one never-ending Mass" (Cst 5). "A friend of the Heart of Jesus - writes Fr. Dehon - must make the Sacred Heart of his friend and brother live again in himself, so that his life of love and immolation will become 'a continuous Mass" (C.A. III, p.512). "The spirit of the Mass must fill my whole life. I must assimilate it every morning so that it will strongly imbue my day" (C.A. III, p.459). "The Mass is the divine act that characterizes us and to me it seems to be the reason for being one of the Oblates. One would describe all that we ought to be if one could say: 'the Oblates celebrate and live the Mass completely.' In the Mass we completely understand our vocation" (CF III, 114-116).

Today, 150 years after the birth of Father Dehon, we know that his inspiration remains valid and we are aware that our Constitutions affirm this: "Our whole Christian and religious life finds its source and its summit in the Eucharist. Celebrating the memorial of the death and the resurrection of the Lord is for us the privileged moment of our faith and of our vocation as Priests of the Sacred Heart" (Cst 80).

The words of Father Dehon also remain valid today: "The Eucharist is the center of religion, the heart of devotion, the soul of piety...; it is the great act of the day. the holocaust of perfect love. the supreme reparative sacrifice...it is the life of our houses: as the sun, home food and remedy of our souls" (Spiritual Directory. nn. 128 and 13 1). "The Eucharist is our vital element" (C.A. III. p. 487).

However, the Eucharist of the religious community cannot be lived only "inwardly". as an element that is certainly essential to its life; it must also be lived "outwardly". The Christian community expects the fire of those in religious life to warm the surrounding environment. From this point of view, the religious life must be oriented to the mission. And this is just what Fr. Dehon means by the following words in Document VII: "By participating in the Eucharist we receive the power of the love which gathers up and renews the world, and we become associates of this redemptive and creative force at every level of our life" (n. 151).

Desiring to be in the vanguard of the building of a new civilization means that we cannot forget Him, who came to preach love. We must remain united with the source, the Heart of Christ; with Christ, who came to bring fire upon the earth and who wants it to burn. Our vocation had its origins in the Heart of Christ, therefore our mission must also start from this source and must return to it. Only in this way will it achieve that apostolic fecundity which finds its origins in the water and the blood that flowed from the side of Christ. As was the case in Father Dehon's life our hearts will also be transformed. This will happen above all in our encounter with the love of Christ in the Eucharist. Here we become brothers, we form communities, because we meet in Christ and we become one single thing. It is then that we can be sent into the world to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. Our Constitutions affirm: "Through our celebration, united with the whole Church in the "memorial" of and presence to its Lord, we welcome Him who brings us to live together, who consecrates us to God, and unceasingly throws us back onto the streets of the world in the service of the Gospel" (Cst 82).

Adoration (Vocation and Mission)

Eucharistic adoration constitutes the first preferential option that is indicated by the Constitutions in the apostolic orientations. It is included in what we call "the healthy traditions" (MR 26), insofar it represents the heritage of our institute. We can even say that adoration constitutes a "holy mania" of the founder. In fact his recommendations on adoration are numerous and have insuperable clarity and force. Eucharistic adoration, according to Father Dehon, implies a continuous and freely given attention and union to Christ. in His sacrifice and in His sacramental presence. All this must be lived in a spirit of love and of oblation as "an authentic service of the Church" (Cst 31). According to Father Dehon the eucharistic sacrifice expresses and concentrates his whole life as in a "never-ending Mass" (Cst 5). That is why our Constitutions remind us that adoration, as well as "mission" (Cst 31), is "a requirement of our reparatory vocation" (Cst 83).

The Constitutions reaffirm Father Dehon's thought that adoration, understood as presence, contemplation and oration, represents the corner stone of the Congregation. Even if the other apostolic options (missionary activity, social apostolate, formative work, commitment to the lowly and the humble, to the weakest, the workers, the poor...), are the preferential choices, without adoration they would not produce the desired result. We can state that these choices remain on the level of works; whereas adoration makes up the roots of being and is the basis of these very works. It is also the basis of other works which may become necessary in order to respond to the needs of the present time. The spirit of adoration is essential to Father Dehon's charism. His whole spiritual life moves around the eucharistic sacrifice, without which the work he founded would have no sense. The founder repeatedly insists on adoration and says that it is a question of loyalty and of fidelity to the major disciplines of our vocation and mission (cf. LC 196).

In the closing speech of the XV General Chapter, Fr. Bourgeois affirmed that two acts are indispensable if the institution is to conserve its unity and its character and fulfill its mission in the Church: oblation and eucharistic adoration" (Doc VIII, p.306).

Adoration: Personal Mission

Faithfulness in prayer is a requirement of our being Christians and, in our religious profession in an institute with its own specific and concrete spirituality, it is much more. That is why we must discover room for an intimacy with God, so that we can establish with Him the program and the rhythm of our work. A life of prayer is the indispensable condition for setting up a dialogue between ourselves and God. Even today it is still a valid and practical reality that interior life precedes action. It would be impossible to know the will of God and His plan for us if there was not a relationship with the presence of Jesus Christ.

The integration of life and prayer is indispensable for anyone who wants to develop a productive apostolate. If we lacked periods of intimacy with God, our efforts would be sterile We cannot maintain the illusion of serving the Gospel if we live distracted; if we are branches separated from the trunk (cf. Jn 15:1,11). Speaking of the importance of the Eucharist in our life Father Dehon states: "The evangelistic worker, who does not live the eucharistic life, has nothing but lifeless speech and ineffective action (NQ XXV pp.46-47).

Within our mission of prayer we must remember that adoration is none other than a form of prayer that "joins us before Jesus in the sacrament of His love and His sacrifice; and that invites us to contemplate the wonders of His love. His self-denial and of His eucharistic life. Through adoration we are committed, with untiring zeal, to instruct, convert and save the people, and to extend the Kingdom of God and its justice; accepting humiliation and sacrifice" (Father Dehon, The Interior Life, p. 185).

Our mission in the world requires that above all we cultivate a spiritual life. Preparation for this mission requires time for listening and for maturing in love; a time lived in tranquility and in intimacy with the Lord, a time of praise, of thankfulness, of atonement, of supplication.

Personal adoration is part of our daily food, without which our physical life suffers and becomes less. "A pause of true adoration has greater value and spiritual results than the most intense activity, even apostolic activity itself. (John Paul II, To the Superior Generals, September 24, 1978, quoted in A Letter to the General Council on Adoration, March 7, 1984, n. 23; cf. COR UNUM '85, p. 75). According to Father Dehon, as well as constituting the daily royal audience to which Jesus invites us as friends, it is also our vocation (LC, 401), our mission.

Adoration: Community Mission

Adoration "for us is not an optional devotion, it is an essential act of our vocation and mission approved by the Church" (LC January 29, 1910, n. 196). "It is not an elective practice which can easily be neglected; it is one of the principal exercises of the day. a fundamental practice which we must never forget. Our Constitutions make it an obligation for us" (LC August 10, 1919. n. 248). Father Dehon understood that everything he had in his heart converged towards eucharistic adoration when he founded the Congregation and when. following the inspiration of the Spirit, he explained to his children the mission which derived from his vocation (cf. Letter of the General Council. 1984).

Within the Christian world our community has a special vocation of adoration. Father Dehon wanted our response of love to go beyond individual adoration. He loved to repeat that we were a group, a community, a Congregation of adoration.

Adoration prepares the spirit and the mentality which must animate all the commitments of our mission and all the dimensions of our life; it must also permeate our whole way of community life (cf. Cst 81).

Let us remember the words of Paul VI in the speech to the Capitular Fathers at the audience of June 14,1966: "Continue to give a place of honor to the forms of eucharistic worship as practiced in your houses. Your daily adoration will be the spring at which your souls are refreshed at the feet of the Master and, at the same time, the in-depth preparation for an even more fruitful apostolate" (Doc VII, p.3 1).

Adoration: A Mission in the Name of the Church

Father Dehon often reminds us that our adoration has a dimension which exceeds the limits of private adoration and that it must be performed as an official mission in the name of the Church (cf. LC 421). He is convinced that eucharistic and reparatory adoration, as a personal sanctification and an essential act of our vocation, is a part of the mission entrusted to us by the Church and for the Church. We must remember his recommendation: "My final words will be to exalt you again to daily adoration, official reparatory adoration, in the name of the Holy Church; to console our Lord and to hasten the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart in souls and in nations" (from "Spiritual Testament" in Spiritual Directory p.271).

For Father Dehon it is an essential thing. not accidental; obligatory. not optional. It is not a pious exercise, it is an official act, a public service of the Church. It is the typical service which the Congregation performs for the Church. For this reason Fr. Dehon states that without adoration the Congregation does not perform its mission (NQ VI, 23v); and this is why he leaves adoration as his testament.

Father Dehon speaks of consolation and of building the Kingdom of the Heart of Christ. Our transformation in Christ takes place through (and in) adoration. We unite ourselves to Christ, we enter into the dynamics of Christ's sacrifice offered to the Father. We unite ourselves in Christ. we participate in His life, in the communion of Christ with the Father and with His brothers. Adoration is something central to our spirituality. It is a means of entering the movement of redemption liberation and reconciliation of Christ. Adoration, therefore becomes simply irreplaceable (even when used as a consolation, which we could normally substitute with other things).

Reparatory spirituality without eucharistic adoration would be of questionable value. In adoration a unity of oblation will be manifest. We are united to Christ in His oblation to the Father and we are pleasing to the Father because we enter into and become part of the oblation of Christ. In this way we enter into the movement of redemption. We have already been saved, but redemption must make itself felt in our lives. And that happens when we are present to Christ, present in the Eucharist. The eucharistic presence is a form of presence that is linked to time and to the sacrament. It is precisely this type of presence that makes our relationship with God possible. It is here that we must make ourselves present, because it is here that we find the possibility for us to enter into relationship with God. For us all of this becomes central to our spirituality. In the eucharistic adoration we let Christ enter inside of us; we let Him live His oblation of redemption, liberation and reconciliation in us. We let Christ live His eucharistic movement in our time. It is letting Christ live in us. And the presence of Christ changes us, and turns our lives upside down. It is here that my life is transformed; and it is also here that adoration gives significance to reparation. When I let Christ act in me, everything overflows; it spreads and transforms me into an agent of reparation. We were created with a view to this meeting with the Lord. Adoration makes this meeting real and also makes me fully real; transforming me and making me an agent of reparation. When this meeting really happens, then my apostolate is efficacious. It produces the fruits of eternal life and extends the salvation of the world so that Christ who atones can continue His atonement through me.

That is why we say that our adoration collaborates with the work of redemption and transforms it into the best thing that we can do for the Church and for the world. Adoration must permeate all of our Dehonian "policy". If, through adoration, we are and we truly feel ourselves to be inserted in Christ's redeeming movement which He offers to the Father, then this fact leads us to a specific way of living and organizing our life and our activities. Eucharistic adoration becomes our life.

Even in the world of today the intuition of our founder is relevant with all of its charismatic force. Adoration must be seen and lived above all in its reparatory dimension. To minimize the thought of Father Dehon or even worse, label it as antiquated, means that the theological, spiritual and pastoral content of the Eucharist has not been understood, or that one does not wish to accept the rules.

Prophets of Love and Servants of Reconciliation

This expression of Cst 7 characterizes our reparation. We are called to atone for sin and for the Jack of love in the Church and in the world. We are called to transform our whole life into the worship of love and reparation that His Heart desires (NQ XXV, 5). Cst 25 defines reparation as "participation in the work of reconciliation". It is the form that our "cooperation in His work of redemption in the midst of the world" (Cst 23) takes.

To be in a state of reparation means to "give oneself" and "to spend one-self" (2Cor 12:15) with Christ in the service of the Father, for the reconciliation of social classes and of mankind among themselves and with God. Father Dehon wanted us to continue Christ's work of love and reconciliation. Therefore our life must be a response to the love of the Father: a continuous, generous and total offering of ourselves in a spirit of filial surrender to His will. We are called to be priests who celebrate the sacrifice on the altar of our hearts, offering ourselves without reserve to God and to mankind.

We are called to be solid with the sinners and the lowly, and to assume and share their trials, pains and anguish. We must denounce the sin in the world; a world which is breaking apart, dividing and hating. We must announce and call people together for the great work of reconciliation.

Father Dehon unites himself to Christ's oblation of love offered to the Father for mankind. He does this with a full and complete offering of his life. He offers his prayers and activities, his sorrows and joys. He offers them all to the service of the reconciliation of mankind between themselves and with God. In the Eucharist he discovers the supreme work of the Heart of Christ which invites us - starting from the Eucharist - to be like Him, prophets of love (Eucharist-Word); priests consecrated to the will of the Father (Eucharist-sacrifice); servants and ministers of reconciliation (Eucharist-communion).

Reparation: The Social Aspect

This aspect was very present in the mind and in the work of Fr. Dehon. He wanted "to contribute to the elevation of the masses, in the Kingdom of justice and charity" (Recollections, XI; LC pp. 354-356). The founding father affirmed that this apostolate must continue (cf. ibid). In this it seems that Fr. Dehon recognizes and points out a second element of his experience of faith that makes up a part of the charism of the institute that he founded. This element calls us to "respond to the urgent needs of the Church and of the world" (Cst 1).

In the thought and in the life of Fr. Dehon this apostolate is profoundly assumed in a reparatory prospective as a "response to the unacknowledged love" of Christ; unacknowledged in that there is a rejection of His love. This rejection is considered to be the most deep-rooted cause of the weaknesses of the Church and of the ills of the world and of society. The dominate theme in his apostolate, of "love and explicit homage paid to the divine Heart, for the elevation of the masses and for the kingdom of justice and charity, was a true and profound part of his devotion and of his worship of love and reparation, as desired by the Heart of Christ" (cf. Cst 7; A. Bourgeois, Comment on our Constitutions, According to the Charism of the Founder, pro manuscripto, Rome 1986).

Father Dehon and the Missions

Ever since the beginning of the Congregation Father Dehon has considered the missions to be a vast field where the characteristic spirit of the Priests of the Heart of Jesus could be made manifest. This characteristic spirit consists of the love of God and the love of one's neighbor, reparation bringing mankind to salvation and the apostolate worked with an extreme generosity that gives each day, little by little, its very life.

In 1882, Father Dehon consigned a letter to Msgr. Thibaudier, who was about to leave for Rome. It was addressed to Pope Leo XIII and was signed by the entire community of the House of the Sacred Heart of Saint Quentin. In it Fr. Dehon wrote: "Filled with the spirit of sacrifice that has been inspired by the Heart of Jesus, we would be happy if we could soon be present in the missions" (M. Denis, Projet du Père Dehon, p.50). During all of his life Fr. Dehon had the missionary problem in his mind and in his heart. The missions were to become the most important external work of the Congregation and at the time of the death of the founder (August 12.1925) all of the provinces had their missions.

Leo Dehon had cultivated the missionary ideal ever since his youth. He had a true missionary vocation, which he was not able to realize personally, but which he realized through the many missionaries of his Congregation.

Ever since he was a child he used to read the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith and of Holy Infancy. "I felt attracted - he writes - by union with Our Lord and by zeal for the salvation of souls...; I wanted to dedicate myself totally. I wanted to be a religious and a missionary" (NHV, 1, p.29).

As a young tourist (21 years old) journeying in the Orient, he rejoiced in the opening of the Suez Canal (1865) because "that way it will be easier to reach the missions in Asia" (NHV, III, 138).

As founder he had a great predilection for the missions, especially in those lands with the most hostile climate (i.e. Congo-Zaire). He felt that in these missions it would be possible to better realize the spirit of the Dehonian vocation; the profession of immolation (M. Denis, Projet..., p. 273-274). In fact, he writes: "It is obvious that the Sacred Heart of Jesus would be more perfectly honored if the zeal for His glory were to be expressed in difficult conditions, as in the distant missions. It is then that one puts into practice an act of abnegation that is a great proof of love towards our Lord" (LC, p.163).

In his long journey around the world (1910-1911) Fr Dehon took a particular interest in missionary work. In the special audience of April 11, 1911 (Pius X) he presented the Pope with a long report emphasizing various problems of the missionary apostolate.

He spoke of the problems of Canada, the United States, China, Korea, Manchuria, the Philippines, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India... (ef. M. Denis, Projet... p.131).

At the age of 81 Fr. Dehon commenced the 45th volume of his diary. We are in 1925, the last year of his life and he weighs up his long existence, beginning precisely from his missionary vocation: "The ideal of my life, the vow which I formulated back in my youth, was that of being a missionary and a martyr. It seems to me that this vow has been accomplished. I am a missionary with one hundred or more missions, which I have in every part of the world" (pp.1-2).

At the end of this last volume of his diary (July, 1925) we find yet another notation recalling the missions: "On July 6, 1897 the first missionaries left for the Congo. Among our apostolic activities this mission has been the Congregation's most important work (p 64).

Today we are living different times. Missionary work has become more complex and perhaps also more difficult. In addition it seems, that many nations are abandoning their own Christian roots. At the end of Christianity's 2nd millennium the Church proposes a new evangelization to us. With Fr. Dehon's missionary dream before us, what is the answer which we Dehonians wish to give to the Church and to the man of our time?

Father Dehon and the Social Apostolate

Our Congregation is rooted in Father Dehon's faith experience (Cst 2). It was an experience of the mystery of the love of God revealed in Christ the Savior. In contemplation of the open side of Christ Fr. Dehon discovered the love of the Father in his own life and in that of mankind.

Father Dehon lived the experience of the open side not only within the walls of the cloister but also and very intensely in the difficult environment of the working world, of the suffering and of the injustices of his time. Fr. Dehon also experienced God in his involvement with those who in his time suffered injustice. it was the bitter experience of the absence of God, of love, of justice and of paternity. We could call it a negative experience, an experience of sin which, however, had a profound effect on Fr. Dehon's life.

On one hand Father Dehon believed deeply in the merciful love of God which is revealed in the Heart of Jesus and he experienced this love. On the other hand he became bitterly aware of the destructive presence of hatred. injustice and marginalization. He understood that the deepest cause of all of this human misery is to be sought in the refusal of the love of Christ (cf. Cst 4).

It was a contrasting experience! Such a situation could not be accepted. it must be changed. That is why he fought for "establishing His Reign in individuals and in society" (Cst 4), since redemption is possible and is offered freely to all men.

Father Dehon's experience is the basis of all of his social work. The experience of the merciful love of God. plus his deep knowledge of the reality of his time. had a decisive influence in his pastoral choices, above all those in favor of the lowly and the marginalized. of the workers and the poor.

Father Dehon and the "Social Question"

Leo Dehon, young priest in the industrial city of S. Quentin, was struck by the degrading social context and, pushed by his apostolic zeal, interested himself in the world of work that included apprentices, laborers, students and office workers. From then on he sought a just solution to the social question through speeches and writings as well as through initiatives, activities and works. He tried to make the priests who were involved in pastoral work, and later also the seminarians, sensitive to the social question so that they would come out of their sacristies and go towards the people. Fr. Dehon's speeches became dramatic at social congresses when, speaking to the seminarians and to the priests, he proclaimed the urgency of going to the people (Oeuvres Sociales, Edizione Dehoniane, Naples, pp. 108-110 and 153-161). Repeatedly Father Dehon said that action was needed. "The evil is immense. The remedy is in our hands.

What we are doing is not enough. We cannot limit ourselves to distributing the Sacraments to those who ask for them. People leave a Church that is not interested in their rights, they see the priests as accomplices of their oppressors".

"Let us study and organize ourselves. Let us make the truth known. Social power is now in the hands of the people. We must go out towards these people who have become aware of their strength and their future".

"Let us go among the people to enlighten them, to instruct them, to love them. But let us go with a specific program, with an unceasing activity and with works that are truly for the people. Let us go to the people with real social science and initiatives. Let us show them the true remedies for social ills. Let us love our people, defend them and they will defend us. We must instill the spirit of justice and we must instill love for the lowly in the social life of the world" (cf. 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th Roman Conference).

At the fifth Roman Conference Leo Dehon insisted that it is necessary for the Church and the people to meet again. Priests and men of action, carry on! The people must understand that we do not act for tactical motives but out of conviction and that we espouse evangelical principles".

In the seventh Conference he said that it was necessary to go to the people with a program of Christian Democracy: "Its platform and content are derived, with a few variations in the details, directly from the Encyclical of Leo XIII (Rerum Novarum). We must present ourselves to the people with this program in order to win them for Christ".

"Priests must not remain closed in their Churches and in their rectories. The priest must come out of the sacristy, mix with the people and be at their service" (8th Conference).

The Road Followed by Father Dehon

As a young priest at S. Quentin Leo Dehon defended the monarchy. He founded the Le Conservateur de l'Aisne, a Catholic monarchic newspaper. In 1878 "democracy" or "democratic ideas" in the field of education had, for Fr. Dehon, the unacceptable meaning of support for the original republican ideas of the revolution of 1789.

Around 1890, when "Christian Democracy" was born as a typical social movement, for the just winning of the rights of the working class and for its defence against capitalism, Fr. Dehon had no difficulty in joining it; in fact he always fought against capitalism.

When Leo XIII, in 1892, with his Encyclical "Au milieu des sollicitudes" asked Catholics to support the republic, Fr. Dehon became decidedly republican and democratic, also in the political sense.

In the first rather intense twenty years of his social apostolate (1871-1890) Father Dehon followed the doctrine and the initiatives of the social Catholics. He saw the solution of the social question in the predominately paternalistic concessions of the upper classes and in the various social initiatives, such as corporations, working men's clubs and charitable institutions.

After 1891, under the influence of the ideas of Leo XIII (Rerum Novarum), he supported the Christian Democracy Party and became one of the most celebrated democratic priests. He defended the democratic society and the republic. He fought for freedom. for the autonomy of trade unions and for social justice. He understood that it was necessary to have faith in the workers and that we must help them to become aware of their rights and duties. but that we must not substitute ourselves for them. He understood that the workers must not be deprived of their dignity as the protagonists of their story. This was the rejection of every form of paternalism and the acceptance of the absolute necessity to achieve social justice.

For him going to the people meant dedicating himself first of all to the lowest, to the new poor of industrial society and to the working class. In the beginning he had thought that works in favor of the disinherited and of the workers should be promoted exclusively on the initiative of the employers who, hopefully, had been trained with a Christian sense of justice and charity. Little by little however he became convinced that the true creators of the new era could only be the people themselves and particularly the working class (cf. Fr. Bartolomeo Sorge, SJ, in "SCJ Encounter" January, 1978).

Why a Social Apostolate?

- To respond to Leo XIII's appeal (Rerum Novaritm);

- Because the people are on the wrong road and are making mistakes; they are deceived and led into error (liberalism, masonry, socialism...);

- Because the people are unhappy, suffering and in an undeserved state of wretchedness because they have nothing to lean on;

- Because the priest must go to the people to follow the example of the Good Shepherd: he must seek his sheep and facilitate their participation in the life of the community

Methods of Social Apostolate Suggested by Fr. Dehon

- Words and works;

- Home visits;

- Popular press;

- Study groups, conferences and retreats to train apostles;

- Religious and professional associations, particularly trade unions and corporations;

- Seeking an effective relationship with the faithful, bearing in mind the aspirations of men (not only those of women and children), and facilitating their access to the Sacraments;

- A participation in the people's sufferings and difficulties, orienting them towards their vindications...

To achieve all this the priest must arouse the collaboration of many Christian laity. In fact without the assistance of a committed laity the priest's pastoral ministry could not reach most of those who have need of it (cf. Manuel Social Chrétien, 2nd part and Cor.Sac., 26th Conf.).

We might also recall Fr. Dehon's social writings, his social work and the work of the Congregation in its first years. We only need to recall that in 1919 Fr. Dehon wrote in the Spiritual Directory: "In the work., of the apostolate we must give preference to those which can be considered most dear to the Heart of Jesus: assistance to priests, their education and sanctification; and concern for the lowly the workers and the poor" (O. Sp., VI, p.5l9).

With his social activity Father Dehon has left us a splendid example, indeed a challenge. Should we not now ask ourselves what impelled Fr. Dehon to realize this work?

Certainly it was his great love for Jesus Christ. He wanted to win France back for the Heart of Jesus, above all the working class. To win back the working class, however, he had to get close to them. It was necessary to go to the people and concern himself with all their interests; both material and spiritual. When the people preferred the republic to the monarchy Fr. Dehon relinquished his own personal preferences and accepted the republic fully, taking comfort in all this from the dispositions of Leo XIII. His apostolate always had a reparatory sense: to offer to the Heart of Jesus a Catholic France.

In the introductory chapter of the Christian Social Manual Fr. Dehon writes: "We must call the people to meetings and unite them in associations to construct and console them, to assist them in their sufferings and to lift them up from their depressions. We must do this in order to understand their complaints and their desires, to direct them in their vindications and to lead them again to Christ: their Friend, Brother, Defender and Savior."

Let us return to our own time, to 1993, when we are commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Leo Dehon. Let us examine ourselves on the response we want to give to Father Dehon who at the age of 70 wrote in his book Recollections: "I wanted to contribute to the elevation of the working classes with the advent of justice and Christian charity... This too is a work which must continue" (LC, nn. 388-389).

We could also remember two other aspects of the life of Father Dehon which could be an inspiration for us today: Father Dehon, the man of study; and his quest for a balance between contemplation and action.

Father Dehon, Man of Study

Father Dehon was a man of study; he acquired a vast erudition and showed a genuine capacity for discernment when faced with various cultural, social, spiritual and artistic themes. His sphere of interest "was extremely vast and was investigated with intelligence and taste.

He showed a great capacity for assimilation of the cultural, social and spiritual data of his time. He was truly admirable in his continuous quest to know, investigate and make his own, whatever appeared useful to him for his vocation and mission. He even gave serious thought to devoting himself to teaching and doing pastoral work in a university.

He was also an intelligent and untiring apostle, and, using the most suitable instruments of his time, he knew how to communicate everything that he was discovering in the spiritual and social field.

All this has possible suggestions for us: pastoral work in the university...; pastoral social work...; evangelization of culture...; ongoing formation...; study centers on the social ideas of the Church and of Father Dehon...

A Balance Between Contemplation and Action

The emphasis of the choice of Father Dehon's religious life was on the possibility of achieving a better balance between contemplation and action. He suffered because of the dichotomy between "intimacy with the Lord" and "apostolic activity". This fact often led him to speak of the "intimate aim" of the institute almost as if it were in opposition with its apostolic objective.

He remembered with nostalgia his years in the seminary when he could live peacefully the "contemplative dimension". He lived with anxiety and little satisfaction with regard to his "union with the Lord". This was because he was completely absorbed by the apostolate, by travel, by the founding and direction of the Congregation... He, who from his youth had thought of the religious life as a way of better uniting the "interior life" with apostolic activity, felt "devoured" by activity. In the midst of difficulties, much work and many worries, his interior gaze was always fixed on what for him was the most important thing: that which he called "union with our Lord".

What characterizes Fr. Dehon is not any of his works or even his social apostolate. What characterizes Fr. Dehon is the spiritual animation which leads us constantly to the Heart of Jesus: to the motivations of love, oblation and reparation.

The spirit of the Congregation is an ardent love for and a special devotion to the Heart of Jesus, whose virtues the oblates are called to live. A profound friendship with the Lord and a life of union, was always the heart's desire of Fr. Dehon; of his vocation and of his mission.

Fr. Dehon's spirituality was deeply marked by the contemplative dimension. He indicated to us very clearly in his writings, especially in the Spiritual Testament, that the contemplative dimension is a fundamental and decisive component of Dehonian spirituality. Those who wish to follow Fr. Dehon's example cannot neglect to live it. But even for us, as for Fr. Dehon, it must be quite clear that the contemplative dimension is a union of love with God and is directed to a total availability to His plan.

Therefore, if we wish to pursue this central theme of the life and spirituality of Fr. Dehon, we must make of this contemplative dimension a "unity of life" in a single love for God and for man.

The Dehonian Perspective of the Mission

We do not offer here a complete study of the perspective in which Father Dehon understood and lived his mission in the Church. However, we will refer to are a few characteristic traits of our spirituality in relation to the mission,' as well as some words on the Dehonian apostolic activity according to the orientation of our charism and the direction of the consecrated life today.

1. Dehonian Spirituality in Relation to Mission

We start from the fact that consecration to the religious life in itself is already a mission in relation to men. Our Constitutions, at point n. 27 declare: "This consecration itself already has a real apostolic fruitfulness. Like every charism in the Church, our prophetic charism places us at the service of the saving mission of the people of God in today's world (cf. LG 12)".

It seems opportune then to emphasize the principal aspects of Dehonian spirituality, in order to know how to make it concrete in our daily life and in our apostolic commitment.

a) An Apostolate of Love and Reparation: "This is how we understand "reparation": as a welcome to the Spirit (cf. 1 Thess. 4:8), as a response to Christ's love for us. a communion in His love for the Father and a cooperation in His work of redemption in the midst of the world" (Cst 23).

b) The Apostolate of the "Ecce Venio": "In Father Dehon's view the "Ecce Venio" (Heb. 10:7) defines the fundamental attitude of our life It turns our obedience into an act of oblation; for the redemption of the world, to the glory of the Father" (Cst 58).

c) The Apostolate of "Sint unum": "We let ourselves be permeated with the love of Christ and we hear His prayer Sint Unum: we do our utmost to make our communities authentic centers of Gospel life, particularly by openness, sharing and hospitality, while respecting those places reserved for the community" (Cst 63).

Hospitality in a welcome and reserved environment (in order to also welcome members of the community).

d) The Eucharistic Apostolate: "Through our celebration, united with the whole Church in the "memorial" of and presence to its Lord, we welcome Him who brings us to live together, who consecrates us to God, and unceasingly throws us back onto the streets of the world in the service of the Gospel" (Cst 82).

"In very close relation with the eucharistic celebration, we meditate on the riches of this "mystery of our faith" in adoration, so that the body and blood of Christ, food of eternal life, may transform our beings more deeply... In that we respond to a requirement of our reparatory vocation, in eucharistic adoration we want to deepen our union with the sacrifice of Christ for the reconciliation of people with God" (Cst 83).

e) An Apostolate of Solidarity: "In following Him, we must live in real solidarity with people. Sensitive to what obstructs the love of the Lord in today's world, we give testimony to the fact that human effort needs to be constantly purified and transfigured by the cross and resurrection of Christ to arrive at the fullness of the Kingdom" (Cst 29).

f) The Apostolate of "Adveniat Regnum Tuum": "In our manner of being and acting, by participating in constructing the earthly city and building up the Body of Christ. we should be an effective sign that it is the Kingdom of God and His justice which should be sought above all and in all (cf. Matt. 6:33)" (Cst 38).

g) A Marian Apostolate: "As Mother of Jesus Mary is intimately associated with the life and redemptive work of her son. As Mother of the Church through her maternal intercession she is present to all those who engaged in apostolic mission work for the rebirth of people (cf. LG 65)....By her "Ecce ancilla" she inspires us to availability in faith: She is the perfect image of our religious life" (Cst 85).

2. Dehonian Apostolic Activity

The apostolate of love, of reparation. of the Ecce Venjo, of the Sint Unum, of the eucharistic apostolate, of solidarity, of the Adveniat Regnum Tuum and of the Marian apostolate that is born of the very essence of our charism, must animate all our apostolic activity in the Church.

To the mission of the Church, in the perspective of the spirit of oblation and love, belong the following: eucharistic adoration, the ministry to the lowly and humble, to the workers and the poor; revealing the incalculable richness of Christ to them, being in true solidarity with them and leading them to a complete freedom. With Fr. Dehon we must help the lowly, the humble and the workers to take their destiny into their own hands and fight for total freedom.

In this sense, Father Dehon showed a constant preoccupation for the formation of priests (our formation) so that they could truly fulfill their mission in the Church and in society.

And to fulfill our mission I think it is opportune to give some thought to ourselves, to our charism and at the same time, to consider the direction that consecrated lives may take in the countries where we live. Starting from this thought it would seem that the following will be required of us:

1st. A Deeper Experience of God

A commitment that will make prayer an attitude of life so that prayer and life enrich each other reciprocally: prayer which urges us to commit ourselves in our concrete life, and a way of living the reality of life which demands strong periods of prayer. In addition to individual. personal prayer the quest for a special form of community prayer would appear necessary; with the sharing of the experience of faith as well as with the discernment of reality that is achieved by praying with the brethren of the Congregation and with the people (cf. Dir. Provincial 727).

We see here again Fr. Dehon's insistence on contemplative life and active life.

2nd. A Community of Greater Brotherhood

In the religious life today there is an endeavor to give greater importance to interpersonal. brotherly relations in which friendship, sincerity and maturity, as an indispensable human basis for community living in a dimension of faith, are all maximized because of the fact that it is the Lord who is calling; combined with a simpler, more receptive life style that is open to dialogue and participation. (cf. DP 730). "We must live charity more intensely than other congregations because we are the Congregation of the Heart of Jesus, source of charity" (cf. V, 89). "We must be communities of reparation" (ibid.).

"We must question ourselves not so much on what distinguishes us from the others but on whether we live our religious and/or priestly life in such a way that the others may become increasingly like us. Father Dehon wanted a priestly work of Reparation!".

3rd. A Preferential Option (Love) for the Poor (This is one of Fr. Dehon's great preoccupations and today, along with the new emphasis on pastoral works, it seems to be the most notable tendency of the religious life in many countries).

We religious should stay increasingly in the periphery, in the difficult regions and in the missions among indigenous populations, working humbly and in silence. This option does not imply the exclusion of anyone, it merely indicates a preference for and a closer approach to the poor (cf. DP 733).

3. Lastly, We are Called to Opt for a More Evangelizing Religious Life

This fact presupposes at least three prerequisites on our part:

1st. A Deeper Consecration: We must intensify with opportune means, a way of living our own total and radical consecration to God, which implies two inseparable and complementary aspects: Consecration and exclusive, generous and complete dedication to God and service to the Church and to all mankind (cf. DP 759).

2nd. Consecration as an Expression of Communion: "To increase brotherhood in the communities especially those interpersonal relationships within them that favor integration and create greater communion and improved collaboration for the mission (cf. DP 764)

In our Dehonian communities we cannot (must not) allow divisions envy, dishonesty, individualism or unreliable people (we are the Congregation of the Heart of Christ).

3rd. A More Dedicated Mission: "To urge religious to make their first choice a commitment to the poor..." (DP 769). "To stimulate religious to reach out with their evangelizing action to the environments of culture, art, social communication and promotion of human values; in order to make in this way a specific evangelical contribution according to their own vocation and their special situation in the Church" (DP 770).

"Reawaken availability of the consecrated so that they may take, within their respective Churches, places in the vanguard of evangelization, in faithful communion with the clergy and with their own community; and also in fidelity to the charism of the foundation" (DP 771). I am convinced that Fr. Dehon would underwrite all of this.

"Stimulate fidelity to our original charism and to its actualization and adaptation to the needs of the people of God, so that our works may acquire a greater evangelizing force. Fidelity to the origins and courage to change, adapt and undertake. In a certain sense we must always 're-found' the Congregations while remaining ever faithful to the motivations which brought about their birth in the Church. In the world of today an open, enlightened mentality is needed and at the same time the strong mindedness of people who make a decision and who accept responsibility for the choice they have made.

To conclude let us recall one of Father Dehon's thoughts: "A man who wants to change society cannot have timid ideas!".

(Sehnem F., Dehonian Charism in the Life of the Founder, Dehoniana 82, Centro Studi SCJ, Rome 1995, ss.47-72)