Eugene wrote a short letter to Fr. Casimir Aubert on May 16, 1836.

“My dear Son, although it is very late. I shall not go to bed without writing you a few lines. I don’t want to tell you that it seems to me that it is already too long a time since you wrote me, perhaps you would think me too demanding. The truth is that I get a lot of pleasure from your letters, I will go as far as to say that they do me a lot of good. And at the same time isn’t a man entitled rather to want to make use of what is his; now you know that you and I are one in heart and spirit, quite apart from the supernatural bonds that bind us so closely.” (570:VIII in Oblate Writings)

Here it is a short letter that is filled with the love that very simply stops me in my tracks before I set out for my day.  Eugene loves Fr. Casimir dearly and does not hide it.  “My dear Son” he writes – joyfully unafraid to speak of his love.  This is love that far surpasses the norm.  It is the kind of genuine consuming love that I have for the Oblates – each one of them as I meet them.  It is the kind of love that I would imagine most members of a community, a family where they share and find God in each other.  That phrase about being of one heart and one spirit – it is like that – for many who belong to my family in my parish and for the Oblates – some more than others.  There is a kinship, a joining of the hearts that might sometimes scares some people.  This is a love given to us, connecting us with each other in God.  How absolutely delightful, to witness it and to experience it.

Yes my soul is hungry, as hungry as it has ever been for deeper fuller love.  I hope that I never get so full of love that I don’t hunger for more.