Today January 10

Today is the feast of Father Felix Rougier, (1859 - 1938). He was the son of a simple farmer and had been baptized and placed on the side altar of the Virgin Mary and consecrated to her shortly after his birth. He entered the seminary in France and while there, heard a stirring appeal by a Marist missionary in Samoa. He felt a call -- and despite clerical opposition -- went to join the Society of Mary, with the idea of serving in Oceania. He failed to get there, but he did become a missionary: first in Colombia and then in Mexico -- and this during the huge anti-clerical movement and revolution there. He always felt that "many people were mediocre in the spiritual life because they had no one to listen to them" -- so he was always ready to listen -- in the fields with the farmworkers, on horseback with the cowboys (he became quite a horseman himself), with pockets full of candy and nuts with the little children, in the confessional for long hours with penitents, on the battlefield with soldiers. The first parish he was pastor of was Our Lady of Lourdes in Mexico City, with a congregation of about 6000. He felt, as do many conscientious priests, that the parish bulletin was an important vehicle to teach people about God and put lots of time and effort into his words there.

He encouraged the organization of Altar Boys and Choir Boys -- taking them on picnics and sports outings, all the while talking to them about God; a similar group for girls, called The Angels; and a huge organization of laypeople called "The Works of the Cross" (from which spun other groups and orders, including the Priests of the Cross) which he established with Conchita Cabrera, a close platonic female friend (who was also, like him, a writer). These groups, centered on helping (lay)people to carry their crosses daily, were slow to receive permission from church authorities, but Felix always obeyed his superiors and accepted even their unfairness as "the will of God." He adopted as his motto the native Latin American saying when confronted with a personal cross: "God remembered me."

He was called home to Europe at this time -- another personal frustration, because it delayed his founding of the orders and seemed to thwart his desire to complete his missionary work -- for 10 years! But he was allowed to return during a big heat-up of persecution in Mexico. He got the go-ahead for his priestly order (now called the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit) and rushed in to a country where the majority of priests were bailing out. The bishop of Guadalajara even told him "It is madness" about his trying to serve in Mexico in 1914. His congregation of priests had to begin in secret and in civilian clothes. He himself was not allowed to join it, his superiors refusing to let him leave the Marists. Still he obeyed; still he was loyal. He did get the country of Mexico to be consecrated to the Holy Spirit.

He became a wanted man: the bishops of Mexico suspended all religious services; men were stabbed for saying "Viva Cristo Rey!", priests were lynched. Felix opened a retreat house for old and troubled priests; all who came were positive and grateful for the experience. The police closed and seized it; frustrated once again, Felix only said, "God gave it. God took it away. Blessed be God."

Felix wasn't killed in the persecution: he died of internal hemorrhage after 2 - 3 years of heart and stomach ailments. He died on January 10 in 1938, his last words about his heavenly mother: "With her, everything. . . without her, nothing." He died gazing at a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, one of his favorite of her appearances. Father Felix Rougier, pray for us.