Fr. Charles de Condren was the second Superior General of the
Congregation of the Oratorians. He was especially interested in promoting
devotion to Mary as part of a specifally priestly spirituality.
Note. ‘Foundation Masses’ were Masses, said on a
regular basis, say once a month or once a year, for which a donor gave a
(large) stipend of money that remained as ‘the foundation’ for those
Masses.
Sample text for a foundation Mass: “A Mass . . . . will be
celebrated every day in the church of . . . . to the intention of the very
blessed Mother of God . . . I place her Son, Jesus Christ, into the hands (of
Mary) by this foundation in as much as I can, and I beg her with my whole heart
to offer it herself to God in this daily sacrifice as she does offer it and has
offered it, in time and in eternity, on earth as in heaven.” Lettres
du P. de Condren publiées par P. Auvray et A. Jouffrey, Paris 1943,
appendix 1, § 6.
“Because the blessed Virgin has formed the body which Jesus Christ
has left us as a covenant, the congregation [=of the Oratorians] wants that all
her members be her servants . . . They should have recourse to her, not only by
the obligation incumbent on all God’s children, but by the special
alliance which priests acquire with her in the production of the body of Jesus
Christ, a body which they have to learn from her to treat in a saintly fashion.
There is also a special resemblance and link between their priestly grace and
that of the Mother of God, since both deal with the same body of Jesus Christ.
Superiors must take care that the self-offerings to the holy Mother of God
which our honourable Father founder has left us are not neglected.”
Lettres du P. de Condren publiées par P. Auvray et A.
Jouffrey, Paris 1943, letter no 79, p. 248.
“Our Congregation regards and honour the blessed Virgin as . . . .
the Mother of Jesus, and in Jesus the Mother of all Christians through the
grace of their adoption, and more especially as the Mother of priests who have
been sanctified to consecrate the body of Jesus which she conceived so
divinely, brought up and served so religiously, and offered to God with such
great love.” Lettres du P. de Condren publiées par P. Auvray
et A. Jouffrey, Paris 1943, appendix 1, § 1, p. 524.
