Lord, to whom shall we go but to Thee?

"Lord, to whom shall we go but to Thee? Thou hast the words of
eternal life." The words of eternal life are the words from God
controlling your true being, controlling the real spiritual you. They
are the words from God, which are heard by you in your heart and mind
when these are wide open to His spirit. These are the words of eternal
life, which express the true way you are to live. They say to you in
the stillness of your heart and mind and soul: "Do this and live."

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October 19th - St. Paul of the Cross
(1694-1775)

St. Paul Danei was one of the outstanding home missionaries of the
18th century, and the Passionists, the religious order that he
founded, have since then continued his tradition of parish missions
around the world.

Paul Francis Danei was born near Genoa, Italy, on January 3, 1694. His
parents, though of noble background, had to struggle to raise their 16 children, and because of their budgetary problems, Paul, the second
oldest, had to curtail his schooling, and even, on one occasion, had
to pawn his own possessions to assist them. Yet Luke and Anna Maria
Danei gave to their brood a still greater treasure: a strong religious
sense. His mother, in fact, taught Paul Francis to fervently love the
cross. Whenever he was pained or frustrated, she would show him a
crucifix and remind him how Jesus bore His own cross to Calvary.

When he was 15, young Danei heard a sermon that made him aware that he
was not corresponding sufficiently to God’s grace. He therefore made a general confession and began a program of intensive prayer and
mortification. His gift of leadership now began to show itself. He
induced his younger brother, John Baptist Danei, to join him in his
project, and soon he had persuaded several other teenagers to join
them. Of these recruits several eventually entered religious orders.

Just where God was leading Paul, however, did not at once appear. In
1714 he enlisted in the Venetian army to fight against the Moslem
Turks, a cause promoted by Pope Clement XI. But a year of soldiering
convinced him that he was not called to the military life. He decided
against marrying, declined to accept a generous inheritance, and began
to lead the life of a quasi-hermit in his own home, devoting himself
to constant prayer.

During the summer of 1720, Paul received three extraordinary visions.
In them he was shown a black religious habit bearing a breastbadge
inscribed with a white heart and cross and the words, “The Passion of
Jesus Christ.” Our Lady, dressed in this garb, appeared to him and
instructed him to found a religious congregation dedicated to constant
mourning for the passion and death of her Son.

Now the career of Paul Danei became clear. He wrote a monastic rule of
life, and in 1727, with papal permission, having received, with his
brother, ordination to the priesthood, he launched the Passionists,
officially called “The Congregation of Discalced Clerks of the Most
Holy Cross and Passion of our Lord.” This religious order aimed to
preserve the austerity of the hermit life and at the same time to heal
souls by reminding them of the debt they owed to the passion and death
of Jesus. In preaching parish missions internationally and by offering
their own austere example as well as the word of God, the Passionist
Fathers achieved amazing success in bringing people back to God. One interesting phase of their campaign was their constant prayer for the conversion of England, begun by the founder in 1720. Significantly, it
was a Passionist, Bl. Dominic Barberi, who in 1845 received the
Anglican convert John Henry Newman into the Church.

St. Paul of the Cross also established the Passionist nuns, a strictly cloistered congregation. An able administrator and an influential
guide of souls, he continued to be the recipient of astonishing
spiritual graces up to the end of his life – a life fraught,
incidentally, with great difficulties, but fortified by faith. The self-sacrificing priest, both organizer and mystic, died at 80, and
was canonized in 1867, eight years short of the centenary of his
death.

In reading the lives of the male and female saints who have received
mystical graces and powers like healing and prophecy, we may wonder
why God has not given more of us a share of such gifts.

One reason, doubtless, is that you and I are not so prayerful as the
canonized saints have been. A surer reason is that God gives graces as
He chooses and is not bound to explain His generosities to the rest
of us.

But finally, we must remember that the more “extravagant” graces are bestowed not for the benefit of the recipients so much as for the
benefit of others.

Thus the visions God granted to Paul of the Cross did not make him
holier per se, but impelled him to remind all of us of what too often
we forget, that Christ died a bitter death to save us.
–Father Robert


Saint Quote:
Do not pass one day without devoting a half hour, or at least a
quarter of an hour, to meditation on the sorrowful Passion of your
Saviour. Have a continual remembrance of the agonies of your crucified
Love, and know that the greatest saints, who now, in heaven, triumph
in holy love, arrived at perfection in this way.
--St. Paul of the Cross


Bible Quote
But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my
name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you. (John 14:26)


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To Obtain Heaven.

O Queen of Paradise, who reignest above all the choirs of angels, and who
art the nearest of all creatures to God, I, a miserable sinner, salute thee from this valley of tears, and beseech thee to turn thy compassionate eyes towards me, for whichever side they turn they dispense graces.

See, O Mary, in how many danger I now am, and shall be as long as I live in this world, of losing my soul, of losing heaven and God. In thee, O Lady, I have placed all my hopes. I love thee and sigh to go soon to see thee, and praise thee in heaven. Ah, Mary, when will be that happy day on which I
shall see myself safe at thy feet, and contemplate my Mother who has done so much for my salvation?

When shall I kiss that hand which has delivered me so many times from hell,
and has dispensed me so many graces, when, on account of my sins, I deserve
to be hated and abandoned by all? My Lady, in life I have been very
ungrateful to thee; but if I reach heaven, I shall no longer be ungrateful; there I shall love thee as much as I can in every moment for all eternity,
and shall make amends for my ingratitude by blessings and thanksgiving thee forever.

I thank God with my whole heart, who gives me firm confidence in the blood
of Jesus Christ and in thee, and in the conviction that thou wilt save me;
that thou wilt deliver me from my sins; that thou wilt give me light and strength to execute the divine will; and in time, that thou wilt lead me to
the gate of paradise. Thy servants have hoped for this, and not one of them
was deceived. No, neither shall I be deceived. O Mary, my full confidence is that thou hast to save me. Beseech thy Son Jesus as I also beseech him, by
the merits of his Passion, to preserve and always increase this confidence
in me, and I shall be saved. - Amen.

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