Oct 20 Paul of the Cross b. 1694 d. 1775 bl. 1852 c. 1867

John and Thommy

Good morning
I love you.

I got my self to Mass yesterday: 5:15 at spx. As much as I don’t like msgr. personally, he is a top notch preacher and liturgist. Plus the rest of the people in the church include people I’ve known now for six years. It’s almost an at home type of experience.

Today I voted. The line was less than an hour. The conversation with people in front and behind was a treat. I hadn’t particularly planned on voting a month ago. Now the election in NC is close – for several state and local races plus the bonds in GSO, not to mention the presidential election. I couldn’t not vote this year.

I hope you are also finding yourself at Mass and getting yourself to the polls…. Dr. Young, a philosophy professor at UNCG, an ethicist of substance, and one of the best teachers I’ve ever been in class with, spoke at spx Sunday on the US Catholic bishops’ 2008 letter on responsible citizenship. We are taught to vote our conscience. Of course, that assumes an informed conscience. I pray that you have found a way to better, Catholically, informed your conscience. To not form your conscience correctly is a sin of omission. Then to pursue actions, based on an incorrectly formed conscience, compounds the error…. See, going to Mass and voting are connected….

I love you
Dad



October 20
Paul of the Cross b. 1694 d. 1775 bl. 1852 c. 1867

I would not have normally pulled this guy out to write about. He doesn’t fit our/my criteria – he’s not a biggie, not a Jesuit, and definitely not Irish. But, with John’s birthday on the Feast of the Cross, I thought this man and his congregation was worth alerting you to….

I also suggest the readings for his memorial mass. How the Cross is our wisdom but folly to the Greeks/Gentiles; how the Cross is our salvation but foolishness to the Jews. God so loves us, He has sent His only begotten Son, to us, to die on the cross for us….

St. Paul of the Cross, Paul Francis Daneii, was born at Ovada, Genoa, January 3, 1694. We are told that his infancy and youth were spent in great innocence and piety. Well, I would hope, each of our infancies were spent in innocence – we really can hardly help ourselves. It is the time when we are vessels for our parents’ love, the Love of God channeled to us; the love of the marriage which the infant personifies…. A youth of piety? The foundation for that is much a parental gift. And then, each of us has the outpouring of grace to which to respond ourselves. When these are mutually reinforced, a pious youth is more likely. Too bad you were passed into an about without piety support in 1994. Still, the fertile ground of your souls and the efforts of a parent and your grammar schools give you a foundation not yet fully actualized, maybe not much yet accessed. Seek and you will find…. His mother taught him from an early age that the strength to overcome any and all difficulties in life was to be found in the Passion of Jesus Christ. What source of strength have you been taught that would be more powerful?

His parents, Luke Danei and Anna Maria Massari, were exemplary Catholics. It does matter what sort of parents you have. How your parents exemplify the gifts, talents, resources, graces God gives to marriage/parenthood. Paul of the Cross used the crucifix as his book and the Crucified as his model. It does matter what we are given at the beginning and what we carry forward with us – and what we go back to later on…. The good that we are given and the evil we are shielded from are important. The good that is kept from us and the evil inserted into our lives also effect what and how we do. And then we grow up…. Shaping our lives and the lives given into our care based on the foundation we started with and the framework we added to our house of God/self….

Paul received his early education from a priest who kept a school for boys, in Cremolino, Lombardy. You got your early education from the Dominican sisters of the Congregation of St Cecelia. As well as the daily instruction at your homes which either supported the Catholic foundation or did not; which reinforced your Catholicism or not; which modeled our Catholicism or didn’t.

Paul of the Cross made great progress in study and virtue. Reflect upon your early years. Your progression not only in study but in virtue amidst the virtuous/or not around you. How are you progressing in study and virtue now?

Paul of the Cross spent much time in prayer. Bishop Curlin said Mass for us recently and gave his eloquent sermon about prayer: tying in Mother Teresa’s instructions and influences. I believe that you cannot spend too little time in prayer. Ignatian and other spiritualities teach us to convert all of our actions into prayer. But first, spend much time in prayer….

Paul of the Cross in his early years attended daily Mass. I cannot think of a better daily exercise, better daily prayer(s): personal and communal. Paul of the Cross frequently received the Sacraments. Note the plural. Frequent communion was still frowned upon by many in the 18th century church. Today I’m guessing we go too far in the other direction – receiving communion when not in communion. But, alas, what do I know about another’s soul? Not only communion but also the sacrament of Penance. Bishop Curlin said that he goes at least every two weeks. And here’s a man that legitimately can say that sometimes he goes to confession without knowing of a current sin. But he goes with the desire for the graces of forgiveness, the closeness of penance, as a opportunity to say I am sorry, again, for my many transgressions from before. Not only is this a habit for our relationship with God but also a model for each of our relations. I am sorry. I forgive you….

Paul of the Cross faithfully attended to his school duties, and gave his spare time to reading good books. Reflect again on your own studies. Be sure that you are using all of God’s gifts and achieving the A’s that are expected of you, that are your duty. And then, there is the mountains of ‘spare time.’ How you spend your spare time, including reading good books, is an important foundational activity, a daily activity, lifetime of activities….

Also in his ‘spare time’ Paul of the Cross spent visiting the churches, where he spent much time before the Blessed Sacrament, to which he had an ardent devotion. There before the blessed sacrament – a fulcrum of our faith. You know he was on his knees – a place where humility is learned. And if he were before the tabernacle, he was also before the Church’s major crucifix – the vivid reminder of who we are and how much God loves us….

Sounds like the epitome of honky dory! Well, dear sons, not the way it was. We cannot use our trials and tribulations, the hard times, the lost loves, the disadvantages we see to pile up in our youth which are apparently so beyond our control [not, I assure you, unlike the rest of your life.]. At the age of fifteen he left school and returned to his home at Castellazzo, and from this time his life was full of trials. The three online sources I read do not give us the details of these – maybe it matters and if it does, search for them yourself. Know that this saint, a child of innocence and piety, a successful and holy student also had a youth-full, a lifetime of, his own trials; not unlike if even very different from yours.

Paul of the Cross knew his vocation and chose to be loyal to it. He turned down the opportunity for an honorable marriage. He declined a good inheritance from an uncle. Paul of the Cross was inflamed with a desire for God’s glory – and saw his way to serve that was to start a religious order in honor of the Passion. Under the direction of his confessor and mentor, Paul of the Cross spent a goodly part of the seventeen twenties in a cell where he drew up the Rules of the congregation in service of the Passion – the plan for which was given to him in a vision.

It would not surprise me if God is giving you a visions about what your vocation is and how to best fulfill it. Seeing it requires a life of prayer, love, commitment. Deciphering it likely involves spiritual direction. How are you making yourself an instrument of God’s love? How are you reciprocating that?

In 1747, after almost twenty five years of trying, Paul of the Cross got the Congregation approved by the Church. Paul of the Cross was elected the Passionists’ first superior general. Although continually occupied with the cares of governing his religious society, and of founding everywhere new houses for it, yet he never left off preaching the word of God. Paul of the Cross sought every way he could to bring the Love of Jesus, with a special devotion to and understanding of the Passion, not only in the formation of his Congregation and the religious he nurtured, but also by sending this Congregation throughout the world…. Including to Greensboro NC.

Of important special note for you two, John Baptist Daneii, Paul’s younger brother, was his constant companion from childhood and shared with Paul of the Cross his labors and sufferings. They were equal in the practice of virtue – fraternal influence. World’s greatest brothers – that’s what this is also about…. Counseled by and with the good example of his brother John Baptist, Paul constantly endeavored to preserve the spirit of solitude, poverty and prayer. When John Baptist died in 1767, Paul felt he had been abandoned, left an orphan. Imagine the great loss of your brother….

How did Paul of the Cross sustain his virtue? His constant personal union with the Cross and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ was the prominent feature of St Paul’s sanctity. Try it yourself. For a day. A few hours. Fully devote yourself to the Cross, the Passion [my memories of the Jesuits’ long retreat, subsequent shorter retreats, the central role of meditations on the Cross and Jesus’ Passion.] Such focus, such concentration, such prayer, meditation, contemplation on the Cross and Passion are life changers, even when you do it for a short while…. And return to it over and over….


The Passionists are a group of Christian men, both ordained and non-ordained, who live in community and announce to the men and women of our times the Gospel of Christ.

The founder saw in the Passion of Jesus "the greatest work of divine Love" and the revelation of the power of the Resurrection to overcome the forces of evil. He bequeathed to his followers the task of announcing to their contemporaries the love of God for each and every person shown in the passion and death of Jesus who rose victorious on Easter day.

The Passionists make a special promise to promote the memory of the passion of Jesus by word and deed. They do this especially in preaching and various ministries among the poor, and the marginalized of every kind in whom they see the Crucified today.
Another characteristic of the Passionists is their life in community. Passionist fraternity means that everything is held in common. Time is given to community prayer and to the contemplative dimension of life. Passionists are active contemplatives who, in a creative way, unite contemplation and an active pastoral life.

There are more than two thousand Passionists in 52 nations in the five continents.



Saints and Angels on line
Catholic encyclopedia on line
Passionists Fathers on line