Can you imagine giving up a military career, guaranteed inheritance, and family to live in poverty and solitude? This was the reality for the young 18th century Italian, Paolo Francesco Danei. Out of love for the Crucified One, he is now known as Saint Paul of the Cross.
So writes Sister Julieta Mondragon CFP, pictured below, who serves as the Director of Religious Education at Cristo Rey parish in Lansing and is a member of the religious order founded by Saint Paul of the Cross, the Passionists. Sister Julieta continues:
Today, just as in 1720, society seeks only comfort and well-being. Saint Paul exchanged his military uniform for a black habit to found a congregation and fight against the world’s indifference and its forgetfulness of Christ’s sufferings on the cross — which are the cause of all its evils — and he said: “I am dressed in mourning for the Passion of Jesus, because the world has forgotten the greatest gift of love that God has given to humanity.” Upon hearing him, even the most hardened hearts experienced conversion, healing, and peace. What must we change, how should we preach, and what must we fight against?
What does Saint Paul of the Cross tell us today?
The remedy for all the world’s evils is to commemorate the Passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He challenges us to unite our sufferings to his Passion and to look upon the crucifix not as an ornament, but to see that, in our moments of pain and suffering, Jesus is there with open arms to embrace and sustain us.
This is what each of us Passionists lives out and proclaims in the mission entrusted to us: “To Contemplate and Remember the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ” in our suffering world today, which needs God for its salvation.
“May the Passion of Jesus Christ always be in our hearts”
Saint Paul of the Cross, pray for us!
