Missionary reflection on the celebration of the feast of Pentecost

Pentecost is all about power and intimacy. It’s all about a faith that matters. It’s all about God in the every day, in every moment of our lives.

Because Pentecost is about a religion that’s alive. It’s about a Church that has the blood of God coursing through it. It’s about a faith that calls all its members parts of the Body of Christ. And that has consequences in our lives.

And that brings us to another thing. Our faith is not private. It is lived amidst our parishioners, among our friends, among the people all over the world where we are called to be with as missionaries. Catholicism does not believe that a personal relationship with Christ is enough, because Jesus did not believe it was enough. If he did, there would have been no Pentecost. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, all of us experiencing God through Sacraments, all of us working to spread the news of Jesus to the world.

Happy feast of Pentecost to everyone!

Celebrating the 50th World Day of Prayer for Vocations

The World Day of Prayer for Vocations or Vocations Sunday will be celebrated tomorrow, April 21, on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. The theme chosen for this year  is: “Vocations as a sign of hope founded in faith”.

This 50th World Day of Prayer for Vocations also coincides with the Year of Faith, which is marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. While the Council was sitting, Pope Paul VI instituted the World Day of Prayer for Vocations which is a worldwide day of prayer to God, asking him to continue to send workers for his Church (cf. Mt 9:38).

When he published the message for Vocations Sunday 2013 in .October last year, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said: “Vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life are born out of the experience of a personal encounter with Christ, out of sincere and confident dialogue with him, so as to enter into his will. It is necessary, therefore, to grow in the experience of faith, understood as a profound relationship with Jesus, as inner attentiveness to his voice which is heard deep within us. This process, which enables us to respond positively to God’s call, is possible in Christian communities where the faith is lived intensely, where generous witness is given of adherence to the Gospel, where there is a strong sense of mission which leads people to make the total gift of self for the Kingdom of God, nourished by recourse to the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and by a fervent life of prayer.”

Let us ask Jesus, the Lord of the harvest, to send workers in His Vineyard: more priests and religious men and women who will continue to spread the message of salvation throughout the world.

The vocation of the Pauline missionaries

God calls all of us by our own name and He has a wonderful dream for each one of us. He calls us through prayer and reflection, speaking through events and through others about our hopes and desires, our gifts and talents. In responding to God’s call to each of us, we can experience what Jesus has promised: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

We Pauline missionaries are given this task to be open and to encounter other cultures, entering into a free relationship not only with God, but also with others in the place and country where we had been sent by Him. We are called to realize our missionary vocation utilizing the instruments of the communications media so as to bring God’s message of peace and love to all people.

Blessed James Alberione, founder of the Pauline Family, said, “Jesus entrusts to the apostles the world and all men and women. They will be the light and salt of the world; fishers of souls and sowers; pastors and witnesses of Christ!”

Happy Easter to all!

The journey through Holy Week is always one of highs and lows - walking with Jesus during the dark hours of Holy Thursday and bearing witness to His suffering on the Cross on Good Friday, and the joy of the Risen Lord on Easter Day. It is a pattern that Christians have gone through for hundreds of years, but it remains a faith-affirming period where our personal relationship with God is made manifest in the Risen Lord on Easter Day.

Journeying through Holy Week is a very personal experience and is borne from a personal relationship with God. As we experience the uncertainty and loss, as the disciples did after Jesus was arrested at the Garden of Gethsemane, we emerge through it all to experience the wondrous joy of Christ's resurrection and a personal promise to each of us for life everlasting.

To everyone and especially our visitors in this blog, we wish you the joy of the Resurrection of Jesus! Happy Easter to everyone!

Praying for our new Pope

Lent is a privileged time for us to listen to the voice of God in prayer. Like Jesus we must find our own “desert place" where we can listen to God without distraction.  

In Lent we set aside extra  times to go to our "desert place" -- whether it be in church or in nature or in the quiet of our hearts — to listen for God's voice in the solitude of prayer.

Our new shepherd of the church, Pope Francis I, also sees the need of prayer in his life. We saw this when he expressed his spiritual need to the people in Saint Peter’s Square asking them to pray for him.

Together, let us say this prayer for our new spiritual leader in the church:

O Lord, guide Pope Francis I in the way of Jesus. May the Gospel inspire him and may truth be his guiding force. Give him wisdom, zeal and the gift of governance as he leads the Church on the journey to your Kingdom. Amen.

Countdown to the Conclave

As Pauline missionaries called to serve the Lord using the communications media, we wish to give you, our friends and visitors of this blog, this information regarding the Conclave: the selection for the new pope. Here it is: 

Vatican law requires a Conclave commence 15 to 20 days after the papacy becomes vacant. The Conclave will probably last one to three days. Benedict XVI was elected on the 4th ballot in 2005. The last Conclave to go more than five days was in 1831, which lasted 54 days.

Of the more than 200 cardinals attending the Conclave only those who are under 80 years of age are eligible, approximately 115. White smoke signifies a new pope has been elected, black smoke signals there has been no result. After the pope-elect accepts, the Cardinal Dean asks him about his papal name.  After the new pope chooses his name, he returns to the Conclave and the Master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies releases a document declaring the new name of the pope.

The senior Cardinal Deacon comes out on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica and proclaims the new pope's name, beginning with "Habemus Papam! or "I announce to you a great joy: We have a new Pope!" The new pope then comes out and gives his first apostolic blessing.

Together with this information, we invite all of you to pray for all the Cardinals who will take part in this very important event in the Catholic church.

Celebrating the birth anniversary of Sister Thecla Merlo

Today, February 20, we Daughters of St. Paul celebrate the birth anniversary of our Co-Foundress. Sister Tecla Merlo, a woman of steadfast faith and willpower, placed her future into the hands of Blessed James Alberione, founder of the Pauline Family.

Tecla's desire was to serve God. She was convinced that in Alberione, God was directing her life. She was of poor health. But, as St. Paul says, "God chooses the weak...." And today, the Pauline Family has spread across the globe living and communicating Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life through the means of the communications media.

Mother Thecla has been an intercessor for us and for friends of the Pauline Family for many years. Now declared "Venerable," by Pope John Paul II in 1991, Mother Tecla is well on her way to beatification.

We invite you to join us in praying that this faithful servant may soon be recognized among the Blessed.

Prayer to Obtain Favors through Mother Tecla's Intercession:

Most Holy Trinity, we thank you for the singular gifts of light, grace, and virtue which you granted to Sister Thecla Merlo, and we thank you for having chosen and constituted her the wise mother and sure guide of the Daughters of St. Paul.
Through her intercession, grant that we may live of her great loves: Jesus Master in the Holy Eucharist, the Church, the Gospel and souls--souls sought and served through evangelization with the instruments of social communication--to the point of total sacrifice.
O Lord, if it be in the designs of your divine wisdom, carry out even on this earth, for this very devoted Daughter of St. Paul, your divine promise: "If anyone serves me, my Father will honor him."
Exalt this faithful Servant to the joy of the Church and the good of many souls, and grant us, through her intercession, the favor we ask of you. Amen.
Glory Be...Hail Mary...

Venerable Thecla Merlo: a Woman of Charity and Faith in God

In this month of February, we, the Daughters of Saint Paul worldwide, celebrate with joy two significant events in the life of our co-Foundress, Venerable Thecla Merlo: her birth anniversary (on February 20); and her death anniversary (on February 5). 

At the age of 21, she accepted the invitation of Blessed James Alberione, our Founder, to form a group of girls who later became known as the Daughters of St. Paul. And on January 22, 1992, Pope John Paul II proclaimed her as Venerable.

 

Her inspiring thoughts on Charity: "May charity reign! And let there be, first of all, charity with our closest neighbor towards whom we need more patience... Problems are all solved with a little prayer and by exercising a little charity with the others. If we do not love our neighbor, neither do we love God... Let us know how to excuse; know how to be understanding. If we know how to do this, our Lord will excuse and overlook our failings.”

Her reflection on Faith in God: "When our thoughts are fixed on God, when we reflect on His presence, how beautiful our life is! Who among us can outdo God in generosity? Consider His goodness more than His justice. Then we will find it very easy to love and serve Him.  At times, we are too preoccupied with ourselves. If we abandon ourselves to God, we would be more joyful, knowing that we are in the hands of a good Father, who loves us and disposes everything for our own good." 

Let us ask God, through the intercession of Venerable Thecla Merlo, to instil in us these same virtues that she had lived until her last breath!

Saint Paul: "The Greatest Missionary of All Times"

Since his election as Pope, Benedict XVI has frequently mentioned the figure of St Paul, the Apostle of the nations. And in the very beginning on 25 April 2005, the Holy Father visited the tomb of St Paul where he said in his homily "I am here to revive in the faith this 'apostolic grace', since God, as the Apostle to the Gentiles has likewise said, has entrusted me with 'anxiety for all the Churches'". 

The Apostle is known primarily as the one who worked to announce the Gospel to all nations. If the Church's duty is mission, the successor of Peter comes "on a pilgrimage, so to speak, to the roots of mission". The Pope has contemplated on the person of Paul underlining the radical nature of his encounter with Christ and the revelation received on the way to Damascus as the source of Paul's theology. "He understood in an instant what he would later express in his writings: that the Church forms a single body of which Christ is the Head. And so, from a persecutor of Christians he became the Apostle to the Gentiles."

Pope Benedict XVI emphasizes Paul's awareness that he is chosen and sent by God. This divine calling, the manifestation of God's mercy, is for Paul, the reason for his personal involvement in mission. His self-giving is the principal cause of the fruitfulness of his apostolate. The life of Paul, described by the Pope, is marked by centrality of the person of Christ and the universal aspect of Paul's apostolate. What made him undertake difficult journeys was Christ's love for him and his love for Christ. (An excerpt: St Paul the Apostle, in the teaching of Pope Benedict XVI )

As we celebrate the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul during this Year of Faith, may we all imitate our Father Saint Paul in his faith and love for Christ and in his fidelity to the mission entrusted to him by God! Happy feast day to all!

The Mission of Jesus in his Baptism and our mission as Paulines

The celebration of the Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord is the official end to the Christmas Season. 

 Jesus being baptized, came out of the water; and the heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him. And behold a voice from heaven saying, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." 


Jesus stoops so low as to mingle with the multitude of sinners, and then the heavens are opened to magnify Him. He acknowledges Himself worthy of the strokes of divine justice, and the Father declares that He takes all His delight in Him.

It is at this moment that the mission of Jesus, as One sent by God, is declared authentic. The Father's testimony accredits, so to speak, His Son before the world, and this testimony relates to one of the characters of Christ's work as regards ourselves.

The mission of Jesus has a double aspect: it bears at the same time the character of redemption and of sanctification. It is to redeem souls, and, this done, to infuse life into them. That is the whole work of the Savior.

Our call as Pauline missionaries in the world has a deep resemblance to the mission of Jesus: that of saving souls through the work that we do in the country where we have been sent by God. May we be found worthy of this precious call as we strive to live faithfully our lives, imitating the teachings of Jesus, and allowing ourselves to be guided by the testimony of our Founders: Blessed James Alberione and Venerable Thecla Merlo!