From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   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."   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   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)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   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;   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)