2010
Vol. X, No. 2
letter from the editor
By Sr. Margaret Kerry, FSP
“Not business, but evangelization,”
Fr. Sassi, Superior General, repeats
wrote Blessed James Alberione to the
Alberione’s insight: “The effort of work
Pauline communities almost forty years
must be integrated by a vision that
after founding the Society of St. Paul.
positions it in a supernatural ambience.
The underpinning of an apostolate of
For us Paulines, the lack of faith is harmful
teaching though all of the new media
even for a simple human administration
would have to be a great spirituality. In
that is creative and effective.”
Apostolato Stampa, Alberione compares
This issue of the Pauline Cooperator is
the parish bulletin to a “paper pulpit” and to a “bell made of paper.” He spoke of the natural order becoming supernatural through consecration: “Water for Baptism must be natural water and, as much as possible, should be pure and made ready by a special blessing; it serves as matter for producing supernatural effects … and infusion of new life by which we become children of God. In the apostolate the matter (industry and commerce) is used for supernatural effects.” Brother Aloysius Milella, S.S.P., who understands the apostolic heart of Alberione well, commented: “God’s mercy and providence in the media language of our day were not, in Alberione’s mind, simply the result of innovative technique, skill, and creative organization, critical as these were to its effectiveness. Enormous challenges and sacrifices were involved. So the mission to which he gave life would have everything to do with the deepest qualities of consecration and commitment.” The originality of the Pauline charism in the Church, Alberione wrote, is that “The Pauline priesthood places all the stages of the realization of the press apostolate on the level of a true sacramental, to be understood in theological certainty that God makes use of material elements to produce supernatural effects with efficacy” (San Paolo, February 1952). 2 Pauline Cooperator Magazine
devoted to the Pauline spirituality, the undergirding of the Pauline mission. Spirituality, shaped by the experiences of individuals and the community, is a response to the gift (charism) given to James Alberione: “When these instruments of progress serve evangelization, they receive a consecration, are elevated to the greatest dignity. The office of the writer, the pressroom, and the bookstore become churches and pulpits” (Ut perfectus sit homo Dei). The articles in this issue reveal the inspired integration of mission and spirituality, as exemplified during the years when the Pauline Family worked hard to produce the Bible in various languages, and members also spent many hours in adoration. Both mission and prayer invite us to experience the mystery of Christ Way, Truth, and Life. Mary is offered as a model for Pauline evangelization and prayer, and Saint Paul is a model of faith and apostolate for the Pauline. Intrinsic to Pauline spirituality is our journey toward living Christ, so that we can say with Paul, “It is no longer we who live, Christ lives in us” (see Gal 2:20).
Publisher Pauline Family in North America Creative Director Sr. Margaret Kerry, FSP Editor Daughters of St. Paul Photographer Sr. Mary Emmanuel Alves, FSP Advisory Board Fr. Ernesto Tigreros, SSP Sr. Nieves Salinas, PDDM Sr. Margaret Sato, FSP The Pauline Cooperator is a magazine of information and formation for members of the Pauline Family founded by Blessed James Alberione (Italian version founded in 1918). The English edition, founded in 2000, is owned and edited by the Society of St. Paul, the Daughters of St. Paul, and the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master within the American Province and Region. It is published bi-annually and distributed to members of the Pauline Religious Institutes, Aggregated Institutes, Pauline Cooperators, and friends of the Pauline Family. Copyright © 2010 Vol. X, No. 2, 2010 Postmaster: Send address changes to: Pauline Cooperator Magazine 50 Saint Paul’s Avenue Boston, MA 02130 Email: mkerry@paulinemedia.com
And our Christian call to transformation in Christ impels us toward a new evangelization.
Cover Art: S. M. Gesualda, pddm
contents contents 4
See What It Is to Love
Fr. Francis Gargani, CSSR, reminds us that we bear the name of the great Apostle who delighted in calling us all “saints.”
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Alberione’s Experience of the Mystery of Christ
Fr. Silvio Sassi, SSP, shows how Alberione’s personal spirituality developed into the particular manifestation of the mystery of Christ, which all Paulines are called to live.
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The Marian Teaching and Spirituality of Blessed Alberione Fr. Renato Perino, SSP, shows how Fr. Alberione’s Marian message began more from his life and his mission than from his writings.
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The Visit: A Journey of Prayer Sr. Giovanna Maria Carrara, FSP, tells us how we can rediscover the profound meaning of the Visit or Hour of Adoration.
Beginning the Day at the Master’s Feet Sr. Germana Santos, FSP, shares her reflection on the practice of mediation and beginning the day afresh in the presence of Christ.
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“Come to me all of you” Sr. Bernadette Mary Reis, FSP, writes how we can only accept Jesus’ invitation to find rest by “yoking up” with Christ.
Saint Paul: Model of Pauline Spirituality “If we are asked what the Pauline spirit is, we answer it is to live in Jesus Christ as presented to us by Saint Paul” (Blessed James Alberione). 2010 Issue Two 3
See What It Is to Love By Fr. Francis Gargani, CSSR
Paul delighted in calling us “saints,” and he proclaimed so beautifully and powerfully our authentic identity as God’s “holy and beloved.” We must celebrate as Paul declares (see Eph 1:11–23 and Rom 8); you can almost hear him exclaiming, “Oh My Goodness! Imagine that! See what love the Father has bestowed on us calling us children of God!” To live life with that awareness is what you teach and preach and sing about. “Take off your masks. Halloween is over,” Paul invites us, “and discover that you’re loved as the very daughter and son of God.” “If a mask or costume liberated the child in you,” Paul suggests, “wait till you go wild with freedom knowing you’re loved beyond your wildest dreams!”
In 2009, there was a film in the theatres called “Where the Wild Things Are,” based on a famous children’s book of the same title by Maurice Sendak. A young boy, perhaps about ten years old, craving attention from his single Mom, becomes nearly out of control and runs away after biting her. In the film’s narration of his imagination, he sets sail on the wild sea and lands on an island inhabited by large, animal-like “wild things” with the ability to speak and with very human personalities. After convincing them not to eat him, they make the boy their king. He invites them to play wildly and to build a fanciful array of amazing structures. But he soon discovers their “out-of-control-wildness” is very destructive and hurtful, and it degenerates into pettiness,
Blessed Timothy Giaccardo, SSP (1896–1948)
Venerable Mother Thecla Merlo, FSP (1894–1964)
“It can be said that he carved his message into each one’s spirit and transfused himself into the hearts of the priests, brothers, and sisters of the Pauline Family, as well as into the hearts of those who turned to him for spiritual, inter-relational and financial help.”
“Thinking of Mother Thecla, I am reminded of the beautiful and impressive image of a plant and its fruits. The plant, majestic and developed in all its branches, is the Church gathered in the Second Vatican Council. One of its fruits, which is maturing, is, without doubt, the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Paul.”
— Blessed James Alberione, SSP
— Most Rev. Antonio Mistrorigo, Bishop of Treviso 4 Pauline Cooperator Magazine
divisiveness, and depression. He eventually returns home to the safety, warmth, and security of his mother’s embrace, apparently wiser. The film reminds me of Ronald Rolheiser’s book The Holy Longing, which brilliantly offers his premise that a person’s spirituality is her/his “passion”—what drives them to do what she or he does with desire. In the case of Janis Joplin, the 1960s rock star, Rolheiser says her spirituality was indeed her art, her passionate, nearly out-of-control singing, her frenzylike trance of performing that incarnated the angst and pent-up emotions of the wild 1960s and 1970s. But because her “wildness” was not channeled, not balanced by a discovery of her being loved for herself, she ended up exploding, or, as it were, imploding; dying in her twenties. So Rolheiser suggests that the saints are certainly “wild things,” women and men of passion and energy. But because they allowed themselves to be loved by God wildly, they channeled their passion, their wild spirit, their desire, into loving God and people—especially the poor and hurting—and into loving all of creation. There’s the rub. We must allow God to sweep us off our feet! Our father and apostle Paul just never stops: “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away; see everything has become new!” (2 Cor 5:17). “All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Cor 3:18). And if anything can
convince us of the wild foolishness of God, for our teacher Paul it is the cross, the sign of wild, crazy, foolish love. “But we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23). “But to Jews and Gentiles Christ the power of God, Christ the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:18). The founder of the Redemptorist Famly, Alphonsus Liguori, wrote that under every cross should be the inscription: “See what it is to love!” And so this central symbol of our faith is the sign of the victory of Love, of wild, passionate Love! It seems to me we’ve done a great injustice to our tradition of the Communion of Saints by extracting all the life from them. I can’t help but recall Dorothy Day’s request not to be made a saint: “Please don’t dismiss me so easily.” Fortunately, we live in a time when many saints have been rescued from a bland, dehumanized hagiography, and are allowed to be the fiery women and men they were and are. In support of his thesis that spirituality is “what we do with desire,” Rolheiser writes that spirituality “takes its root in the eros inside of us and it is all about how we shape and discipline that eros.” He also quotes the poem “Dark Night of the Soul” by John of the Cross, which describes the spiritual journey as “one dark night, fired by love’s urgent longings.” So then, this saint thing is all about women and men on fire with love! We’re so lucky to have this great tradition of the saints because it celebrates the mystery of God’s wild, passionate love manifest in these women and
Venerable Mother Scholastica Rivata, PDDM (1897–1987)
Blessed James Alberione, SSP (1884–1971)
“The life of the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master is a life totally grasped by the person of Jesus Master, Way, Truth, and Life. We see it fully incarnated in the experience of Mother Scholastica, the woman upon whom the Holy Spirit poured the charism of the paschal mystery of Christ lived in the Eucharist, in the Priesthood, and in the liturgy.”
“Here he is, humble, silent, tireless, contained in his thoughts, which flows from prayers to works, always ready to read the signs of the times. Our Father Alberione has given the Church news instruments to express herself, new means to give vigor and new breadth to its apostolic mission.” — Pope Paul VI
— Sr. Mary Tiziana Dal Masetto, PDDM 2010 Issue Two 5
that for every saint recognized by the Church there must be hundreds or thousands who aren’t, we are indeed invited to behold the vision of the Book of Revelation: “I had a vision of a great multitude which no one could count from every nation, race, people, and tongue.”
men saints, ordinary and extraordinary saints, who also point us to the universe and help us encounter God’s passion in every star, blossom and blade of grass, not to mention the revelation of God’s extravagant love in the galaxies upon galaxies that scientists keep uncovering for us. The great family of saints heralds the power of God in our everyday lives as we become more and more our authentic selves, more and more human, more and more revealed as the very image of God. We’re so blessed to live this mystery that gives us such hope that we can make a difference and that disciplined eros goes a long way in realizing God’s kingdom on earth. And when we consider
Venerable Maggiorino Vigolungo (1904–1918) “Maggiorino is the model of a new vocation in the Church; a vocation that requires intelligence, ample vision, and a new openness that embraces all modern forms of the apostolate.” — Blessed James Alberione, SSP
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This inspires hope in the extravagance of God, who is never outdone in wild, passionate love! Reflect on the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, Christ’s own humble entry into a venerable Jewish heritage of naming beatitudes: signs of us humans mirroring God; signs of people who are blessed, holy, Godlike, truly human, creatures who mirror the beatified One. We recognize that the saints, as Kierkegaard says, are women and men who “can will the one thing” and so can identify with the poor, with those who mourn, with the defenseless who manifest, as their very hunger and thirst, God’s justice, God’s mercy, God’s purity of heart, God’s shalom for all who suffer persecution, rejection, and abandonment. Each beatitude is a brilliant facet of God, the Beatific One. Each beatitude is a brilliant facet of the saints, of us all—passionate, wild, and wonderful, joining hands with the multitude crying out: “Salvation comes from our God who is seated on the throne and from the Lamb. Amen. Blessings and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen!” (Rev 7:10).
Venerable Canon Francesco Chiesa (1874–1946) At the age of 16, James Alberione entered the seminary of Alba and immediately met Canon Francesco Chiesa, who would be his father, guide, friend, and advisor over the next 46 years. Canon Chiesa is a model for all spiritual directors.
Venerable Brother Andrea Borello, SSP (1916–1948) Brother Andrea Borello is an example of a life given for others, is a model of the Pauline spirit for all those who consecrate their life to the apostolate of social communications as lay consecrated.
Alberione’s Experience of the Mystery of Christ by Fr. Silvio Sassi, S.S.P.
As early as 1903, Fr. James Alberione was already referring to Christ the Master, Way, Truth, and Life.1 But I don’t think we should silently pass over the spiritual evolution he underwent between 1930–1933. During these years, the Pauline Family was working hard to produce the Bible in various languages. The members also spent many hours in adoration in the Temple of Saint Paul in Alba, Italy. These were years in which the Founder made a number of extended spiritual exercises between October and November 1930 and perhaps again in 1931.2 In these courses, his entire interior life was unified around Galatians 2:20, which became the goal of Pauline spirituality. It is very interesting to analyze the resolutions made by Alberione during these courses of spiritual exercises. It appears that a transition was taking place: the Founder was penetrating the mystery of Christ who dwelt in the depths of his soul: “To incarnate Jesus Christ in myself and in others, through the work of the Holy Spirit” (1930). This orientation in Christ would be further interiorized in a very significant way. His course of spiritual exercises of 1932 (perhaps lasting one month)
testifies to this. During that course he opened himself to the light of the Holy Spirit so that “all his ‘faculties’—mind, will and heart—might be healed by Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.”3 In this context, he composed a prayer to the Holy Spirit asking that he be purified totally and that he “conceive” Christ in his life: “O Holy Spirit, through the intercession of the Queen of Pentecost: Heal my mind of distraction, ignorance, forgetfulness, prejudice, error, and distortion; conceive in me wisdom and Jesus Christ Truth in everything. Heal my sentiments of indifference, distrust, wayward inclinations, passions, sentiments and affections, and conceive in me the tastes, sentiments, and inclinations of Jesus Life in everything. Heal my will of weakness, superficiality, inconstancy, indolence, stubbornness, and bad habits, and conceive in me Jesus Christ Way, a new love for whatever he loves, and a new love for Jesus Christ himself. 2010 Issue Two 7
through the heartfelt plea: “O Jesus, live in me.” “Jesus Master, may I think … with your intelligence and wisdom. May I love with your heart. May I see everything through your eyes. May I speak with your tongue. May I listen with your ears. May I enjoy what you enjoy. May my hands be yours. May my feet follow in your footsteps. May your prayer be mine. May I treat others as you treat them. May I celebrate (the Msass) in the way that you immolate yourself. May I be in you and you in me, to the point where I disappear.”5 Alberione desired that Jesus Christ “permeate his mind, will, heart, and entire life” (1934), “to the point of letting Jesus Christ Way, Truth, and Life live, think, speak, and love in him” (1936). From this point of view, it is interesting to take a look at his notes made during a course of spiritual exercises in 1940. These testify to his desire to attain total selfdetachment and to his indifference to anything that was not the Lord.
Divinely elevate in me: Intelligence with the gift of intellect, wisdom with the gift of wisdom, knowledge with the gift of knowledge, prudence with the gift of counsel, justice with the gift of piety, strength with the gift of spiritual strength, self-control with the fear of God.” I think that this is a very important prayer because in a dynamic way it communicates Alberione’s self-surrender to divine action so that Christ might be incarnated in him. The fruit of this spiritual experience was the generation of Christ in his life through the work of the Holy Spirit. In 1933, after making a less than happy assessment of his character, he once more asked through prayer that Christ fill his entire being.4 He wanted to be entirely immersed in Jesus and expressed this desire
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The text is well-known from his Spiritual Exercises of 1940: I beg the Lord to remove from me every manifestation of my own will, taste, or preference so that God can do whatever he wants with me and with whatever concerns me, both in time and in eternity. I want the Lord to be able to freely use me and do with me as he wishes. May he reduce me to nothing as concerns health, esteem, position, work, interior and exterior things, if that is what he wants. Everything only and always for the glory of God, the exaltation of his mercy, and in expiation for my sins! I ask him to increase my faith in the Father-Provider, in the Son-Redeemer, and in the Spirit-Sanctifier. I want my piety to be inspired, founded on, and directed toward glorifying the Divine Mercy. God is everything! And I am his: as a Christian, as a religious, and as a priest. At every instant, may he find me a docile instrument
in his hands, as was Jesus Christ. I trust that I will be saved through the Divine Mercy and through the intercession of Mary Most Holy, my hope. His orientations for 1942 reveal that he had developed a more positive outlook: “I must not stop at defending myself from sin; I must make progress in faith, virtue, and piety.” As aids to making progress, he lists the following: “Trust in the Trinity. Everything only and always from Jesus….” The object of his prayer and preaching became Jesus Christ, Way, Truth, and Life: “To offer my Masses, to make my meditations and visits according to devotion to the Divine Master. To do the same with regard to preaching retreats and spiritual exercises” (1944). Thus devotion to Christ under this particular title became more firmly rooted (1945–1946). The Founder now definitively perceived Jesus Master Way, Truth, and Life as the special manifestation of the mystery of Christ that he and the entire Pauline Family were to live: “Each day I am more confirmed in devotion to Jesus Master Way, Truth, and Life. To the degree that we practice this devotion, we will receive an abundance of grace and consolations; we will find it easier to be saints and to carry out our apostolate effectively” (1946). Alberione’s relationship with Christ touched different levels of his personality. In the beginning, he particularly desired to come to a deeper knowledge of Christ through meditation and Sacred Scripture, to imitate Christ (1938–1939), and to establish an intimate relationship with him (1959–1956): “To be with you, Jesus, on your journey, in the Garden, in your passion, on Calvary—always in prayer (1959). We find Alberione participating in the various stages
of the Master’s life: “In Jesus Christ—the last period of his life: the two years up until his declaration ‘into your hands, Father, I commend my spirit’” (March 1960); “in Jesus Christ during the last year of his earthly life” (1961). In those years, his relationship with the Lord was also influenced by the prologue of the Letter to the Ephesians: “To make us praise the glory of his grace” (1957 onward). In 1959 he integrated the first part of this prologue with a liturgical text: God has predestined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ … to make us praise the glory of his grace, which he has given us in his beloved Son, through whose blood we have received redemption and the remission of our sins, according to the wealth of grace he has abundantly poured out on us (cf. Eph 1:5–8). From this point on, his stress seems to be on the word “glory,” glorification: “That I might glorify God in Jesus Master Way, Truth, and Life” (May 1959); “everything for the Father: In Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ, and with Jesus Christ” (Oct. 1959).6 To live in Christ meant entering into the spirit of the Apostle Paul. Alberione wrote in 1964: “The life of Jesus Christ in us is the mystery of Christ according to Saint Paul: eternal life; vision, and possession of God—joy in him. We merit this by means of our faith, hope, and love, which means mind, activities, and sentiments in Christ.” We can say that the personal spirituality lived by our Founder developed into the particular manifestation of the mystery of Christ which all Paulines are called to live.
1. Alberione’s resolutions are always formulated in a threefold way: according to the Way, Truth, Life method.
4. Parts of this prayer are missing since the related pages in the notebook are torn.
2. In 1931, Alberione wrote to Mother Thecla: “I won’t write much because I am making my spiritual exercises.” Such a comment would not be necessary if it concerned the usual weeklong course.
5. James Alberione, Che io ami con il tuo cuore (That I Might Love with Your Heart), edited by S. DeBlasio (Rome, 1985, p.26).
3. Alberione does not use the term “faculty” in the philosophical sense; rather, he applies it to the three dimensions of mind (which signifies something broader than the intellect), will, and heart (which includes the entire affective dimension).
6. These were the years in which Alberione assiduously meditated on (and encouraged others to read) Royo Marin’s text Teologia della perfezione Cristiana (The Theology of Christian Perfection). He was particularly struck by the chapter on configuration to Christ, which he ordered to be printed as an extract so that all the members of the Pauline Family could have access to it.
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The Marian Teaching and Spirituality of Blessed Alberione By Fr. Renato Perino, SSP
If you want to harvest Fr. Alberione’s Marian message and hand it on to others, you will have to start more from his life and his mission than from his writings, said Fr. Giovanni Roatta. It is an opinion that I share, and it is the criterion I shall adopt for this brief review, paying heed to Fr. Alberione’s life and his autobiographical testimony rather than to his 1,700 pages of Marian content.
Meeting with Mary Mary was a lively and significant presence during the whole of Alberione’s life, beginning from his earliest childhood. He loved to recall that his mother had him consecrated to Mary immediately after his birth and that his first religious teaching came about in the shadow of three churches: the Madonna dei Fiori at Bra, the Vergine delle Grazie at Cherasco and the Madonna della Moretta in Alba. The figure of Mary was presented to him in simple and ordinary of ways: through his family, the devotional practices of his time, and the places of Marian devotion, up to the time of a more conscious awareness of Mary in his adolescence and during his seminary studies.
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His first contact with Mariology, in the seminary, came by way of two very popular authors of the time: St. Alphonsus Liguori and Blessed Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort. Their books, of a devotional and practical nature, left unchanged a certain centuries-long doctrinal poverty. Notwithstanding his eagerness to utilize the best treatises for a serious and orthodox documentation, official Mariology did not help Alberione…. During the pontificate of Pope Pius XII, Alberione worked closely with the Vatican on Marian publications, which he regularly kept on his desk in his room. While offering him sure reference points from a dogmatic viewpoint, these books had few suggestions for his spirituality as a person in love with Mary or as a Founder. Although these manuals proved incomplete, Alberione could count on an acute sensitivity to the ecclesial climate, a careful listening to the people around him and, above all, to the Pope’s teaching, which allowed him to gather from the pontiff’s
very words the guidance that determined the future development of his original Mariology completely orientated toward mission. While still a seminarian, James Alberione had come across Leo XIII’s encyclical Adiutricem Populi Christiani (1895). He took a sentence from it that, for him, was a ray of charismatic light: “In all truth” the Pope wrote, “Mary must be considered Mother of the Church, Teacher, and Queen of the Apostles….” These brief allusions contained the dimensions for a complete picture of Mary: a two-fold basic application: to the Church and to the Apostles, and the three titles that could sum up Mary’s roles: Mother, Teacher, and Queen. It was something analogous to what had occurred for Alberionian Christology with the discovery of the basic parameters in the encyclical Tametsi Futura
(1900). Here, too, the same characteristics of fullness and a foundation brought together all the aspects of Christian spirituality: theory and praxis, contemplation and action. Later on, when recalling that encyclical, Alberione summed up its main point: “Leo XIII shows how Mary was a teacher to the Apostles and the first Christians, because she wonderfully strengthened the faithful with the holiness of example, the authority of counsel, the gentleness of comfort, and the effectiveness of her prayer.”
Mission’s Demand Inclined by nature to get down to basics, Alberione saw his relationship with Mary in terms of “life of faith, consequently, one of authentic Marian spirituality.” This included certainly the
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Some aspects that are most characteristic and frequent in Alberione’s teaching: Mary was, with Jesus (and chronologically before him) the primordial Apostle, in that she welcomed the Word of the Father, she “published” (edited) him in human form, she “presented” him to everyone: to God, to those close at hand, to those who were far off. Mary was the teacher of the first Apostle, of his apostles and disciples, of the disciples of all times. She is, therefore, the model for all who teach. … contemplative aspect, but in view of a vital commitment of love and of service: “Knowledge has no goal except to love and serve.” Just as his Marian spirituality came to life out of the “devotion” he assimilated at home, so—personalized, motivated, and deepened—it became a mature involvement of his whole life, which, in its etymological sense, is exactly what “devotion” is. “Devotion” he explained, “means ‘consecration, dedication … the total, integral giving of ourselves with our physical, moral, and intellectual strength, as well as of our being, from which comes this strength; take and give the whole person … in its light, in its spirit, in its example and in its grace.” This begins from one’s own vocation and basic mission. As persons called to the apostolate, we give ourselves to Mary, and as persons sent, we find in her our inspiration. In this sense devotion itself
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is relative. The Founder stated this explicitly in a meditation he preached on the Pauline spirit and its pastoral sense: “Devotion to Mary, which is a part of the Pauline spirit, has two goals for us: our religious sanctification and the pastoral apostolate—reaching souls.” If this could be said of all forms of Marian devotion, much more could it be said for that new vision of Mary, the valiant woman who was in the very heart of the Pentecostal community and who assumed the responsibility of the children of God as their “Mother, Teacher, and Queen.”
Mary, Queen of Apostles The words of Leo XXIII, which Alberione embraced in his youth, developed from the moment of his priestly ordination (1907) with his decision to adopt the “Queen of the Apostles” as the inspirer of his own ministry, both in and outside the seminary. In fact, “he put his ministry under the protection of
Mary, Queen of the Apostles, and taught the same to the clerics and young priests” (A.D., 85); just as “under her patronage were the pastoral conferences (1910–1915), the school of sociology, the first steps of the new priests in ministry.” It is quite natural then that when the first Paulines became aware that a choice was to be made concerning a Marian title, they found that Alberione had already meditated on it and had provided an answer. The Founder himself recalled it in one of his meditations: On December 8, 1919, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the clerics and young aspirants came to me to ask under what title we would invoke Mary and what would be our devotion (e.g., Auxilium Christianorum, Mater Divinae Gratiae, Mater Boni Consilii, etc.), I had already given thought and prayer to this and so my answer was: invoke Mary under the title ‘Queen of Apostles’—first for the sanctification of (men and women) apostles; second, that those who were helping the apostles would receive their reward; and third, that both apostles and faithful would be all together in heaven.”
That question, with its significant date, was not only the occasion to resolve a contingent doubt. It was also the “toll of the bell” for Alberione to start searching, doctrinally as well, for the roots and meaning of the title and its spiritual and apostolic implications.
A clear-cut Alberionian thought on Mary is found in the five sections of the “Chaplet to the Queen of the Apostles.” These develop the five “active mysteries” of the rosary, through which devotion to Mary was explained at length to the early generations of Paulines. Here we have well known highlights: 1. Mary’s “yes” at the incarnation of the Word (Christological motherhood); 2. Mary’s participation in the redemption (co-operation and spiritual motherhood); 3. Mary’s active presence among the Apostles in the expectation and in the event of Pentecost (apostolic maternity); 4. Mary’s heavenly apostolate after her Assumption; 5. Mary’s sovereignty as an everlasting inspiration and intercession over every form of apostolate.
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From the end of the nineteenth century we find an outline of a devotion to the Queen of the Apostles promoted by a number of newer missionary congregations, among them the Marianists, founded by Fr. Chaminade in 1817; the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottines), founded by Saint Vincent Pallotti in 1838; and the Pontifical Institute for the Missions Abroad (PIME), founded by Mons. Angelo Ramazzotti in 1850. In one way or another, all of these congregations developed a Marian apostolic spirit, consistent with the new awareness of the age, and some already had a devotion to the Queen of Apostles approved by the Holy See. Alberione greatly prized this legacy and, spurred on by the formational needs of his young communities, male and female, he began a systematic reflection on the new devotion and a reformulation of the prayers to be recited in community. By preference, the biblical inspiration was drawn from Luke, the more “Pauline” and “Marian” of the Gospels, and from two specific episodes in the New Testament: Mary’s inauguration at the foot of the cross as mother of the world (Jn 19:25–27), and her prayerful presence in the Cenacle with the Apostles awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit (Act 1:13–14). Side by side with his doctrinal reflection, Alberione carefully revised of all the prayers addressed to Mary. Aware that the traditional prayers of Saint Alphonsus no longer adequately corresponded to new doctrinal content, and, above all, to the new
missionary impulse that he intended to inculcate, Alberione began to draw up new prayers aimed not only at nourishing the prayer life of Paulines, but also to reflect on the theological and charismatic foundation of their lives consecrated to the apostolate. Notwithstanding this practical objective, Alberione’s Marian prayers are, overall, the most successful, the most biblically based and most authenticly a synthesis of his Marian teaching. I refer obviously to their content, since their verbal expressions effectively reveal the language of the time, at first redundant and Alphonsian, then more concise and basic in the following decades. Just as effective was Alberione’s detailed undertaking of Marian catechesis and promotion, especially from 1921–1922 and onward, with all the means at his disposal: preaching, articles, pamphlets, academic classes, displays, and, above all, systematic courses of meditations. The first book on the Queen of the Apostles printed in 1928 under Fr. Timothy Giaccardo’s name, with a foreword by Alberione, was the result of a month of sermons on Our Lady, preached by the Founder but written down and developed point by point by Giaccardo. Divided into three parts, the thirty meditations developed the three aspects of the devotion to Mary according to the usual method: doctrinal motivations, practical manifestations, and liturgical and devotional expressions. Some time later, we don’t know whether to integrate the previous book or to make use of new themes developed by the Founder, a second book appeared with the same title, but under Alberione’s direct authorship. Topics paralleling those of Giaccardo’s book unfolded, but with a detailed list of the “apostolates” carried out by Mary, as specific expressions of her apostolic mission and sovereignty. “The first devotion that we find in the Church,” Alberione loved to say, “is the devotion to the Queen of the Apostles, as portrayed in the Cenacle.” Noting that this devotion had “diminished and been neglected in the past,” his exhorted, “Yours is the sweet task of rallying the faithful around Mary, Queen of the Apostles; yours, to re-awaken this devotion; yours, to carry out this most pleasant office in the Church.” This means “to reawaken apostolates, stir up vocations.” And he concluded forcefully: “Let us return to the source. At the source we shall find Mary, Queen of the Apostles.”
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Saint Paul: Model of Pauline Spirituality By Fr. Silvio Sassi, SSP, Superior General
“If we are asked what the Pauline spirit is, we answer it is to live in Jesus Christ as presented to us by Saint Paul” (Blessed James Alberione). Looking for a model of faith and apostolate for the Pauline, Blessed James Alberione turned to Saint Paul the apostle: the manner in which Saint Paul lived his faith in Christ and his preaching became the ideal example for the Pauline method. For the Pauline, Saint Paul is the model for living Christ. The Pauline takes up the invitation that in several letters (cf. 1 Thes 2:14; Phil 3:17; 1 Cor 4:16) the Apostle addresses to the Christians of the churches he founded: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1). Saint Paul is Alberione’s saint of reference from the very foundation of the Pauline Family. In two passages from Abundantes Divitiae Gratiae Suae, he narrates his encounter with the Apostle: Saint Paul: the saint of universality! My admiration and devotion began especially from the study and meditation of the Letter to the Romans. From then on his personality, his sanctity, his heart, his intimacy with Jesus, his work in dogma and morals, his mark left on
the organization of the Church, his zeal for all peoples, were the subject of meditation. He appeared to him to be truly the Apostle: therefore every apostle and every apostolate could take from him. (64) Talking about the search for a spirituality for the Society of Saint Paul and for the Pauline Family, Alberione reviews a certain number of alreadyexisting traditions and then explains: But then if we pass to the study of Saint Paul, we find the disciple who knows the Divine Master in his totality; [Paul] lives him completely; he fathoms the deep mysteries of his doctrine, of his heart, of his sanctity and divinity … he presents to us the total Christ, as he has already defined himself, Way, Truth, and Life. In this is found religion, dogma, morals, and worship; in this image is the integral Jesus Christ; through this devotion the whole man is taken and conquered by Jesus Christ … and grows in wisdom (study and heavenly wisdom), age (maturity and virtue) and grace (sanctity) to the fullness of Jesus Christ; until, “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). (Abundantes Divitiae Gratiae Suae, 159–160) 2010 Issue Two 15
Alberione’s fascination with Saint Paul constitutes a “complete” style of loving and communicating to others an “integral” Christ. In Saint Paul is personified the model of a Christian life that is lived and proposed in its totality of Way, Truth, and Life. If it is true that the trinomial “Way, Truth, and Life” is a Christological definition present in the Gospel of Saint John, it is also true that Alberione gives it an “interpretation” beginning from Saint Paul’s style of life and preaching. For Alberione, the person and the work of Saint Paul are the exegesis of the Johannine trinomial “Way, Truth, and Life.”
good in this, what a great good! Thereupon, once this union with God and with Jesus Christ is deeply established, in the course of the year we pass our days differently because we think according to Jesus Christ, we talk according to Jesus Christ and we act according to Jesus Christ.
In 1964, Alberione published the first chapter of The Theology of Christian Perfection by Antonio Royo Marin, O.P. In the preface, he wrote: “The spirituality Paulines preach and follow is Jesus Christ Divine Master Way, Truth, and Life as presented by the Apostle Paul.”
The author of the “theology of perfection” says: “Don’t go to look for or even argue about schools of spirituality; methods here, methods there, experience one, experience another...” “Way, Truth, and Life”; the foundations of true sanctity are here. And it is exactly the way that we must hold fast as Paulines. We must reach this point. “For me to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21); and “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). That is, Jesus Christ in my brain, in my mind; I think like him or, better, he thinks in me. And after: that his will replaces ours and our will be guided by his; that is, that we be guided by the will of Jesus Christ. (Meditazioni per consacrate secolari, 1976, 412)
The Pauline citation used the most by Blessed Alberione in his books and preaching is Galatians 2:20. He references this and other quotes to present transformation in Christ, which he refers to as Christification, as lived by Saint Paul, model for the sanctification and apostolate of the Paulines: Live in Jesus Christ. Here it is: “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). What a great
Our sanctification is the sanctification chosen in the most perfect way, the one that constitutes the Pauline spirituality: that is, in Christ Jesus Master Way, Truth, and Life. And then, through devotion to Mary, to ascend, to ascend each day a little. (Alle Suore di Gesù Buon Pastore, 1957, 11)
The novitiate entails only one aim: to take all in order to transform oneself, that is, to remake man. Remake oneself in mind, heart, life, and activity. Remake oneself because we must become another person and have afterward just one personality “in Christ.” Christ is one personality and the more one grafts himself to Christ, the more he possesses an elevated personality: the divine one. So then “vivit vero in me Christus” (Gal 2:20). How sublime is this! (Alle Figlie di San Paolo, Spiegazione delle Costituzioni, 97) So then reach the point of Vivit vero in me Christus. When our thoughts and desires exist no more, but we live Christ, then Vivit vero in me Christus. It is not I anymore, but Christ in me. Transformation, transformation! In that way we have not only body and soul, but another supernatural life that is the life itself of Christ. (Alle Pie Discepole del Divin Maestro, 1967– 1968, 71) “My life is Christ,” Saint Paul said; moreover: “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” May 16 Pauline Cooperator Magazine
him to the world as Saint Paul did. First he was able to say: “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” and then, “I have made myself all for all. (Alle Pie Discepole del Divin Maestro, 1963, 249) If Saint Paul were living, what would he do? He would fulfill the two great precepts as he was able to fulfill them: love God with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind, and love your neighbor without sparing yourself; because he has lived Christ: “Christ lives in me.” (G. Roatta, Spirito paolino, 1973, mimeographed sheets, 18) If they ask us what the Pauline spirit is, we must know how to answer that it is to live in Jesus Christ as presented to us by Saint Paul. Only when we are able to say: “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me,” will we have reached Christian perfection. (G. Roatta, Spirito paolino, 1973, mimeographed sheets, 19)
Christ Way, Truth, and Life live in us! Then it will not be we who think or love, but Jesus Christ who will think, act, and love in us. The error is in dividing Jesus Christ. (Alle Figlie di San Paolo, 1946–1949, p. 598) When we live Jesus Christ, when we can say: “Vivit vero in me Christus,” then we radiate Jesus Christ. We radiate by our words through preaching; we radiate in our life by example; we radiate in our prayers when we petition the Lord; we radiate by our works through our editions and work for the salvation of souls. (Per un rinnovamento spirituale, 346) The expressions are two: that I live in Christ. And this is a desire. But that Jesus Christ may live in me, that is more perfect: Vivit vero in me Christus. That Jesus Christ may live in me, that is the way, the reality, and the definitive state of sanctification and perfection: Vivit vero in me Christus, or what Saint Paul says: Mihi vivere Christus est, “For me to live is Christ: Christ is my life, it is he who lives, who guides.” Live him first and then give him; live him first and then bring
These citations used by Alberione indicate the definition of all aspects of Pauline life: spirituality, study, and formation, apostolate, community life, and religious vows. Everything must be lived and permeated by the dynamism of “straining forward” toward “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” The route that we glimpse in Alberione’s references to the interior dynamism of Saint Paul could be depicted in this way: From “For me to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21), to “... until Christ be formed in you” (Gal 4:19), arriving at, “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). Saint Paul is the inspiration and model of all the Institutes of the Pauline Family: We prayed much before establishing the Institute under his protection. And we have chosen a saint who excels in sanctity and at the same time is wonderful in his apostolate. He has united in himself love for Jesus Christ: “Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? ... Tribulation or anguish? Hunger or thirst?” (Rom 8:35). Nothing. Neither life nor death can separate him from Jesus Christ: “Neither death nor life will separate me from the love of Christ” (Rom 8:38–39). Paul is consumed before rendering his final testimony of love for the Master, an entire life of apostolate. An entire apostolate! (Alle Figlie di San Paolo, Spiegazione delle Costituzioni, 463). My children, whom I deliver again in pain until Christ be formed in you” (Gal 4:19). Using this citation Alberione comments: “We will be 2010 Issue Two 17
life in the future. The theological atmosphere of this transformation is Trinitarian: God the Father creates us and gives us an identity—the purgative way produces in us the awareness of our refusal to follow the divine plan. God the Son by means of redemption manifests himself to us as Way, Truth, and Life—the illuminative way is lived through Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and grace. God the Holy Spirit sanctifies the members of the Blessed Alberione, in all of his foundational work, referenced St. Paul because Church who live of faith, the “heart of Paul is the heart of Christ.” (Carved on the altar rail in the Church of St. Paul in Alba, Italy). hope, and charity in the unitive way. Synthesizing the purgative and saints in the measure that we live the life of illuminative way, Alberione explains: “Christ alone Jesus Christ; or better, in the measure that Jesus lives, thinks, suffers, dies, and resurrects in us. Christ Christ lives in us; “Christianus alter Christus” is the head of humanity reborn” (Donec formetur (The Christian is another Christ); and that is what Christus in vobis, 64). Saint Paul says of himself: “I live, no longer I, Describing the grace necessary to live the unitive but Christ lives in me”... Proceed in fidelity, until way, Alberione proposes the Way, Truth, and Life Christ be formed in you! (San Paolo, February– method for Holy Mass, Communion, and the Visit, April 1965; cf. Carissimi in San Paolo, 11.21 and and he describes the apostle of the media living Donec formetur Christus in vobis, 9) under the protection of Saint Paul and Mary, Queen In Donec formetur Christus in vobis (Until Christ Be Formed in You) published in 1932, Alberione presents the Spiritual Exercises and period of novitiate as engagements in virtue, practices of piety, and contemplation to let Jesus Christ live in us. Antonio da Silva wrote that in the thought of Alberione the Spiritual Exercises drew inspiration from Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Julian Eymard, Antonio Royo Marin, Giovanni Battista Chautard, Adolfo Tanquerey, and Canon Chiesa, all elaborating the “Pauline method” to reach the goal of Saint Paul: “until Christ live in you.” The dynamism in the “until” (Gal 4:19) is described by Alberione as a gradual journey through three stages: the purgative way, the illuminative way, and the unitive way. The person grows through each passage, past, present, and future, becoming aware of sins committed in the past, deciding to change in the present, and projecting a new 18 Pauline Cooperator Magazine
of the Apostles. According to Alberione, the spiritual life integrates the truths of faith, the sacramental life, and the observance of the Commandments in a journey characterized by “straining forward.” It is ongoing conversion toward Christification in every aspect of Pauline life. Alberione defines the spirituality that leads Paulines to live the commitment to holiness and mission simultaneously: love of God and love of neighbor.
The heart of Paul is the heart of Christ.
The Visit: A Journey of Prayer “A Special Light Came from the Host”
By Sr. Giovanna Maria Carrara, FSP
The phrase Fr. Alberione used to lift the veil from his spiritual experience leads to a specific “place”: that of prayer, of adoration—“A special light came from the Host.” These words are an appeal to rediscover and come to understand the profound meaning of the Visit or Hour of Adoration.
with the Lord, it also triggers in us an apostolic awareness that becomes “more vivid the more one grows in intimacy with the Lord” (AD, 120). On an interior level, we ascend toward the heights of the spiritual life referred to by Saint Paul.
Fr. Alberione presented the Visit as the specific form of prayer for the entire Pauline Family. He linked it to his spiritual experience of 1900–1901:
The Visit: A Journey of Prayer
The Visit … took place during a night of adoration. It was then that the Lord helped [us] understand that, in this new century, our lives were to be rooted in the Eucharist and in activity…. You were born of the Eucharist. Always call yourselves “Paulines.” Jesus drew Paul to himself. Grafted onto Christ, Paul produced the fruits of Christ. In the Visit, you will find encouragement, joy and the way to reach souls. (Spiritual Exercises and Meditations, U.S.A., 1952) Thus, there is a close relationship between the Hour of Adoration and the apostolate. Prolonged Eucharistic prayer not only allows us to spend time
The Visit is not a simple practice of piety but a true journey of prayer. By giving us the Visit, our Founder offers himself to us as a teacher of prayer, pointing out the stages of the journey we must follow. The Visit is a prayer that, due to its ample time span (one hour), integral method, and evangelical content, fosters the process of interior transformation in Christ. Alberione told the Daughters of St. Paul that the Visit can help every individual develop her qualities (see Spiritual Exercises and Meditations, U.S.A., 1952). By this, he was referring to the interior qualities that make us totally receptive to the mystery of Christ and to the prompting to mature in him: “The Visit leads us to make habitual, ongoing, daily progress” (Fidelity to the Pauline Spirit, Rome, 1965).
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Beginning the Day at the Master’s feet By Sr. Germana Santos, FSP
It happened in late spring. One morning at daybreak, I sat near an open window in our chapel. A refreshing breeze, with a scent of fresh dew, occasionally blew through the window; while the sun lazily stretched out its warm rays over the horizon announcing another bright and clear day. Birds were chirping and all creation seemed to dance on the wings of the dawn. I paused in contemplation of the beauty outside the window, and the beauty of the chapel that contains the Lord of heaven and earth, humbly present in the Blessed Sacrament, and my heart soared in thanksgiving. It was one of those moments when various circumstances, including nature, united to confirm for me the great gift of meditation. Each day, I thought, I am given this privileged gift of spending time before Jesus Master, to read and reflect on his word, and then to carry it in my mind and heart throughout the day. Now, I admit that not every day nor every meditation provides such delight. But in his generosity, God gives us consolations to strengthen our resolve. And that spring morning was one such occasion. Meditation is our early introduction to the day. It is that privileged time when, like Mary of Bethany, we sit at the feet of the Master, speaking with him and listening to his words before setting out on the busy highway of daily life. Blessed James Alberione proposed that faithfulness to daily meditation assures 20 Pauline Cooperator Magazine
that we will be faithful to the other times of prayer and to the effort to sanctify our entire day. Daily meditation, like all other Pauline prayer, follows the Way, Truth, and Life method. In beginning the meditation, we place ourselves in God’s presence, believing with our Founder that “God sees us, listens to us, and speaks with us.” As we enter into the meditation, we read a brief passage from Scripture, or the daily liturgical readings, or other book or opportune sources. In slowly reading and re-reading the passage, pondering some parts more deeply and mulling over them, we enter into what Alberione calls “a discursive application of the mind to the truth.” By “discursive” he means a reflection that is rational and lengthy, one that includes other material to clarify and deepen the point being meditated. Thus, we honor Jesus who is the Truth for our minds. As we continue to calmly consider and contemplate the truth that we read, seeking to deepen and assimilate it, we also reflect on our lives in light of what we are meditating. Am I living according to God’s word? How is this text speaking to me? How does it call me to live my commitments, my relationships, and my faith life? Through this exercise, we honor Jesus who is the Way that we must follow. Based on the reflections made, we draw some practical applications or resolutions for our day.
practice of daily meditation, may we seek the God of consolations and, in the process, find the consolations of God. 1. Reading (Truth) What does the text say? Read the text slowly and attentively; then re-read it, pausing on certain phrases, seeking to deepen our understanding of it. 2. Meditation (Way) What does the text say to me? I ponder the text, trying to assimilate it. I look at my life through the perspective of the text, and I make practical applications to my life. 3. Prayer (Life) What does the text lead me to say to God? Here, the prayer of the heart (or affections) leads us to speak confidently to Jesus. We arrive at the dialogue of our soul with God, a conversation that is simple and trusting. In this part of the meditation, we honor Jesus the Life of our soul.
I make acts of adoration, thanksgiving, and petition.
Blessed Alberione also had practical advice about meditation. He spoke of the ideal place, which to him was the chapel. The ideal book for meditation, he suggested, is the Bible, or the readings of the Liturgy; it could also be other spiritual books. As for the ideal position, he wisely recommended that it not be too comfortable nor “one that requires too much sacrifice.” Ideally, the duration of meditation is a half hour. The Way, Truth, and Life method, as well as these suggestions, are like the frame around a beautiful work of art. We are more interested in the painting than its border. In the case of meditation, the method (or the frame) is a simple guide to keep us focused. But the real piece of art is our interior work during the meditation: We are seeking the face of God and he is always revealing himself to us. It is good to remember the words that Blessed Alberione used with his spiritual sons and daughters in 1932: “We must not seek the consolations of God, but the God of consolations.” In our 2010 Issue Two 21
By Sr. Bernadette Mary Reis, FSP
For quite a few years, I have reflected on the charismatic significance to the quotation from the Gospel of Matthew that inspired Blessed James Alberione on that famous night between the centuries: “Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light” (Mt 11:28–30). When I read Pope Benedict’s reflection on this passage in Jesus of Nazareth, I discovered a link connecting this passage with the vision of Jesus that Alberione would later develop and leave as his heritage to the Pauline Family. It is helpful to consider the link presented this passage as a first-century Jew might have understood it. In this passage, Jesus makes a connection to the first creation account found in the Book of Genesis: “Thus heaven and earth were completed with their entire array. On the seventh day God had completed the work he had been doing. He rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, 22 Pauline Cooperator Magazine
because on that day he rested after all his work of creating” (Gen 2:1–3). In Genesis, God rests on the seventh day. In Matthew, Jesus says that he will give rest. This quote from Genesis is closely related to the third commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. For six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your God. You shall do no work that day…. For in six days Yahweh made the heavens earth and sea and all that these contain, but on the seventh day he rested; that is why Yahweh has blessed the Sabbath day and made it sacred” (Ex 20:8–11). This commandment—as with all the Ten Commandments, but especially the first—set the Chosen People apart from other contemporary cultures. At that time, it was not customary for people to set aside a day each week in dedication to God. The Sabbath rest was a distinct characteristic of the Hebrew culture. In addition, this commandment is unique among the others because it commands an action performed by God himself at the beginning of time. This affected the way that the commandment was lived out in the
Tabernacle in the Cathedral of Alba, Italy
“Come to me all of you”
Jewish community. For Jews, as Rabbi Jacob Neusner explains in his book A Rabbi Talks with Jesus, it is “their way of imitating God.” What makes the people of Israel unique is that they “like God in creating the world, rest from creation on the Seventh Day.” In Psalm 95, we read: “For forty years that generation sickened me, and I said, ‘Always fickle hearts; they cannot grasp my ways.’ Then in my anger I swore they would never enter my place of rest” (vv. 10–11). This passage indicates that the “place of rest,” which is God’s privilege to give, is the land he had promised the Israelites, delivered from their slavery in Egypt. Therefore, the Promised Land is considered “God’s place of rest,” and this “place” is given freely to the Israelites. This concept of leading the people to a land of rest, of giving this land to them, would coincide with the words of Jesus: “I will give you rest.” Thus, not only does keeping of the Sabbath allow the Jews to imitate God, but, as seen from the passage from Psalm 95, it also denotes the understanding that when they did not grasp God’s ways—when they did not imitate God—they could not enter the land of rest. Therefore, the opposite must be true: When someone does grasp God’s ways, God leads them into a place of rest, which is modified in the Gospel of Matthew with the word “my,” meaning that God is the place of rest. The conclusion reached by Rabbi Neusner regarding the Sabbath is even more enlightening. Since observing a day of rest allows the Jews to imitate God, and imitating God—or grasping his ways— allows the person to enter into his rest, if Jesus is the one who gives rest, then it follows that by imitating Jesus, we now imitate God. “My yoke is easy, I give you rest, the son of man is lord of the Sabbath indeed, because the son of man is now Israel’s Sabbath: how we act like God” (Neusner, Rabbi Talks with Jesus). This passage contains an essential element on which to focus Blessed James Alberione’s understanding of Jesus as the Master, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Isn’t it incredible that of all the Scripture passages that could have been inscribed on a tabernacle, it is the passage, “Venite Ad Me Omnes” (Come to me all of you), which precedes the words, “… and
I will give you rest,” that inspired the 16-year-old seminarian more than a century ago? These words are profoundly connected to our call to orient our life to Jesus. It challenges our understanding of the third commandment. “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day,” when understood in the context of Exodus and further enlightened by the words of the Master. It is a call to imitate God based on Jesus’ actions. Jesus’ invitation to find rest can only be accepted by “yoking up” with Christ—partnering with him, walking side by side with him, and moving together with him as one. In this way, the Lord’s Day—now celebrated every day of the week—is kept holy through the lives of people who are yoked with his Son.
His strong desire to respond to Christ’s invitation: “Come to me all of you” (Mt 11:28), deeply affected the young seminarian Alberione who “felt obliged to prepare himself to do something for the Lord and for the men and women of the new century with whom he would live.” This Christological motivation produced pastoral creativity in the use of the press, not simply as media astuteness but for a “new evangelization” complete in all its elements: apostles of Christ, content, means to be used, recipients.... (AD, 15) Fr. Silvio Sassi, SSP 2010 Issue Two 23
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