From the Spiritual Testament of Saint Paul of the
Cross, priest
(POR 1597-1601)
I recommend to your charity, holy mother Church and the salvation of
souls
"Above all, I urgently exhort you to observe that
holy command that Jesus gave his disciples: This
is how all will know. you are my disciples: your love for one another. This,
my brethren, is what I wish, with all the love of my poor heart, to give
you who are present here with me, to all the others who are now wearing
this habit of penance and mourning in memory of the passion and death of
our most loving Redeemer, and to all those who, by the mercy of God,
shall be calle4 to this little flock of Jesus Christ in times to come.
I
also recommend to all, especially to superiors, continually to preserve
and foster in the Congregation, the spirit of prayer, the spirit of
solitude and the spirit of poverty. You can be confident that, if these
values are maintained, the Congregation shall
shine like the sun before God and men.
With special urgency, I beg
you to have a filial love for holy mother Church and a total submission
to her visible head who is the Roman Pontiff. For this purpose, day and
night the religious, shall remember. in their prayers holy mother Church
and the Holy Father. They shall endeavour as much as possible, to
contribute to the welfare of holy Church and to the salvation of the
poor souls of their neighbours by missions, spiritual exercises and
other works which are in harmony with our Institute; promoting in the
hearts of all devotion to the passion of Jesus Christ and to the sorrows
of Mary most holy.
Finally, with my face in the dust and with tears in
my heart, I ask pardon of all the members of the Congregation, present
and absent, for all the faults I have committed in this office which,
by God’s will, I have held for so many years. As I part from you to
enter eternity, I leave nothing but my bad example, although I must
confess that I never had wrong intentions in my heart, but only your
sanctification and perfection. Again I ask your pardon, and I beg you to
pray for my poor soul that our Lord may receive it into the bosom of his
mercy.
Here then, dear brethren, are the bequests which I leave you with
all, my poor heart. I depart from you, and I shall be waiting for you in
paradise. There I shall never cease to pray for the Holy Father, for
holy mother Church whom I love so much, for the whole Congregation, for
her benefactors and for all those for whom I know I should pray. I leave
to all of you, present, absent, and future, my blessing.
