St. Paul of the Cross
Inspiration and Reflection
St.
Paul of the Cross - A man of prayer and
a teacher of prayer: by Fr. Frank Keevins C.P.
Rather than just repeat the story you've heard often before I thought
this morning I would try to say a little bit about Paul of the Cross as
a man of prayer and as a teacher of prayer, by way of imparting some of
that teaching to you. Paul's own life of prayer, like most of us, began
on the knees of his mother, who taught him a deep love for God and gave
him a sense of how much Jesus had loved him by dying on the cross for
him. She often did this by holding a crucifix in from of him and asking
him to look upon it. Then at aged 19, inspired by a sermon, he decided
to devote more time to prayer in his life, and this he did. This occasioned
a series of experiences in prayer, we could call them visions, that led
him to make a forty day retreat during which has become a classic of 18th
century Christian mysticism.
Paul
later lived the solitary prayer life of a hermit before gathering companions
to begin to realise his prayer dream of a community devoted to the Passion
of Jesus. Through his prayer God blessed him with many spiritual gifts
which he understood as being given to him to lead others to God. While
still just a young man, he was granted what is sometimes referred to by
spiritual writers as the pinnacle of prayer, that is mystical union, or
mystical marriage, a prayer experience of direct union with God, oneness
with God. But after this his prayer went through 50 years of dryness and
desolation, and it was only towards the end of his life that he began
to experience consolations once again.
So Paul's experience and practice of prayer was wide and varied and out of this he became a great communicator of prayer. He had become very much one with God, but he didn't want to bask in this oneness for himself, rather he wanted to help others become one with God too. Everything he did, preaching missions, conducting retreats, writing letters of spiritual direction, founding the order, were geared towards bringing people into union with God, the God who is infinite love and mercy.
When he went on missions a part of that mission would always be an instruction on prayer, and in particular he would teach people to meditate on the Passion of Jesus which he believed would bring extraordinary graces in their lives. Our former provincial, Bernard Lowe, once wrote an article in which he said that, if it were possible, Paul would have given everyone a quick fix or an immediate injection of the love of God, but as that wasn't possible he settled for planting this seed of prayer, particularly this seed of meditating on the cross, in the utter conviction that it would grow if people remained faithful to what he taught them.
Another Passionist, St Vincent Strambi, says that it would seem God raised up Paul in a special manner to teach people to seek Him in the interior of their hearts. Paul wanted to lead people into mysticism he didn't believe that mysticism was for priests and nuns or for some kind of spiritual elite, he truly believed it was for ordinary people, and by mysticism he simply meant that we could all come to an experience of God and of Jesus in our lives in an ever deeper union and growth, and the way to do that was to find a way into your heart and to the crucified Jesus who is present there, and this crucified Jesus present there in your heart would be like a door opening up to you the immensity of God's love.
The method of doing this was straightforward. He would start people off meditating on the cross, and he would encourage them to enter quickly into affective prayer, just talking to Jesus about his sufferings, entering into his sufferings with him in their hearts. He expected that after a while dryness would inevitably come but that God could use this dryness to free people from self-centredness, so he would encourage perseverance in prayer, not to be put off by dryness, but in the dryness to pray the prayer of pure faith, trusting that, in his own words, "whoever is in the arms of Jesus cannot fail; God holds you in his arms even though you do not taste or feel his divine presence". Beyond this he would then lead people into a simpler way of praying, with less dependence maybe on imagination and feeling, and more emphasis on an attentiveness to God, listening to God and letting God lead to wherever he wants to take them.
His favourite texts of scripture tended to be those that said God is within us, that God is closer to us than we are to ourselves, that we are temples of the spirit, that God dwells in us through faith, that there is an indwelling of the Holy Trinity, and it's a belief in and an experience of all of this that he's trying to lead people towards. When we enter into that inner sanctuary ourselves, he says, we find not only God's presence, but God crucified in his son, and as we deepen our prayer so we come to identify more and more with the values and the virtues of this crucified Jesus, we become what he calls portraits of Jesus crucified.
And
finally, he never dealt with prayer in isolation from the rest of a person's
life, he encourages the practice of prayer each according to the reality
of our own lives and he recognises that this is different for all of us.
He suited the food to the stomach, says St Vincent Strambi, he adapted
his teaching to whoever he was speaking to. But for all of us here this
morning, I would simply say that to meditate for a little while each day
on the cross of Jesus would be something I'm sure that would bring great
graces in your life and enable you to be mystics, to grow in love and
union with God, in your own right.
May
the Passion of Christ be ever in your hearts. Amen
December 2002 - Index
Synod of Congregation in Korea
Meeting Lay Passionist Association
St. Paul of the Cross - Man of Prayer by Fr. Frank Keevins
First meeting of Former Passionists
Senior/Retired Religious Initiative
Obituary:
Bro. Malachy Daly C.P. 1916-2002
Fr. Patrick Wilson C.P. 1907-2002
Fr. Celestine Butterly C.P. 1916-2002