Today's Ornament of Grace for Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent is St. Paul of the Cross.
Luke 7:18b-23
“John the Baptizer sends us to you with this question: ‘Are you ‘He who is to come’ or do we look for someone else?” ...Jesus gave this response: “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind recover their sight, cripples walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, dead men are raised to life, and the poor have the good news preached to them. Blest is that man who finds no stumbling block in me.”
In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist was suffering in prison. Probably having doubts about whether Jesus was truly the Messiah, he sent a couple of his disciples to ask Jesus if He was truly the Anointed One of God. John did the right thing. When we have doubts, we simply need to go and share those doubts with Jesus and hear His answer.
St. Paul of the Cross understood the suffering that doubt can bring, but he also knew to bring his doubts to Jesus. He suffered the darkness of doubt for forty years, but he moved ahead with his ministry, trusting in the power of God to give him strength. He knew that Jesus would not forget him in his emotional prison of doubt.
Born in 1694 in Italy, Paul of the Cross died there in 1775. His father read to Paul and his brother John about the lives of the saints. When the boys had difficulties in life, their mother would point to the crucifix and remind them of Jesus’ love for them.
After leaving school, Paul worked for his father in a dry goods store. Always active in the Church, Paul dedicated himself to the Passion of Christ at age 19. At 21, he became a soldier but soon realized that was not his vocation. So, returning to the family business, he dedicated himself to many hours of prayer and penance. Five years later, Paul began to have visions of founding a community dedicated to Jesus’ Passion. His bishop encouraged him. Paul made a 40-day retreat during which he wrote a Rule for the future community. They were to pray, do penance, and live the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Their ministry was to teach the poor and marginalized, emphasizing meditation on Christ’s suffering and death.
Paul’s first recruit was his brother John. A Cardinal in Rome heard about the two and invited them to come to Rome to help him start a hospital. Paul and John nursed the sick and taught the staff how to pray with Jesus in His Passion. The two also took a course in theology and were ordained priests in 1727. After ordination, they taught in many parishes, especially remote regions which had difficulty finding priests to provide Mass and the sacraments.
While Paul was extremely popular as a preacher and greatly loved for his kind acts, his community, known as Passionists, grew very slowly. Their life was demanding, and his prayer was often dry, and he continued to be assailed by doubt. Still, by the grace of God, the community had 180 members by the time Paul died. He had also founded an Order of nuns dedicated to the Passion of Jesus Christ.
Paul of the Cross, like John the Baptist, knew where to bring his doubts. Since he buried them in the wounds of Jesus and trusted they would be healed eventually, he had the spiritual energy to share Jesus’ love with others. His last years were filled with consolation. He found no stumbling block in Jesus. He found joy.
OBSERVING THE BEAUTIFUL ORNAMENTS
How might it be helpful to meditate on the passion and death of Jesus, even in Advent, when we are r
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