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The Year of St Paul
Pauline aim – prayer and service
Page 4 The Catholic Weekly, June 28, 2009
www.catholicweekly.com.au
FR JAMES Alberione, thefounder of the Pauline Family,knew that as modern day apostles, his young religiousfamily would need to be well-nourished spiritually if they wereto undertake their challenging mission.
Listening deeply to the inspiration entrusted to him bythe Spirit, he saw that living andproclaiming Jesus was the solereason for the Pauline Family’sexistence and its fundamentalpurpose.
Fr James invited his followersto be deeply rooted in a devotion to Jesus Master, Way,Truth and Life. He also invitedthem to take example for theirown lives from Mary, and fromthe great apostles Peter andPaul, who committed their livesto proclaiming the Gospel andnurturing the life of the Church.
This remarkable man was bornin Italy on April 4, 1884, and wasordained a priest for the dioceseof Alba in 1907.
At the turn of the century, as ayoung seminarian, he had a pow-erful experience of Jesus and felt compelled to do something for
the peopleof the newcentury.
Overtime, hewould propose totheChurchnot onebut fivenew congreg-ations, aswell as four institutes of conse-crated secular life, and a unionof lay co-operators.
All would win the Church’sapproval.
Shortly after ordination, FrJames was put in charge of thelocal church newspaper andquickly saw the potential of theprinted word to communicatethe Gospel to people.
In 1914 he founded theSociety of St Paul, a congregation of priests andbrothers and, in 1915 theDaughters of St Paul, a congregation of Sisters, to usethe printed word, and – later –
radio, television and films, topromote the Gospel.
In 1924 he formed a new congregation, the SisterDisciples of the Divine Master,to be the spiritual support of his developing religious familythrough an apostolate ofEucharistic prayer and service tothe priesthood and liturgy.
Fr James was prophetic in recognising the immense contribution the media couldmake to the proclamation of theGood News.
He also had a great appreciation of the complementary nature of menand women in mission and, in1938 founded the Sisters ofJesus Good Shepherd(Pastorelle Sisters) to collaborate with priests in parishministry.
The year 1960 saw the foundation of the Sisters of theQueen of Apostles, to providevocational guidance for youngpeople.
That year, too, the institutes oflay consecrated life began: theInstitute of Jesus the Priest (fordiocesan clergy); the Institute of
Our Lady of the Annunciation(for lay consecrated women),and the Institute of St Gabrielthe Archangel (for lay consecrated men).
Completing his religious family, which came to be knownas the Pauline family, was theUnion of Pauline Co-operators,whose members assist the
Pauline mission in practical service and through prayer.
The Pauline Family now numbers more than 10,000 members and is present in morethan 60 countries.
Fr Alberione, faithful servantof Jesus Christ, died in 1971. Hewas beatified by Pope John PaulII in 2003.
BLESSED: Pope John Paul II prays during a Mass of beatification on April27, 2003, for Fr Giacomo Alberione.
THE Pauline Family nourishes itself ofChrist by means of the word of God and theEucharist; it is in Christ that it unifiesprayer, study, apostolate and religious consecration, and it is from Christ that itdraws strength in order to communicate tohuman beings the fullness of God’s salvificmystery.
To enter into this spirit Paulines follow FrAlberione’s example. His was a living testi-mony of Christ the Master expressed andsummed up by Paul: “Christ lives in me.” It isfor this reason that the Pauline spirit is called‘Pauline’. To be Pauline, that is to “live inChrist”, embraces life taken as a whole.
Fr Alberione’s spiritual approach mirrorsthe Christocentric view of St Paul. He invit-ed Paulines to come to an understanding ofthe total mystery of Christ by means of thegospel concept of ‘Master’. Since ‘he is theWay, the Truth and the Life, he fulfils all theexpectations of our spirit. Indeed he infinitely surpasses them.
The character of Paulines as consecratedpersons and apostles is also given by theVirgin Mary, the Mother of God. ForPaulines she is the Queen of Apostles sinceshe is “the model of that motherly love withwhich all who join in the Church’s apostolicmission for the regeneration of humankindshould be animated”. She “occupies a placewhich is the highest after Christ and alsoclosest to us”. She is the inspiration and thestrength of our apostolate: “She gave us thewhole Christ, Way, Truth and Life.” Shestands as the perfect model of completeavailability to God and to neighbour.
In addition, Paulines have a special devotion to St Paul the Apostle as father,teacher and inspiration of their mission.From him Paulines learn openness to theworld that implies them to bring the mes-sage of salvation to all peoples, a pastoraladaptability that compels them to becomeall things to all persons, and a concern to
bring to life in Christ every human value.In keeping with their pastoral mission the
Sisters of Jesus Good Shepherd (Pastorelle)also look to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, toMary, the Mother of the Good Shepherdand to the Apostle Peter for guidance andinspiration.
Following an exampleof a testimony to Christ