INSTRUCTION I
APART WITH THE MASTER1
Welcoming those taking part
Dear Brothers, I welcome you for a reflection on and an up-dating of our ministry and apostolate in this house, designed wholly to reconciliation and the sanctification of our souls. This is a very precious gift, one among the many precious gifts granted to the Pauline Family by Jesus our Master; and not only to the Pauline Family!
The Divine Master welcomes you lovingly to his house and invites you to rest from the pressures of bearing so many responsibilities: venite in desertum locum, requiescite pusillum.2
Mary welcomes you. It is she who Jesus has empowered as Matrem Ecclesiae, Magistram et Reginam Apostolorum.3 Mary, who has loved us, helped us and comforted us so much from infancy up to the present; and about whom you have preached a great deal.
Saint Paul, our Father, Teacher and Protector, welcomes you. With what love he has guarded and supported us! You have glorified him, taking his teaching, devotion and name to so many countries. He was both Father and Mother for all his sons and daughters. And the Pauline Family, which is his, flourished. Truly, were you to have ten thousand teachers, one alone is your father: per evangelium ego vos genui4 (1 Cor 4:15).
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Updating our life to the Constitutions
The primary purpose of these spiritual exercises is to update our life to the Constitutions.5 To put it more concretely: the good Christian has to upgrade his or her life daily and conform it better to the Gospel. The good religious has to upgrade his or her life daily and conform it better to the Constitutions. These, according to Pius XI, are the concrete application of the Gospel to the practice of the evangelical counsels, in view of [one's] perfection and the apostolate.
We will therefore have to read all the articles, dividing them up over the course of the month.
In this first meeting we shall read the basic articles and then reflect on the first two.
Art. 1. The general aim of the Pious Society or the Clerical Religious Congregation of Saint Paul the Apostle is the attaining of the glory of God and the sanctification of its members through the observance of the three vows of obedience, chastity and poverty, and the regulation of their lives in the practice of the common life in accordance with the norm of the Sacred Canons and of the present Constitutions.
Art. 2. The special aim of the Pious Society of Saint Paul consists in this - that its members expend their energies according to their abilities for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, in propagating Catholic doctrine, particularly, by the apostolate of communications - that is through the press, motion picture, radio, and television, as well as by other more effective and expeditious media or inventions of the age which human progress may make available, and the necessities and conditions of the times may require. Therefore, Superiors
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should take care that whatever advancements, by divine disposition, the progressing age shall introduce into the field of human disciplines and the technical arts, be not left to work for the ruination of men, but be utilized and truly made to serve the glory of God and the salvation of souls in spreading Catholic doctrine.
Art. 3. In attaining this special aim, the Society does not seek monetary profit. Accordingly, let the offerings or compensations not be accepted or anticipated, except in so far as, in the prudent judgment of the Superiors, to do so is required for the need of the Society or its works in keeping with its development and stability.
Art. 4. It is illicit, without the authorization of the Holy See, to change this special aim of the Society as defined and circumscribed by the present Constitutions, or to take up in a permanent way works in no way therein contained.
Art. 5. The Society, founded under the title and patronage of Saint Paul the Apostle, Doctor of the Gentiles, shall likewise profess a devotion to Our Lord Jesus Christ as the Divine Teacher and to the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen of Apostles.
Thus the first five articles of the Constitutions.
Preparation for two reports
The primary purpose of this Pauline month is unquestionably the upgrading of our life to the Constitutions. Our thanks go to the Lord for this extraordinary favor of a
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month of spiritual exercises. I must say that when I made mine, I found it very helpful. This is particularly so when you are ordained or professed a number of years; even more so when you realize you are close to life's halfway mark. Of course, our life is always in God's hands, but we use the ordinary human expression regarding its length.
From past experience, surveying the road we have travelled, we can deduce a number of useful conclusions. If history is a teacher of life in general, then our particular history is a teacher of our particular life. The history of our past life is a teacher for the rest of that life we hope God will grant us.
At the end of our earthly life we have to present two reports: the first concerns us as individuals, as Christians, and as religious; the second regards our role in the apostolate and ministry. The greater our responsibilities in the Congregation the more momentous will be the report. And then there are the graces the Lord has endowed us with. Oh! if only we were to reflect on our past life and picture a twofold story: the story of God's mercy towards us; in other words, how the hand of the Lord which is over us has guided us, and the story of our response to the Lord's countless graces. The sensible thing for us to do is not to spend time on the particulars but to consider the whole span of our life: from the time our soul left the creative hands of our heavenly Father to the time when we shall sit at that table of eternal happiness, ut sedeatis et bibatis in regno Patris
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mei.6 Reflect always on the whole of life - time and eternity. Many things seem useful and helpful to make life easier in this world, and more satisfying. But we have always to ask whether they are useful for eternal life: quid hoc ad aeternitatem?7 Our way of thinking will then become quite different. There are those who gear their life towards what this world has to offer or they aim for honors, satisfactions, money and so on. Such people are rightly called worldly because they think only of this world. Life can, instead, be ordered towards eternity. In this case our human planning is turned upside down because reasoning starts from other principles and leads to new and different conclusions: homo aeternitatis sum.8
What have we to do during these days? Since we have professed the three vows and embraced religious life, in conformity with the first article of the Constitutions, this then is our first report. On the first vow, that of poverty. On the second vow, that of chastity. On the third vow, that of obedience. A report, moreover, on common life, since the vows are practised within the life described by the Constitutions; as is clear from the formula of profession.
Common life is not required of secular Institutes. Indeed, in general, members of secular Institutes are enjoined to live in the world, to undertake their apostolate in the world, with the means of the world.
Ours is a clerical Institute of common life. Moreover, its peculiarity is that the priests and brothers are bound together and constitute a single group, in view of the one apostolate and the same goal.
Let us therefore examine how we have observed the vows of
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poverty, chastity and obedience in our life. A time came when the Divine Master called us: si vis perfectus esse,9 and we replied yes. So we reflect on our obligations: leave everything, come, follow me and you will have treasure in heaven: a treasure of eternal happiness.
The second article refers us to the apostolate. The priest's ministry in particular is a ministry to people and to the publications' apostolate, while the Brothers have only the publications' apostolate. We have joined forces to make this voyage through life together and thus to reach the goal more securely. Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.10 Some members of the Congregation can already be in the Church triumphant; others could be in the Church purgative; while we, at present, are in the Church militant. Before making our commitment [to religious life] we considered all its advantages and merits. The Church is quite prudent. There is not the same preparation for marriage as there is for religious profession. Before a person arrives at perpetual profession there is aspirantship, the novitiate, and the trial period of temporary profession. Thus there is a long time for reflection, taking advice, prayer and testing. There are great benefits in the Congregation but there are also great responsibilities.
I have felt the hand of God
It might be helpful to go over some particular aspects of our beloved Congregation. I am coming to the end of my life and there is no point in deceiving myself; as well, I am speaking to you, brothers well qualified and endowed with many merits.
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As regards the component parts of the Pauline Family, I was guided every step of the way by obedience concerning their foundation, development, spirit, expansion, and apostolate.
In a matter of such great responsibility three ingredients have proved necessary: the assurance of divine inspiration, the advice of the spiritual director, dependence on legitimate superiors.
These are the ways that the Church teaches and makes available ne in vanum currerem aut cucurrissem.11 These were the ways I followed exhaustively, making use of the insight of people more learned, pious and trustworthy.
I have felt the hand of God; a fatherly and wise hand, in spite of the countless shortcomings, for which I recite, trustingly, in the Offertory prayer: pro innumerabilibus peccatis, offensionibus et negligentiis meis.12 The houses sprang up and developed almost spontaneously, following the line my superiors taught me, arranged for and had me fulfil from 190013 onwards. Canon Chiesa14 played an important part; after his death I found myself being directed by a venerable Father in Turin, who provided also other help to the Congregation.15
The wonderful vocations sent by the Lord have been and continue to be plentiful; they are the external proof of God's pleasure. The flowering of vocations in a House is always a sign of fervor. Vocations and their success are the result of prolific spirituality; otherwise you end up only with more or less good Christians.
What puts the matter beyond discussion and is a surety of God's
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will is the Church's seal - definitive approval - so that the Congregation becomes iuris pontificii,16 after all the usual, sometimes special, tests and practices.
In fact, as regards our approval, there was something particular; an exception, as it were. This is the ordinary way: a request to erect a religious Institute iuris diocesani17 is made to the Ordinary of the diocese; the Ordinary then petitions the Holy See for the nulla osta for the erection; after the Congregation for Religious has received all the information, examined it from every angle, and determined the usefulness of the Institute, it grants or denies this faculty to the bishop. For the Pious Society of Saint Paul, given the uniqueness of both its nature and its apostolate, the Congregation for Religious decided to hand everything over to the Pope, leaving to him all responsibility in a matter of such originality, importance and consequence.
Time passed. Why this perplexity? I was told: A Congregation of common life which hopes to undertake these apostolates would encounter so many difficulties and require members of remarkable spirit and qualities…. And the great Pope Pius XI, open to all the needs of the times, gave his approval. So we had diocesan approval. The same happened for pontifical approval; again it was the Pope who wanted the Institute. Thus the Congregation issued directly from the Pope.
The Pauline Family
We shall present the Lord with a second report. This will deal with our priestly ministry, apostolate, and office: ut referat unusquisque propria corporis, prout gessit,
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sive bonum sive malum.18
The PAULINE FAMILY is now complete.
1. The Pious Society of Saint Paul which is, as it were, the Mother of the other Institutes, and has to give them the Pauline spirit; while it fulfils its apostolate in conformity with the second article of the Constitutions.
2. The Daughters of Saint Paul who have a corresponding apostolate, but directed from the point of view of women, in harmonious cooperation, in accordance with the thinking of the Holy See.
3. The Sisters Pious Disciples of Jesus Master, with their apostolates: eucharistic, priestly service in the houses of the Pious Society of Saint Paul, liturgical.
4. The Sisters of Jesus the Good Shepherd, whose purpose, in accordance with their talents and condition, is to cooperate with parish priests; they bring the Pauline spirit into direct contact with individual persons and people at large.
5. The Sisters of Mary Queen of the Apostles, who are still in their adolescence; their goal is prayer and vocation initiatives, with the motto all vocations, for all the apostolates.
6. The secular Institute of Jesus the Priest for the diocesan clergy, with the characteristics, the benefits, and the duties attached to similar institutions.
7. The secular Institute of Saint Gabriel [the Archangel], whose members are men consecrated to God and dedicated to the apostolate in the world and with the means of the world.
8. The secular Institute of Our Lady of the Annunciation, whose
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members are women consecrated to the Lord and dedicated to apostolates in the world and with the means of the world.
These three secular Institutes form, as it were, a Pauline union; they are aggregated to the Pious Society of Saint Paul and are definitively approved; first of all, they cooperate with it [SSP] in the world; they profess the three usual vows, which they practise in conformity with the pontifical documents, under the guidance of the Superiors of the Pious Society of Saint Paul.
9. The Cooperators' Union embraces those lay people who, in accord with their status, want to imitate the Pauline life and give it their contribution of prayer, works, and offerings.
With these characteristically international organizations, each with its own apostolate, the Pious Society of Saint Paul can extend its riches to all and give Jesus Christ, Way, Truth and Life to the world.
Such fervor and life-giving light must flow from the Pauline priest, who has here a great and delicate ministry. Thus, secondly, what is needed is his updating to the various Institutes, so as to give what is his to give, in conformity with the rules of Canon Law, and to receive in exchange that which conforms to the nature and the spirit of the Church.
A great responsibility! There must be that one spirit which filled the heart of Saint Paul: cor Pauli, cor Christi;19 the devotions are the same; and the various goals are geared to a common and general goal which is to give the whole Christ to the world, in the way he defined himself: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life [Jn 14:6].
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The vocation problem
At the outset of announcing these longer exercises our thinking was that, as regards vocations, there had to be a convincing, intelligent and shared effort to double the number of professed members within five years.
Everyone sees the need; there is the harvest that awaits the harvesters. Lift up your eyes! See how plentiful is the harvest and how vast the field, the world: 2,900,000,000 people, and increasing by 45 million every year. Harvesters are needed!
Every day attention is drawn to works to be undertaken, initiatives to be supported, houses to be opened. But gospel workers are needed for these works.
It is something the Divine Master wants. He tells us to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send good workers into his harvest. He himself sought out his future apostles, he trained them, he sent them out! He sanctified them at Pentecost so that they could undertake their work.
In the December 1958 San Paolo we read:
The underlying problem is that of vocations. At present (October 1958) there are about 800 professed members.
But now the Congregation has the infrastructure and means to expand more rapidly.
Am I asking too much of God and of you to double the number to 1600 by October 1963? It is a question of five years.
It depends on the Lord, but also on our love for the Congregation. Love is resourceful, love is dynamic [CISP 736].
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As this book goes to press [1960] the number of professed members is over a thousand.
Let us examine our conscience over the coming days on this matter of vocations; in other words, on wise recruitment and a truly Pauline formation.
This gathering has a number of objectives and all of them are important. The range of sermon and conference topics is an indicator.
However, the principal goal is spiritual provision. When there is the soul of the apostolate - the spirit of prayer life - all is made clear in the light of Jesus the Master; there is a concern to seek out God and the souls of people; everything is made holy; everything is a source of merit; religious life is lived in shared joy.
Before this month started I made my spiritual exercises and I meditated on the things to communicate to you on God's behalf.
We can distinguish two types of Paulines: those who do indeed pray and those who pray infrequently or insufficiently. Here is the explanation of why there are those who advance and produce results; and why there are failures in undertakings or even in life.
So as to present ourselves at the judgement already judged, let us anticipate God's judgement, and make our twofold report now, not to God, a just judge, but to the merciful Lord Jesus.
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Means for a successful outcome to these spiritual exercises:
a) Intense recollection and a lot of prayer.
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b) Reflection that lasts more or less the length of the meditations and instructions.
c) Examination of conscience, with a confession that concerns the whole of one's past life.
d) Resolutions and a program of spiritual work, ministry, and apostolate.
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1 The title-summary of this Instruction, like those which follow, is gleaned only in part from the Raduno Paolino guidebook, April 1960. The booklet had the following title for the first Instruction, scheduled for 2 April: “The Constitutions, how they oblige, the first two articles.” But the point concerning “the first articles” (the present Instruction) was, in real-ity, dealt with already on the evening of the entrance day, Friday 1 April. This shift upsets the scheduled dates for the instructions of the Founder. During the first week, then, the meditations (two a day, on the Creed) were given by Fr Giovanni Roatta; they supplemented Fr Alberione's two daily instructions. The first meditation for 2 April (at 6 a.m.) was entitled “I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth”; the second (at 7 p.m.), “I be-lieve in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.” Fr Ferrari was to celebrate the second Mass of the day, at 9 a.m., during the first week of the meeting.
2 “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while” (Mk 6:31).
3 “Mother of the Church, Teacher and Queen of the Apostles”: an expression taken from Leo XIII's 1895 encyclical Adjutricem populi.
4 “I became your father through the gospel.”
5 Various editions of Constitutions of the Society of Saint Paul had been published prior to 1960. A first draft is to be found in a folder of 1922, prepared for presentation to the Bishop of Alba. It is a sixteen-page pamphlet with a straw-colored cover and bears the title: I.M.I.P [Alberione Giacomo] Pia Società San Paolo. Per l'Apostolato della Buona Stampa. Scuola Tipografica Editrice, Alba [1922]; 17 p., 25 cm. The main points are: Purpose and make-up of the Pious Society; Studies; History of the Pious Society. Activity: Typographical School. Publishing activity; Other pious undertakings to spread the Good Press; the Auxiliaries (Supporters, Cooperators, Daughters of Saint Paul: pp. 11-13); the backing of the Episcopate. Interesting items on the structure of the Institute are to be found in the booklet. It is stated, for example, that the Pious Society “is made up of ecclesiastics called Teachers [Maestri] and lay brothers” (art. 6); that the members, after a year of novitiate (art. 10), “bind themselves with promises of poverty, chastity, obedience and fidelity to the Roman Pontiff” (art. 5); that the Pious Society of Saint Paul “is governed by a Primo Maestro” (art. 11). - A. Damino (Bibliografia, 1994, pp. 76ff) distinguishes various stages in the formation and the development of the Constitutions: 1. The Rules of 1927. Prepared in 1926, and ready at the beginning of 1927, they were presented - not yet printed - to the Bishop of Alba for the approval of the Institute. The Bishop had examined them and on 12 March 1927 had issued the decree of erection of the Pious Society of Saint Paul as a clerical congregation of diocesan right. These Rules begin with a sentence taken from Saint Paul “…et quicumque hanc regulam secuti fuerint, pax super illos et misericordia Dei (ad Gal. VI, 16).” Besides some changes and corrections passed on to Fr Alberione on 1 June 1927, the Bishop also asked that they conform to the Code of Canon Law in those matters where Fr Alberione had distanced himself (for example, regarding the length of the novitiate, years of temporary profession, and so on). - 2. Constitutions of 257 articles. a) Italian edition. A more complete and systematic edition, with progressive numbering of the articles, is the following: G.D.P.H., Costituzioni della Pia Società San Paolo, Rome-Alba-Messina, 1936; 111 p., 16 cm. Flap: picture of Saint Paul. b) Latin edition: Pia Societas a S. Paulo. Constitutiones. Size 22 x 14.5 cm. No Index but an indication of the canons of the Code of Canon Law from which the articles were taken. This is a kind of private edition, printed with wide margins on the external edges of the pages and sent to the senior priests of the Institute for corrections. Articles and pages vary. The Italian edition just mentioned above is a translation of this Latin edition and, so it would seem, does not yet take account of all the corrections, nor of some errors in quoting the canons. - 3. Constitutions of 373 articles. Latin edition: Pia Soc. a S. Paulo: Constitutiones. 75 p., 24 x 17 cm., no date. The articles have become 373. It seems it was prepared at the end of the 30s, in view of the Decree of Praise. - 4. Constitutions of 374 articles. Latin edition (Constitutiones) 1941. At the end it has the Decree of Praise. Italian edition: Costituzioni della PSSP, Alba, 1942. - 5. Constitutions of 453 articles, with the definitive approval of 27 June 1949: a) Latin edition: Constitutiones, 1950; b) Italian edition, 1951. - 6. Constitutions with changes, 463 articles: Latin edition 1956 and Italian edition 1957. Six years after the definitive approval, the Sacred Congregation of Religious “confirms and approves… some changes and additions to be inserted in the Constitutions, regarding especially the juridical status of the Brothers.” There are translations in several languages of this edition used by Fr Alberione in the 1960 Ariccia meeting. Fr Alberione, who had composed the Regole [Rules] practically by himself, involved others in the various editions of the Constitutions.
6 “That you may sit and drink in the kingdom of my Father” (cf. Lk 22:30 and Mt 26:29).
7 “What use has this for eternity?”
8 “I am an eternity man”: a man destined for eternity.
9 “If you would be perfect” (Mt 19:21).
10 “The love of Christ has gathered us in unity” (from the liturgical hymn, Ubi caritas et amor…).
11 “Lest somehow I should be running or had run in vain” (Gal 2:2).
12 “For my innumerable sins, offences and negligences” (cf. Missale Romanum, Ordo Missae: “Suscipe…”).
13 On 7 April 1900, without having completed his fifth year of high school classes, James Alberione left the archdiocesan minor seminary at Bra and returned to the Cascina Agricola on the plains of Cherasco, in the diocese of Alba. With the 11 May Bull Properante ad exitum Pope Leo XIII promulgated 1900 as a Holy Year. An apposite international committee had asked the Pope that the night, which was to close the nineteenth century and usher in the twentieth, be solemnized with a suitable act of public worship; particularly the celebration of Mass. The Pope accepted the request, extending the concession not only for the night between 31 December 1900 and 1 January 1901, but also for the night between 31 December 1899 and 1 January 1900. The “night” of light to which Fr Alberione will refer in Abundantes divitiae (nn. 13-22) was not the first day of 1900. Of this night there is no trace in the remembrances of Fr Alberione who then was still a seminarian at Bra. The event celebrated a year later, on 1 January 1901, in the cathedral of Alba, and in which he took part as a student of the seminary of Alba, where he had entered in October 1900, not quite seventeen years of age, was, instead, to have a lasting effect on him. In the cathedral, events unfolded thus: the people were animated with a cycle of sermons and the Forty Hours; around midnight on 31 December 1900, in the cathedral and in the churches of the diocese which had the requisites to solemnize the celebration, there was exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the singing of the Te Deum, and the celebration of solemn Mass. After the Gospel, an occasional sermon on the topic indicated by Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical letter Tametsi futura prospicientibus (1 November 1900). After the Mass and general Communion, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament continued, on the part of men, up till six o'clock in the morning when the usual Masses began in the parishes for the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord. - Alberione remained at Alba from 1900 to 1936. He studied in the seminary of Alba from 1900 to 1907; he was there as spiritual Director and as a Professor from 1908 to 1920.
14 Francesco Chiesa (1874-1946) had degrees in philosophy, in civil and canon law, and in theology. He taught philosophy to the young Alberione from October 1900 to June 1902. He was a canon from 27 August 1913 and parish priest from 21 September 1913. On 11 December 1987 he was declared Venerable.
15 This reference is to FATHER DOMINICO DA OVADA, OFM.CAP., in the world Daniele Beccaria (1882-1961), a notable personage in the Piedmontese Capuchin Province. Ordained priest in 1904, he held various offices - as Preceptor, Guardian, Professor of Philosophy, Definitor, Vicar and Provincial - living successively in places familiar to Fr Alberione: Bra, Busca, Sommariva Bosco, Villafranca, Fossano, Racconigi, Turin (Monte dei Cappuccini). - In the early part of 1938 he visited the Capuchin missions in Italian East Africa (at Arussi and Addis Ababa) and on 21 April of that year he took part, in an official capacity, at Piovà d'Asti, in the solemn celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the death of Cardinal Guglielmo Massaja. - The Pauline Family contributed to these celebrations with the production of the film Abuna Messias (Volpi Cup Award at Venice), and it was probably on that occasion that the “venerable Father” offered the Society of Saint Paul the “other helps” mentioned, consisting of brotherly assistance by way of advice and financial loans. - But the principal merit of Fr Domenico da Ovada, for Paulines, is the fact that he was the counsellor and spiritual director of Fr Alberione from 1946 to 1961. This role was mentioned in the necrology of the Capuchin Friar, published in the periodical Sentiero francescano on the occasion of his death, where we read: “He was in spiritual relationship with the Founder of the Pious Society of Saint Paul. Every time Fr Alberione came to Turin he had him sent for or he went to Monte to see him. He visited him at the Molinette Hospital and a few days before [the friar's] death he went to see him at Monte, staying alone with him for his final few minutes.”
16 “Of pontifical right.”
17 “Of diocesan right.”
18 “So that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body” (2 Cor 5:10).
19 “Paul's heart was the heart of Christ.”