AN EXPERIENCE OF THE PASSIONIST SPIRIT

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE PASSIONIST VOCATION
(The Passionist Constitutions)

Saint Paul of the Cross gathered companions to live together and to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to all. 

The first name he gave his community was “The Poor of Jesus”. This was to indicate that their lives were to be based on evangelical poverty, which he held to be so necessary if they were to observe the other evangelical counsels, to preserve in prayer, and to peach the Word of the Cross in season and out of season.

Moreover, he wanted them to live their lives like apostles. They were to foster and develop a deep spirit of prayer, penance and solitude so that they could reach closer union with God and witness to his love. 

Keenly aware of the evils that afflicted the people of his time, he never tired of insisting that the most effective remedy is the Passion of Jesus, “the greatest and most overwhelming work of God’s love”.

We are aware that the Passion of Christ continues in this world until He comes in glory;  therefore we share in the joys and sorrows of our contemporaries as we journey through life toward our Father. We wish to share in the distress of all, especially those who are poor and neglected; we seek to offer them comfort, and to relieve the burden of their sorrow.

The power of the Cross which is the wisdom of God, gives us strength to discern and remove the causes of human suffering. 

For this reason our mission aims at evangelising others by means of the Word of the Cross.

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A PARTICULAR WAY OF REMEMBERING THE PASSION 
(Paul Francis Spencer, C.P.)

Paul of the Cross wished to promote the memory of the Passion. His is a mysticism of the heart, founded on the Word of the Cross. For Paul of the Cross, the context of the memory of the Passion is that of affectivity. Hence the phrase … “may the Passion of Jesus Christ be always in our hearts” – not may the Passion of Christ be in our head, but may the Passion of Christ be always in our heart. That tells us something about the kind of memory of the Passion that Paul was concerned with.

When Paul speaks about the memory of the Passion, he is speaking about an affective relationship with the person of Jesus in his suffering. For Paul, the memory of the Passion is the loving and sorrowful contemplation of what Jesus, our God made man, has done and suffered for us. This understanding of the Memory of the Passion gives rise to what he sees as our characteristic apostolate: the promoting of the Memory of the Passion. That is, bringing others to a mystical participation in the passion of Christ and to an affective sharing in the sufferings of Jesus.

For we are changed by experience; we are not so easily changed by information. Paul is saying that our lives can be transformed when we are touched by an experience of the memory of the passion of Jesus, through what he calls loving and sorrowful contemplation.

When people come to a retreat or mission, we aim to set up the environment which promotes a certain experience we hope people will enter into. You cannot give the memory of the Passion to someone else, all you can do is set up the environment which will help us promote the experience in others.

So we hope to see in the Passionists two sides of the memory of the Passion (i) they must carry this memory with them, they must live it through their witness to prayer, solitude and penance in their own lives – always keeping it close to their hearts, (ii) and through their ministry they must take care to instill in others a capacity to reflect on the sufferings and love of Jesus shown to us on the Cross.
 
 
 

SOME REFLECTIONS -

1. How would you describe the ‘spirit’ of the Passionists as you have experienced it?

2. What led or attracted you to be associated with the Passionists?

3. What elements of the Passionist spirit do you feel most attracted to?

4. What parts, values or elements of your own life are most like the values and ideals of the Passionists?

5. What do you think “keeping alive the memory of the Passion” means today?

6. How do you see yourself “keeping alive the memory of the Passion”?

7. How do you see the Passionists continuing to do this?