DAILY WORD of BLESSED JAMES ALBERIONE 2022
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of our founder, Blessed James Alberione, we will reflect on his words and use them as our daily guide.
PRAYER INTENTION for DECEMBER
Make progress in everything. How many things do you still have to learn! There is no need to do great things because even small things have their value and can be useful to you (PrP I, 134).
I recommend charity. Be happy, serene and helpful to one another. Charity is like the cement that holds the bricks together, but if there is no foundation, the building falls down (PrP I, 134).
Most Holy Virgin, who sanctified the little house of Nazareth and your days with all the domestic virtues, turn your benign gaze upon us; direct and sanctify our days; so that we never abandon ourselves to sin, but in everything and with a great heart we serve God, our Lord (BM, 379).
Jesus gave us His very life! How much love for us! True love sacrifices itself; if we seek our own consolations, we will never do anything; it will only be selflove clothed in zeal. He who has the true love of God cares nothing for sacrifices (PrP I, 45).
Holiness is made up of small things, just as material life is made up of small breaths. Fabric is also made up of small threads put together, but if instead of good threads there are nettles, will the fabric be good? Many small things put together with love will make great things (PrP I, 140).
The tempted soul is more humble. It knows that it is weak and therefore has constant recourse to God, even in serenity and peace. The tempted soul is mistrustful of itself; it trusts in God, and in those who guide it; it is wary of dangers because it knows that if it is not careful, it will fall... Let us fight, let us fight, and let us win! (PrP I, 65).
Jesus gave many descriptions of Himself, but the most complete is certainly this: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. The Pauline Families have Jesus complete as their model because this devotion brings the whole person to God, mind, will and heart (PrP I, 7).
Your vocation is related to, resembles, participates much in the vocation of the Most Blessed Virgin. Up to what point did Mary reach? She was always with Jesus. You too should always be with Jesus. You are invited to follow Mary, to walk on the most intimate way of communication with the Divine Master (APD47, 245).
Jesus wants to conquer souls with love! You will win them for Him, but to do this, begin to love one another, to help one another. Do this well: pray for each other; correct each other and with great charity; listen well to each other’s advice (PrP I, 45).
Let your heart, your soul, your will, your whole being belong to Jesus through Mary. To Belong to Mary so as to belong to Jesus (APD47, 232-233).
If the Son of God submitted to two creatures, if by obedience he descended into the hands of the priest, what excuse do we dare to make for obedience to the divine will? If Jesus obeyed the executioners themselves, what reason or protest do we have for rebelling against God’s will? (PrP I, 78).
To accept everything: commands, dispositions, schedules, pleasant and unpleasant circumstances just to do God’s will, with a spirit of humility. To let them dispose as they see fit in our regard, to accept any office... tolerating such humiliations (PrP I, 78-79).
Mary adored Jesus in her womb, brought Him up and ac-companied Him throughout His life until death. What does Jesus formed in Mary’s arms teach us? That you too must allow yourselves to be formed in her arms (PrP I, 126).
Just as oral preaching spreads the Gospel so does preaching in its written or imprinted form. It multiplies it; its reach is all-pervasive. God himself gave us his Word preached orally and he gave it to us in seventy-two books of the Scripture. The Church in every age has worked in the same way: Popes, bishops, priests speak and write (UPS III, 124).
Christian perfection is to live in Jesus Christ, and that our incorporation in him is the basis and motive of imitation of Jesus Christ, of our spiritual progression towards him and of our life of union with him (AE, 222).
The first love to Jesus is of the mind. “You will love me with all your mind”, God said. Do not think that love consists of sentimentality, etc. No, it means thinking as God thinks. Teaching the way of Truth (PrP I, 9).
In the publishing apostolate, which is proper to our institute, the book that we must especially disseminate is the Bible: more than all and before all, and always (Vademecum, n. 1040).
St. Paul, our Father, Teacher and Protector, welcomes you. With what love he has guarded and supported us!... He was both Father and Mother for all his sons and daughters. And the Pauline Family, which is his, flourished. Indeed, though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, “in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel” (UPS I, 11).
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, which are the concrete application of the Gospel to the practice of the evangelical counsels, in view of [one’s] perfection and the apostolate (UPS I, 12).
The special aim of the Pious Society of St. 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 means (UPS I, 12).
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: “For my innumerable sins, offences and negligences”. The houses sprang up and developed almost spontaneously (UPS I, 17).
What was Mary doing in the cradle, in the house of Nazareth, in the temple, in the Cenacle? The apostolate of prayer. What was Jesus doing in Bethlehem during his early years, in his hidden life? The apostolate of prayer. What a great deal of prayers, supplications had risen to the Heavenly Father from that little house of Nazareth! (APD47, 327).
There are 365 days in a year. If you will take a little step each day, what progress you will obtain at the end! Let us ask Jesus to guide us in making the resolutions and to bless them (APD47, 434).
Mary is the model of mothers: how much care, how much silent industriousness, how much diligence in everything! St. Joseph is the model of fathers: what silent care in his humble work! Jesus is the model of children: what submission, what respect, what humility, what docility! (FSP33**, 29).
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 (UPS I, 22).
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 fervour. Vocations and their success are the results of prolific spirituality (UPS I, 17).
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; the religious life is lived in shared joy (UPS I, 22).
The specific aim of the publishing apostolate is the glory of God and the salvation of souls. It is the same program that the Angels put into song at Bethlehem’s crib: “Glory to God, and peace to people of goodwill”. It is the program of Jesus Christ and of his perennial life in the Church. [It is] a very lofty aim, therefore; a divine aim (AE, 17).
St. Joseph is the model of worshippers, he is the man of faith and he showed himself as such before the cradle of the Child. At the crib, he shows himself with such humility that he becomes for us the model of adoration, faith and humility of heart (FSP33**, 19).
Jesus has preferences and shows particular fondness; he prefers the humble, the insignificant, the simple. He called the shepherds to his crib; they were Jesus’ first apostles because they were the first to speak of him to their acquaintances, without getting up to a teacher’s desk (APD47, 34).
Be vigilant also in the interior: thoughts, feelings. I insist a lot on this point in my homilies at this time. Sanctify the mind; to watch over ourselves. Tell Our Lady to keep her holy hand on our heads (PrP I, 141).
Our foundress
Venerable Thecla Merlo
night of 31 December 1900 and felt obliged “to do something for God and for the people of the new century.”
Our founder Blessed James Alberione
Fr James Alberione encountered the Lord in the
Eucharistic adoration on the
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