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The Pauline Community of St. Joseph (PCSJ) is a 501c3 non-profit charitable and religious entity formed by a few consecrated Paulines to bring the Word to the world through spiritual works of mercy. PCSJ helps faithful followers of Christ from all over the world gather into Pauline Parish Cells in order to render ADORATION and REPARATION to our Divine Master, hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, and to engage in (or financially support) EVANGELIZATION with the love and commitment of Saint Paul. |
How to Enjoy Pauline Spirituality in a Pauline Parish Cell
As a member of a Pauline Parish Cell, you can enjoy Pauline spirituality in 2 ways:
1) You can deepen your prayer life in your Pauline Parish Cell (PPC). If there is not yet a PPC cell in your parish, we will help you every step of the way to establish one using the simple guide ARE You Ready? The PPC "ARE You Ready" page on this website shows you how to set up a PPC, so that you and your fellow parishioners can enter deeply into Pauline spirituality through regular acts of Adoration, Reparation, and Evangelization-- all for the love of Jesus and in the spirit of Saint Paul, who was converted by an encounter with the Living Christ.
2) You can deepen your spiritual journey by entering one of the Pauline Family's 10 institutes of religious and secular consecrated (or promised) life founded by Blessed James Alberione. The Pauline Family offers Catholics in all walks of life the opportunity to enter into a Church-regulated, formal state of consecration, which deepens our baptismal commitment and call to holiness and draws us more fully into the love and service of Jesus, our Divine Master. Pauline Cooperators take promises and support the evangelical works of the Daughters of Saint Paul, while members of the other 9 branches make solemn vows before God of poverty, chastity, and obedience according to their state in life as married/widowed or single persons living either in family life, single secular life, or religious life in a religious community.
To be "a Pauline" is to be like Saint Paul: belonging to both God and to the society in which we live, a society that so desperately needs Jesus the Way, Truth, and Life. We are in the world but not of it. We are evangelizers designed to live at the CRUX of SPIRIT and FLESH, at the intersection of human and divine, which is the Eucharistic mystery.
Here in this complex, busy world of human society, we meet our Maker both in the Tabernacle and in the distressing disguise of our neighbor. In human society, we witness the creative genius of the Father animating every human gift and accomplishment with His power and goodness. Here we encounter by God's gracious condescension the call to participate in the salvation of mankind, bringing souls one by one to Jesus our Master, our Teacher and Lord through works of evangelization. Through learning, teaching, exhorting, through lives of prayer and reparation, through the constant effort to bring Christ the Master, Way, Truth and Life to the world--and to bring the world's citizens specifically to Him in Adoration--we hope to say one day with St. Paul, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).
So, what are you waiting for? Join us in the work as a PPC member or even as a consecrated member of a Church-regulated religious or secular institute! You can participate just a little bit at your parish or with your whole life in an Institute, if that is what God calls you to in prayer. EVERYONE is welcome, and no one is pressured to do more than just sit at the Master's feet in Eucharistic Adoration.
As a PPC member, the global Pauline family will be praying for you and with you! Paulines are consecrated community members living in their homes or religious houses and working in the state of life to which God called them. Your life can be united to all their prayers and good works. Experiencing the Pauline mission of bringing the Word to the world in a PPC, you will be joined spiritually to the whole family of consecrated Paulines throughout the world who live Christ's teaching: "Whatsoever you did to the least of these, that you did to Me" (Matthew 25:40). What power there is functioning as one in Christian communion around the globe! "How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together as one" (Psalm 133:1).
That we are so much more together than we can be alone is the beauty of Christian communion. Jesus taught us to be one body in communion with Him, to be His Body in the world. The Pauline Family offers 10 pathways of consecrated life to live that communion which leads to complete happiness in heaven with the divine Father, Son, and Spirit. There is a pathway for every vocation, because we are each called to serve as members of the same body in various capacities, and each contribution is valuable for the functioning of the whole.
To learn more about the 10 Pathways of Pauline Consecration to God, click here to get started.
1) You can deepen your prayer life in your Pauline Parish Cell (PPC). If there is not yet a PPC cell in your parish, we will help you every step of the way to establish one using the simple guide ARE You Ready? The PPC "ARE You Ready" page on this website shows you how to set up a PPC, so that you and your fellow parishioners can enter deeply into Pauline spirituality through regular acts of Adoration, Reparation, and Evangelization-- all for the love of Jesus and in the spirit of Saint Paul, who was converted by an encounter with the Living Christ.
2) You can deepen your spiritual journey by entering one of the Pauline Family's 10 institutes of religious and secular consecrated (or promised) life founded by Blessed James Alberione. The Pauline Family offers Catholics in all walks of life the opportunity to enter into a Church-regulated, formal state of consecration, which deepens our baptismal commitment and call to holiness and draws us more fully into the love and service of Jesus, our Divine Master. Pauline Cooperators take promises and support the evangelical works of the Daughters of Saint Paul, while members of the other 9 branches make solemn vows before God of poverty, chastity, and obedience according to their state in life as married/widowed or single persons living either in family life, single secular life, or religious life in a religious community.
To be "a Pauline" is to be like Saint Paul: belonging to both God and to the society in which we live, a society that so desperately needs Jesus the Way, Truth, and Life. We are in the world but not of it. We are evangelizers designed to live at the CRUX of SPIRIT and FLESH, at the intersection of human and divine, which is the Eucharistic mystery.
Here in this complex, busy world of human society, we meet our Maker both in the Tabernacle and in the distressing disguise of our neighbor. In human society, we witness the creative genius of the Father animating every human gift and accomplishment with His power and goodness. Here we encounter by God's gracious condescension the call to participate in the salvation of mankind, bringing souls one by one to Jesus our Master, our Teacher and Lord through works of evangelization. Through learning, teaching, exhorting, through lives of prayer and reparation, through the constant effort to bring Christ the Master, Way, Truth and Life to the world--and to bring the world's citizens specifically to Him in Adoration--we hope to say one day with St. Paul, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).
So, what are you waiting for? Join us in the work as a PPC member or even as a consecrated member of a Church-regulated religious or secular institute! You can participate just a little bit at your parish or with your whole life in an Institute, if that is what God calls you to in prayer. EVERYONE is welcome, and no one is pressured to do more than just sit at the Master's feet in Eucharistic Adoration.
As a PPC member, the global Pauline family will be praying for you and with you! Paulines are consecrated community members living in their homes or religious houses and working in the state of life to which God called them. Your life can be united to all their prayers and good works. Experiencing the Pauline mission of bringing the Word to the world in a PPC, you will be joined spiritually to the whole family of consecrated Paulines throughout the world who live Christ's teaching: "Whatsoever you did to the least of these, that you did to Me" (Matthew 25:40). What power there is functioning as one in Christian communion around the globe! "How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together as one" (Psalm 133:1).
That we are so much more together than we can be alone is the beauty of Christian communion. Jesus taught us to be one body in communion with Him, to be His Body in the world. The Pauline Family offers 10 pathways of consecrated life to live that communion which leads to complete happiness in heaven with the divine Father, Son, and Spirit. There is a pathway for every vocation, because we are each called to serve as members of the same body in various capacities, and each contribution is valuable for the functioning of the whole.
To learn more about the 10 Pathways of Pauline Consecration to God, click here to get started.
More About Saint Paul and the Pauline Family
Founded by Blessed James Alberione
Saint Paul was converted by a personal ENCOUNTER with the Risen Lord. In the same way, a Pauline Parish Cell brings people from every walk of life into a deep encounter with Jesus Christ. It is He alone who can heal brokenness, correct error, and perform miracles of transformation and growth in holiness. This is why ADORATION is at the core of Pauline Spirituality. Through Adoration, we encounter the Risen Lord alive and instructing us with His gentle Mastery, just as Saint Paul did. A Pauline Parish Cell brings people to Jesus in the Tabernacle, so that they can have a life-changing encounter with Him just as Saint Paul did. In Adoration, we are transformed by the One Who is All in All--our Way, Truth, and Life.
During the week, Paulines offer acts of REPARATION in an effort to console our Lord and make some small amends for all the ways that people reject Him through personal or corporate acts of sin, folly, vanity, and pride. Saint Paul himself spoke of "making up for what was lacking in the sufferings of Christ"--namely, our mission to be co-bearers of His agony with Him by accepting trials patiently as He did. This is something every human being can do on the planet. Additionally, when you bring yourself and a friend into a Parish Pauline Holy Hour organized by your local Pauline Parish Cell, you repair the Body of Christ by reuniting its estranged members. During the Parish Pauline Holy Hour, we strive to respond commensurately in love to Christ's passionate self-sacrificing love for us. We receive extraordinary graces to deepen our spiritual life--the only life that conquers death--and we store up for ourselves "treasure in heaven, where neither moth can destroy, nor thieves break in and steal" (Matthew 6:19).
Once converted, Saint Paul devoted himself to EVANGELIZATION, the spreading of the Good News that Jesus Christ is Lord and Messiah. We too endeavor to evangelize ourselves, our family members and society at large in ways that are appropriate for each person's circumstances. Because each person's journey of faith is unique, it is Jesus who, reigning and speaking to our hearts from the Tabernacle, can reach each one of us. It is He, together with the help of a spiritual director, who instructs us from the Eucharistic Host--exposed especially in the monstrance--and it is He who can also touch those we bring into His Eucharistic Presence with the truth, love, healing, and answers that they desperately need. Jesus can speak to the heart of a person during Eucharistic Adoration in ways that no other friend or family member can.
With its 10 branches dedicated to bringing the Word to the world, the global Pauline Family founded in Italy by Blessed James Alberione, engages in acts of evangelization through its vowed and consecrated membership. These members have different functions in the body, but all have the same focus: to adore, console, and bring the Body of the Lord to people everywhere. Some offer Jesus through formation webinars, books, and courses designed to put Christ squarely at the center of daily living. Others support the liturgy and the priesthood. Still others support vocations or defend Gospel culture in the context of family life or in the context of a myriad of civil vocations such as law, medicine, education, politics, engineering, or the arts.
Since it is so easy to allow the secular culture of the day to set the course for our lives, discerning one's mission in life is critical. We mustn't settle for second best when we are called for greatness: the dignity of life on high in Christ Jesus! Exactly how we get there hinges upon the discernment of a vocational pathway designed by God for each one of us. For this reason, THIS PRAYER is offered for Pauline Parish Cells to pray regularly.
In summary, PPC members may wish to live out their baptismal call to Gospel evangelization by participating in Pauline Parish Holy Hours in their parish, by supporting financially consecrated Paulines directly engaged in advancing this work of evangelization, and/or by making formal consecration and vows (or taking promises) in one of the 10 branches of the Pauline Family. Whatever level of membership is sought, all involved can live the charism of Pauline Spirituality: living and giving Christ to the world! As a small part of the one body of believers that is "Saint Paul Alive Today," we can proclaim in ways great or small the inestimable joy of being the Body of Christ. Christ is our Head and we His true members!
On a final note, Saint Paul was deeply concerned about the ENCOURAGEMENT of the Christian communities he planted. With his 14 canonical letters, he sought to remedy the ills with which human life is perpetually fraught and to assist all in understanding how to think and feel and behave in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Likewise, the worldwide Pauline Family of religious and secular institutes of consecrated, vowed or promised life empowers people just like you to navigate the tricky questions of human life and to perform, when possible, ministries of encouragement to those needing our corporal or spiritual works of mercy. It's really not complicated. It all starts in a Pauline Parish Cell. From there, Pauline spirituality is experienced at its core, and if you choose to explore formal consecrated life, this is also available to you.
Thanks for your participation on any level in PCSJ's Pauline Parish Cell/ "ARE You Ready?" Parish Program. May the Lord reward you abundantly for loving Him in this life through acts of adoration, reparation, and evangelization.