Saint Paul the Apostle

Who is St. Paul for the Paulines?


When Blessed James Alberione was still in his twenties, only a few years after he had founded the Society of St. Paul and the Daughters of St. Paul, he became very ill and had to leave the community to recuperate in the mountain air. There was no guarantee the young founder would return. Alberione spent the months in prayer. At a certain point he was entirely healed. He told his young followers that St. Paul had clearly healed him, that St. Paul wanted to be the founder, the father, the protector, the provider of the new institutes. In our turn we are to be St. Paul living today.

 
The Conversion of St. Paul - From Saul to Paul

 
  

Introduction:

The  Church  celebrates  the  Feast  of  the  Conversion  of  St.  Paul  on  25 January.  Yet,  throughout  the  ages,  countless  people  from  many  different cultures  were  also  converted  to  Jesus, moving  from  sin  to  a  holy  life,  from atheism  to  the  Christian  Faith.  Like  Paul,  some  of  these individuals  were martyred  for  their  fidelity  to  Christ.  But  the  “conversion”  of  Saul  is  very different  and  has  no  comparison  among  the  great  conversions  that  have marked  the  story  of  the  saints.  

Paul  himself  did  not  like  to  use  the  word “conversion”  to  describe  his  experience.  He  says  that  throughout  his  life, from  childhood  to  adulthood,  he  sought  with  all  his  might  to  love  the  God of  his  fathers  and  to  be  faithful  to  him  by  observing  his  laws.  Even  though Saul  was  not  seeking  the  crucified  and  risen  Christ,  the  Lord  Jesus,  he nevertheless  unexpectedly  met  him  and  that  encounter  completely changed  his  way  of  relating  to  God,  as  well  as  his  way  of  understanding himself and others.