We pray for the souls in purgatory to soon be admitted into heaven, and we ask their intercession. Our prayers hurry along their purification and their prayers of intercession help us in many ways. One example of our Founder's understanding of the power of this prayer is his encouragement to the sisters, when they are sent on a new assignment, to pray for the souls in purgatory, for their intercession for the mission and the people they would be rmeeting. This devotion to the ...

Recently I viewed an excellent film on purgatory that included a testimony from Father Doug Lorig, a priest in Arizona. For a long time praying and offering Masses for the deceased has been important to him. He had been touched in particular by a case of a seventeen-year-old boy named Tony who had in his life been involved with drugs and gangs, finally committing suicide. Father Doug prayed for him for over a year. Some time later he was at a cemetery for a funeral and heard someone call his nam...

Maria Teresa Merlo was born at Castagnito (Cuneo, Piedmont) on February 20, 1894, the second of four children of Hector Merlo and Vincenza Rolando. On June 27, 1915, she met Fr. James Alberione for the first time in the Church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian in Alba and accepted his invitation to remain in the city to help him begin the “adventure” of our congregation: the future Daughters of St. Paul.On July 22, 1922, she professed private, perpetual religious vows and took the name ...

Okay. That’s one of those titles you see in Google Ads whose purpose is to gain click-throughs (and money). Usually you’re disappointed with the “revelation.” But in this case, it is true. Blessed James Alberione did, in fact, reveal his secret in 1919. First, let me tell you how it happened.Can you imagine someone coming up to you when you were fourteen or fifteen years old and telling you that you must become a saint? And not just any saint…but a great saint...

Our Founder, James Alberione, the fifth son of Michael Alberione and Teresa Allocco, was born at San Lorenzo di Fossano (Cuneo, Piedmont) on April 4, 1884. In October 1900 he entered the diocesan seminary at Alba and on June 29, 1907, he was ordained a priest.On August 20, 1914, he founded in Alba the Pious Society of St. Paul for evangelization with the media of social communication. This foundation was followed by the others to constitute the Pauline Family: the Pious Society Daughters of St. ...

The previous post featured a quote from Blessed James Alberione describing the Way-Truth-Life method for making a Holy Hour. Blessed James Alberione firmly believed that the Gospel and the Eucharist express Christ’s self-revelation and self-giving, and he affirmed that Jesus, “in order to unite to himself the whole person, gave us his teaching and himself: the Gospel and the Eucharist.”  The three-part method for Eucharistic adoration that Blessed James left to us is ...

Blessed James Alberione made several holy hours daily, and he left us a particular "way"--you might call it his own "secret"--for making a holy hour, based on the Eucharistic liturgy of the Mass. (Thankfully, he's shared it with all of us!) I've been making a daily Hour of Adoration using this method for over 25 years, and it is simple, easy to remember, and completely adaptable to whatever I'm going through at the moment. Blessed James divides the hour into ...