Course V - Teaching 8: Mystique of Ash in Saint Paul of the Cross

The most wonderful and surprising aspect in the life of Saint Paul of the Cross is his extraordinary spirit of renunciation and absolute detachment of anything in the world; and this is so great that he establishes in the Christian world a congregation totally devoted to achieve this as similar mystical death as mystical death of souls offered in holocaust to redeem Humanity.
One day, the young Paul would pray in a humble room of his house, when on the lights of the sunset a lady totally in black appears before him, wearing a mourning veil on her head. Her aspect was sweet and pleasant, and was shedding abundant tears. Admired before this wonderful vision, Paul ran to be beside this lady that was the Divine Mother, the Mother of all pains and sorrows. Paul heard these words: “Paul, I want for you to be ever in mourning for the death of my Son Jesus. I want for you to be ever in mourning for pains of the Son of Man, which are entirely forgotten by men. I want for you to be not only internally but also externally in mourning in regard to your clothes, your behavior, your way of living, and all your things”.
The young Paul, entirely moved by this vision, since then surrendered his life, his soul and his possibilities to this purpose: to be in mourning for Christ’s pains and death; that is, for the Lord who had been forgotten by the very men that he had come to redeem.
As soon as he can leave his home and family, isolated in a very small room beside an abandoned little church, and after forty days of fast and penitence, writes a Regulation that later would be guide of the Congregation of Passionists. But even there the Divine Lady appears again. This time on her mourning gown she wears a beautiful image, a sign; on the level of her heart, she has a white heart stamped on black, with a white cross on top, and inside initials of pain as a symbol of Christ’s pain. There, below this name, there are three nails of the cross of Christ.
Again she says: “I want for you not only to be in mourning but also to take part of the pain and death of my Son and to live as if you were dead and crucified; even in your physical body you must be dead and crucified. Wear always this sign on your heart”.
This young man had been able to renounce ideally to all things of life and to abandon worldly possessions because of his inclination to devotion, since God, over all things, had given him from his childhood an admirable enjoyment of eternal beauties and graces. His prayer was a glory, a continuous devotion. He lived an extraordinary bliss; none could enjoy as much as he enjoyed at the feet of the Lord. He said: “Neither for a minute I would change my happiness for any pleasure of men of the world”. But he was not aware of his long journey to achieve his Mystique of Renunciation that should be an ideal exemplar of Renunciation if he wished to legate it to his Sons. If he had known it, perhaps he would be unable to face all those pains that he had to experience later.
Consolation, visions and devotion disappeared since that moment, and Paul remained deeply sad in the dark. But his worst sadness was to notice that, although in the innermost depths of his soul he was sure of his mission, according to his reasoning and intellect and some counsels of others, he was self-deluded and followed a wrong way.
This immense torment would last twenty years. It was a youth totally tortured, a painful virility, and always fighting between a higher mind that says “Forward”, and a rational and human man that says: “You are wrong, you are a failure”.
He had asked much of the Divine Lady, but this is Renunciation, true Renunciation; great knowledge of heroes, saints and Initiates.
The young Paul, holding his regulations, walks to-and-fro, and expects to find a place to stay and a soul for company. Paul of the Cross is venerated by all as a saint, all ask his counsel and take him as spiritual director, but none wants to take part of his life. Mercy God, the Divine Mother, that Mother that shed tears before him, concealed this long torment, all his future pains; she refused to inform him about all his future years because she is merciful and to prove that his renunciation was not in vain, but true mystique of souls eager for the spiritual life.
He leaves his place and his people because none wants to go with him, but divine mercy, taking pity on him, sends a brother, Giovanni Battista, who joins to him in Rome. Saint Paul of the Cross will stay there, amid good works and suffering. Also there, in Rome, all love him, and meets great personages, but none helps him in his work.
He is located at a hospital; apparently they shall send him through the way of pure charity. There he waits years and years along with his brother. He feels that he is wrong; everything continues, but this idea brings him to the most terrible of despairs. But sometimes a light emerges and he hears within: “Paul, you are dead, crucified”.
Twenty years of expectation, journeys and pilgrimages. Even in that hospital, following a wise counsel, he starts his studies to become a priest. His brother was with him. Under the Cardinal Protector of the hospital he is there as a chaplain. As a priest he experiences many trials, and following an impulse asks of the Cardinal Protector his permission to go and live in solitude.
He leaves with his brother, and goes up to Mount Argentaro, where one day he will erect his first house.
Still ten years have to pass –years of fight, suffering and persecution– before he may start his first Passionist retreat. There all venerate him; and villagers take him for a saint. Many very virtuous beings take him as their spiritual director, but all flee from that life and from that mystique of eternal mourning and death in life. All are frightened.
But he succeeds. Now he has seven companions. Another brother came with Giovanni Battista; his name is Michele, but when apparently all flourishes gradually, these sons finally leave; they are tired of this life of renunciation and mortification, of these rooms that look rather like huts than rooms, and of waiting for the building of the convent.
Again they are alone. He starts the construction of the convent, but a fire destroys it. Later the Bishop of the city cancels his permission. When apparently there is a glimpse of triumph, he suffers from a terrible rheumatic disease and is about to die. He says: “My death exceeds death of the dead; I have neither light, nor help, nor relief. Annihilate me, my God; surely I am very evil and wicked when you permit that so many pains may fall on me and on those who trust in me”.
Now he is a man (43 years old), has fought since the age of twenty, and is in the same place. But one morning, a young priest appears in the forest: he looks shy and weak, and his walk is staggering. He asks about the Padre Paolo. Giovanni Battista says: “This man cannot follow our life; he cannot be a pillar of this institution”. But here is the cornerstone of the Congregation. He will be the noblest and most faithful and loyal man among the first Sons. It is as if God had fallen from heaven: the expected permission arrives and the work starts.
God relieves him for a while: again there is peace in his heart, but for a short while. It is like when the sky is cloudy and the sun appears and at once disappears. He is ready to suffer, to be a dead person. He has to learn the doctrine of Renunciation, which later he will teach to many souls. That disease never will leave him, and he must fight during forty more years.
His suffering is awful. He writes to his favorite daughter: “…suffering pains and torments of hell”. This man that suffers so much goes on to preach the word of God, Christ and His death everywhere.
Christ’s suffering and His death; this will be the vow of his sons: to preach the Passion and death of Christ. And this man, at the age of eighty years, will be strong enough to establish a Congregation about which the Pope Benedict XIV said: “Here is an institution that will venerate forever the Passion and death of Christ, an institution that had to be the first in the Church but arrives in the end”.
His work will be disseminated and expanded to the female branch. Today his institution is an exemplar of spirit of renunciation and detachment from the world. They do not live in cities, but preach in them. They are men that are truly dead to the world, and his Order has made much good to the souls.
But over all, the most important thing is the mystique of Paul of the Cross, an iron man. He says: “I suffer pains of hell”, but he remains there, standing, leading his institution, along with his Sons and counseling the world. For him there is no other way to save the world than Renunciation that is spirit of sacrifice and pain.
His mystique is based entirely and over all on Renunciation. You should read his letters to those souls under their guide to see how great is this mystique that very few men were on his level.
His words are fundamental: “There is neither salvation nor spiritual perfection without and isolated and sacrificed life”. Many people are against him for this reason: he does not admit that a soul may live the life of God and that of the world. “Even for those who live in the world there is no salvation if they do not leave thing apparently good and useful”. Here is his mystique: yes or not.
“If you want to attain perfection, you need sacrifice.” You should expect nothing. You must have before you a bare cross and go up to it to be crucified and killed with Christ.” To follow the path to perfection and Renunciation, a soul must leave all ties, even spiritual ties, devotions, pleasant spiritual practices, inner consolations and ways of meditation, living a life of absolute renunciation to everything. When a being makes this internal work and leaves all, then he is enabled to remain at the feet of Christ to offer himself, to wash himself in the blood of Christ and to wash Humanity with this blood.
Enlightenment comes after absolute renunciation: enlightenment is not that of glory but of pain; it gives force to resurrect and sublimates more and more to make an offering of one’s pain for the salvation of Humanity. Union is Mystical Death.
He says to his daughters: “You should desire nothing, you should want nothing; you are dead and crucified”.
Great beings agree despite great religions and concepts. Like the Tibetans, they say: “…be a little heap of ash at the feet of the cross. The blood of Christ washed you, and sufferings of the Savior purified you; neither your body, nor your being, nor your affections remain; nothing remains of your being. Nothing must remain there, except a heap of ash. To suffer, being despised and abandoned by all. Also to be trodden down by all. Here is the great good, the unique good”.
Here is the mystique of Paul of the Cross, which is like that of an Ordained Son, with that spirit of detachment that the Sons are bound to practice.
“Even externally you must sacrifice”, he says to his daughters. They are not only in mourning, but also cannot wear anything white; even a little collar is prohibited. “You must be in mourning not only externally, but also internally: you do not see or hear anything, you do not listen at anything; you do not wish anyone nearby”.
To be always in mourning; here is the mission of the Sons of the Passion.
In a passage of a letter to a daughter, the first Mother Superior of the Passionist nuns, he says: “What a joyful thing is to suffer with no consolation from heaven or earth! You must love suffering, and gratefully acknowledge this to God. Often offer yourself as a victim of holocaust to the Lord on the cross, and there experience with Christ that mystical death that entails a new life. Life of love, deified life: to be united by charity with the highest good, where the most precious pearl of love lies hidden. Your life must become pure suffering. I pray and ever I will pray to the Lord for your intentions” –he writes to this sorrowful daughter– “but please, do not praise so much your little works and sacrifices. A true and pure love of God leads to feel that is not much what we offer to the Most High. Still you are not entirely dead, but the Good God, through those sufferings that he permits, tries that you truly may die: also He makes you suffer so that you experience a mystical death in regard to everything that is not God, and He makes you behave as if you were dead: without tongue, ears and eyes; and just as a dead person is trodden by all after his burial, so you should allow to be trodden down and transformed into abjection and shame of others as if you were dead”.
“I am happy because your new director treats you with asperity. Oh, what a good friend of God: he wants to chisel and beautify the statue for the gallery of heaven!, and that is why he does not allow any consolation and uses the sharper chisel to polish the statue.”
“Oh how excellent! So, make good use of this precious occasion, accept any mortification, reprimand, severity and harshness, and try to behave as a true servant of the Lord: always quiet and humble, and praying to God not to be deprived of that instrument of pain until the work of the Lord is finished in you.”
You can observe in this letter the mystical spirit of a master of mystique of the heart and renunciation.