Charism & Spirituality

Saint Paul of the Cross wanted his companions to live their lives like the apostles. They were to foster and develop a deep spirit of prayer, penance and solitude so that they could reach closer union with God and witness to His love. Keenly aware of the evils that afflicted the people of his time, he was never tired of insisting that the most effective remedy is the Passion of Jesus, “the greatest and most overwhelming work of God’s love”. (Passionist Constitutions, 1)

We are too easily forgetful of love. We fail to appreciate the love of others and the love we owe others. And the world today risks losing its memory of Christ’s love. We are too quickly satisfied with consumer joys, which only suppress our deepest longings. Much suffering and harm results – and, in the end, all the cruelty of our world today. Passionists seek to be alive to Christ in the embrace of love that is his Passion, and to draw others – the whole world – into that embrace.

Prayer, communal and individual, is the life-blood of the Passionist community. We look towards the Crucified Christ conscious that God saved the world not by the sword but by the Cross. Through the dynamism of prayer we are open to the slow transforming of our lives so as to become living images of Christ, and we are empowered to serve others, especially those who share his Passion today. In the Eucharist, the high point and supreme expression of prayer, we are nourished and sent as Christ’s witnesses in the world.