Text from “The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 8.
Paschal Time.
Book II.
Splendidly adorned with the Sacred sign of The Passion, Paul of The Cross comes today to pay homage to The Conqueror of Death.
It behoved Christ to suffer and so enter into His Glory. It behoves the Christian, the member of Christ, to follow his Head in suffering that he may share His triumph.
Even as a child, Paul penetrated deeply into the ineffable Mystery of the suffering of God. He was filled with an ardent love for The Cross, and ran with giant strides along this royal road.
He passed through the torrent, following his Divine Head; he was buried with Him in death, and has won a share in His Resurrection.
The diminution of Truths among the children of men seemed to have dried up the fount of Sanctity, when Italy, ever fruitful in her vivid Faith, gave birth to the Christian hero, who stands out in the arid waste of the Eighteenth-Century, like a Saint of olden times.
God never deserts His Church.
