On January 30th, we were blessed to host the Passionist Jubilee Icon and special relic of our founder, St. Paul of the Cross, as it makes its way around the world during the Tricentennial celebration of the Passionist Congregation.

Brought to us by Chris Jungers and Bob Rizzi on their way from Nashville to their next stop in Louisville, the beautiful icon was in our chapel for a few graced hours. We solemnly displayed the items at the beginning of our daily Mass, and had a special public prayer service during the morning. Many of our Passionist Oblates and local friends attended, along with the entirety of Trinity Catholic High School! After listening to readings from the Diary of St. Paul of the Cross and the Gospel of John, we were treated to a powerful sermon by our chaplain, Fr. Lou Caporiccio, CPM. The service concluded as all present were blessed with the relic of Our Holy Founder.

Interested in praying with this precious relic and icon during the Tricentennial year of the Passionist Congregation? Click below to learn where its next stops will be in the Holy Cross Province (Western US).

Excerpts from the Sermon of Fr. Lou Caporiccio, CPM

Today we gather in this chapel to celebrate, to affirm, that the Congregation of the Passion’s Male Branch and Female Branch, the Nuns, founded 300 years ago and 250 years ago respectively, is good.

Why is it good that Passionists were founded? St. Paul of the Cross answers this question writing: “[the Passionists] will be able to enroll fervent soldiers under the holy sign of the Holy Passion of Jesus Christ, so as to promote in all hearts the devout memory thereof and become strengthened by divine grace . . . in order to be a barrier against the immensity of evils that threaten to inundate the world.”
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St. Paul of the Cross founded the Passionists because, as he wrote, “the world goes on forgetful of the pains of Jesus, which are the miracle of miracles of the love of God.” In several of his letters he refers to the Passion using two terms, which he uses interchangeably, namely, the Passion is “a sea of holy sufferings” and a “sea of divine love.” In St. Paul of the Cross’ day the sea was immense, limitless, infinite in its depths and in its expanse. They did not have the technology we have today to chart the sea. By referring to God’s love and suffering as a “sea,” St. Paul of the Cross is trying to convey not only the depths of Jesus’ suffering, which is infinite, but also, and more importantly, the profound depth and extent of God’s love for us, which is captured in the words God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah saying, “I have loved you with and everlasting love”
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For St. Paul of the Cross “in the Passion of Jesus there is everything” because in the Passion we find the God Who is love (see 1Jn. 4:7, 16); we find the One in Whose image we are created. The “God who created man out of love also calls him to love” and in the Passion of Jesus Christ we are recreated out of a wholly, totally, sacrificial love so that we can be reunited with God. In the Passion of Jesus we learn from the God Who is Love Incarnate, Love in our Human Flesh, how to love as God loves.

May God shower down His riches blessings upon the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ during this Tri-centennial Jubilee Year. And MAY THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST BE EVER IN OUR HEARTS!