As a man of great prayer, Saint Paul of the Cross inculcated its importance most forcefully by word and example. He wished his followers to pray without ceasing and desired our communities to become real schools of prayer, leading to a deep experience of God. From him we learn the value and practice of an inward and outward silence that gives depth to our lives.

Our life of prayer, communal and individual, draws us to live in communion with the Most Holy Trinity. In prayer, we respond to the loving initiative of the Father. Led by the Holy Spirit, we unite ourselves with the Person of Christ, especially in the Paschal Mystery of His suffering, death, and resurrection. This mystery we contemplate through personal meditation, which leads us on to an ever-growing love; this mystery we share through the daily events in which our lives and work involve us; this mystery we make to live again in our celebration of the Liturgy. In this way, through prayer, our life is united with Christ in his journey towards the Father.

The following of Christ Crucified in personal prayer is our way to discover the true God. In meditation, we respond in a personal way to the apostle’s exhortation to make our own the mind of Christ. We thus become rooted and founded in grasping the height and the depth of God’s love for us in Christ.

Saint Paul of the Cross learned from his own experience that to keep in continual memory the sufferings of Christ is the most powerfully effective means to turn from sin and to grow in grace. Guided by his teaching, we frequently meditate on the Crucified Christ as we endeavour to become more fully conformed to His death and resurrection, and more zealous to announce to others what we ourselves have experienced. In this way we hope to be faithful to our consecration to the Passion.

Our Founder urged us to be tireless in teaching others how to meditate in the best and easiest way upon the Passion of Christ. We have therefore to be sensitive to the values inherent in the religious devotion of people today. We should also use loving initiative to find new and creative ways of deepening the prayer life of others as well as our own. This was what Saint Paul of the Cross did in his own day.