Happy Passionist Tri-Centennial!

On this feast of Christ the King Sunday, Passionists throughout the world begin our great Jubilee Year celebrating the 300th anniversary of our Founder, St. Paul of the Cross, receiving the seminal graces of our Congregation. This morning, the Jubilee Door was opened in a ceremony at the Basilica of Sts. John and Paul, the Generalate of the Passionist Fathers. You can watch the ceremony here!

On this great occasion of our tri-centennial, our Holy Father Pope Francis has also shared with the Congregation a message of encouragement, exhortation, and hope.

I hope that the members of your Institute will feel «branded» by the mission rooted in the memoria passionis. Your Founder, Saint Paul of the Cross, calls the Passion of Jesus «the greatest and most overwhelming work of God's love». He felt consumed by that love and wanted to set the world on fire with his personal missionary activity and that of his companions. It is very important to remember that «Mission is at once a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people. When we stand before Jesus crucified, we see the depth of his love which exalts and sustains us, but at the same time, unless we are blind, we begin to realize that Jesus’ gaze, burning with love, expands to embrace all his people. We realize once more that he wants to make use of us to draw closer to his beloved people. He takes us from the midst of his people, and he sends us to his people; without this sense of belonging we cannot understand our deepest identity»."