The Feminine Face of God’s “Media Army”

(photo: Register Files)

Blessed James Alberione is an unlikely model of sanctity.

He was an Italian farm boy. James had a bad habit of reading way too much, to the detriment of his studies, and he had a terrible temper. His classmates called him “Matchstick.” He hoped to be a priest but was kicked out of one seminary, only to finally finish his education in another.

Like all of us, Blessed James was a work in progress.

Perhaps this is why St. Paul chose him to found ten religious congregations and institutes that would be dedicated to being St. Paul in the modern world.

The Daughters of St. Paul are one of these religious congregations. We are celebrating our centenary this year: 100 years of spreading the Gospel using modern media.

It has not been an easy 100 years. Our sisters have often been misunderstood. People were used to religious sisters teaching, serving the poor and working in hospitals, but our sisters wrote, printed and distributed books. They worked industrial printing machines and tirelessly canvassed neighborhoods offering the Word of God to families and workers. Venerable Mother Thecla, our co-foundress, had sisters riding motorcycles and driving cars before most women in Italy had a driver’s license!

People are still surprised by our sisters’ work. We continue to publish books under the publishing house of Pauline Books and Media. However, our sisters also embrace technology and the newest forms of media because we believe that if St. Paul were alive today he would be using the media to get the word of God out into the world.

Saint John Paul II called Blessed James Alberione “the first apostle of the New Evangelization.” He was at the forefront of developing a media and evangelization spirituality that is now so important in today’s world.

It’s true that many other religious orders, priests and lay people publish Catholic books, and are involved in evangelization with the media. These days, the media is all-pervasive!

But the Daughters of St. Paul are different. We boast an evangelization and media charism that is rooted in a time-tested, Pauline spirituality. We have been nourished in a religious environment that has meditated and reflected for 100 years on the role that Catholics are called to play in the media.

So much great work has been done, but this young congregation is just now coming into its own. Our charism will continue to provide sustenance and guidance for the faithful in a time when the media dominates many aspects of our lives.

Bl. James Alberione believed that there is a spiritual battle taking place between what he called the “good press” and the “bad press.” He recognized the power of the media to sway souls in the direction of good or evil. So he raised an army to fight on the side of the good.

The Daughters of St. Paul are the feminine face of God’s media “army.”

We may seem like a small drop in the ocean. But it is not just the books we publish, the songs we sing, the blog posts we write, or the apps we create that make a difference. So much happens that is unseen in the spiritual world. Our consecration, our prayers, our sacrifices, and the reparation we make for bad media saves souls too.

Mother Thecla once said, “My God, I want to be hidden in you, to lose myself in you, like a drop of water in the ocean.” And this is our calling in life, to be like St. Paul, to become so lost in Christ that we can say, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

You, dear reader, are called to this sublime vocation with us, because of all the ways to win spiritual battles or souls, becoming like Christ is the most effective, the most powerful and the most efficacious.

St. Paul, pray for us.

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