Sr. Maria Fe Gatungan, CM
Philippines
For Fr. Palau the passion called Love possessed and dominated him since childhood. “You must love with all your strength”. This echoing voice created an immense passion which he felt form infancy and developed in his youth. As a young boy he has all the strength because of love, and nature impelled him to act upon it. His questions: what did I love; who was the beloved object, made him searched the more, a continuous search until he found it in the austerities of religious life, in fasting, poverty and silence. His spirit was transformed before the throne of God. Oh, Holy Church! This phrase he uttered when he found the object of his love after twenty years. It is a passion of love which developed his will to find nourishment rooted in deep faith, hope and love that he was able to recognize the beauty of God in the Church.
In his later years he was making effort to stir up his love fore Mary, he was searching for his beloved; he was searching for his spouse. In the end, the spouse showed herself with ever more clarity and love, the betrothal with her was ratified thru the theological virtues. Love consummated with the bonds of spiritual matrimony. His beloved appeared not as a lover, friend, bride or wife, but as the mother of an infinite member of peoples, as queen and lady in heaven and on earth and in the underworld. Fr. Palau’s object of love is the Church; he recognized that the only perfect and complete type which covers all aspects and dimension of the Church is Mary.
The Church was the ultimate end of his love and that was the unspeakable beauty which his heart searched for. This mystery of the Church is centered in communion, loving God and neighbor. This is the unique experience of Fr. Founder which differs from the other spirituality.
No comments:
Post a Comment