Reflections on Palautian Spirituality

Sr. Rosenoni B. Combo, CM
Philippines

Fr. Palau, since childhood have been possessed and dominated by a passion called love. God wrote this within his heart: “You must love with all your strength…” (Dt. 6:5; Mt. 22: 37) This powerful voice created a great passion in him. What did he love? Who was his beloved object?

Fr. Palau searched for his beloved in the austerities of religious life, in fasting, in silence, in poverty. At last after forty years in search for her, he found her because she came to meet him, and let herself be known. She was infinitely beautiful, loveable and delightful. The object of love of Fr. Palau is the Church where Christ is the head and the people forming one body with Christ. Love of God and love of neighbor cannot be separated. Because of this revelation, Fr. Palau was ready to surrender totally to his beloved. “I live and will live for her; I live and shall die for her.” (MR 1, 29)

Reflections on Palautian Spirituality

Sr. Regina, CM
Korea

Fr. Palau continually search to love and be loved (MR 1, 2) so he entered Carmel in spite of the difficult times for religious life, and he considered his profession irrevocable.

Palautian spirituality is deeply connected to Teresian Carmelite. Teresian spirituality is the root of Palautian spirituality. Fr. Palau has shown how deep has been his Carmelite formation and how he nurtured what he has received throughout his life (Letter …)

So the infusion of the essence of the Carmelite spirituality is seen in his foundational work (Letter 72, 2). In line with the Teresian tradition, the value or aspect of purification and conversion is given much importance, and also the renunciation and detachment from whatever hinders in following Christ. They imply ascetical effort. Sta. Teresa said of herself “I am a daughter of the Church.” Carmel included all things about love of God. It is a wide spirituality, but Carmel become more ecclesial through Sta. Teresa and then later through one of the sons of Sta. Teresa, Fr. Francisco Palau. One of the spirituality of Carmel is concretized in ecclesiality. It became unique through the charismatic experience of Fr. Palau (Letter 3; MR 4, 22). The ecclesiality is the center of convergence and origin of the whole Palautian spirituality, a life of intimacy with God and the life of service to the neighbors are the two channels of the same love to Christ and the members of his body the Church, therefore it is impossible to separate the love of God and the neighbors. From this profound ecclesial vision, the fusion of the interior life and apostolic activities arise. They are two expressions of the same love (Letter 88).

Reflections on Palautian Spirituality

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.

Reflections on Palautian Spirituality

Sr. Justina Apolonia Nio, CM
Indonesia

Fr. Palau said, “I, since childhood have been possessed and dominated by a passion that is Love” (MR p.747). In his youth, his heart nurtured a generous and growing passionate love for the Church. “Apart from the world, withdrawn into the convent to search for the Beloved in the austerities of the Religious life, in fasting, in silence, in poverty, I saw my loved one and I united myself to her in faith, hope and love” (MR p.748).

For 20 years, Fr. Palau was searching for the Beloved, the Church that is God and neighbor, the object of his love. He expressed his love for the Church through contemplation and action or prayer and mission (MR 756).

Reflections on Palautian Spirituality

Sr. Ma. Divina Gracia N. Gamarcha, CM
Philippines

Fr. Francisco Palau was a man of his time. He was very much aware of the realities that surrounded him, yet, with full conviction he chose to live the values he inherited from his pious family. He has a lot of dreams and was enthusiastic to discover the meaning of his own existence.

He confessed that since childhood, he was possessed and was dominated by a passion called love. Inspired by this irresistible force, he search for his beloved – the Church! He searched for her in the austerities of religious life, in fasting, silence, and poverty. He has an excellent attitude of listening to the Holy Spirit which in due time revealed to him the mission of becoming a father in the Church and of the Church.

Desire

God, I want to see the beauty of your countenance, I want to taste the sweetness of your mercy, I want to hear the rhythm of your breathing, I want to feel the throbbing of your pulse, and I want to smell the fragrance of your presence. This is my desire, my longing and dream and I know that this would be fulfilled at the time of your liking.

Palautian Spirituality

The defining element of the Palautian spirituality is the unique experience of Blessed Francisco Palau of the Church as his Beloved. His life was marked by an intense search for the Beloved which eluded him for 50 years (My Relations with the Church, 7, 14). He experienced the Church as a living reality, as one body where Christ is the head and the neighbor forming one body with Christ. The Church is a mystery of Communion; God and man united in one body. This is his spirituality, the inspiration that fired up not only his life but the lives of generation and generation of his followers.

Blessed Francisco Palau was fired up with love but at the beginning he does not know whom to really love. He spent the best years of his life in search for the beloved. He narrated in his diary about this experience: “God wrote this law with his own finger in the stratums of my heart: You must love with all your strength…And this efficacious voice created an immense passion in it, which made itself felt from my infancy and developed in my youth. I, when I was young, loved with all my strength, because the law of nature impelled me with irresistible impact. What did I love? Who was the beloved object? …Apart from the world, withdrawn into the convent, I enquired about the beloved object, I searched for her. And, who would think of such a thing! I search for her in the austerities of religious life, in fasting, in silence, in poverty; I searched for her and I found her..! I saw my loved one, and I united myself to her in faith, in hope and love! Her presence satisfied my passion, and with her I was happy, her beauty was sufficient for me. God and my neighbor, or rather the Catholic Church seemed to me as beautiful as a divinity. She was covered under the veil of mystery…I found my happiness and blissfulness in her; I was happy” (My Relations with the Church, Fragments I 2, 3).

His mission naturally flowed from that experience. It was the passion that fired up his preaching and his teaching. He wrote: “My mission is to announce to the people that you are infinitely beautiful and loveable, and to tell them to love you. Love of God and of neighbor: this is the object of my mission. And you are my neighbors forming in God only one thing” (My Relations with the Church, 12, 2).

The Church as mystery of communion, where Christ is the Head and the people forming one body with Christ, God and neighbor united as one body, is the focal point of Blessed Francisco Palau’s life and mission. It was the inspiration, the fire, the madness that energized everything he did in his lifetime.