In 18th Century Italy, a man named Paolo Francesco Danei had a profound mystical experience of the love of God. He founded a religious ‘congregation’: in other words, a community of people who came together under a shared vision for life.

Some 300 years later, Paulo is known as St Paul of the Cross, and his movement is still going. Members of the Passionist community still take a vow, as Paul did, to ‘keep alive the memory of the Passion of Jesus Christ’.

This means sharing a home with other Passionists, giving our lives over to a rhythm of communal and individual prayer, as a way to remember what was done to Jesus by the powerful of this world, and allow ourselves to be changed by it.

But this also leads to practical solidarity with anyone today who is experiencing a crucifixion of their own, and being alongside people in parish settings. The marginalised, the abused, the forgotten. Ex-convicts, addicts, those facing racial injustice; or the Earth itself, suffering from mankind’s misuse.

Prayer and action are what binds us together as missionary disciples.