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October 20: ST. PAUL OF THE CROSS: The School of the Cross
- Religion
St. Paul of the Cross built an entire religious order around one conviction: that gazing at Jesus's suffering teaches us how loved we are. After receiving the rule for his new congregation during forty days of prayer and fasting, Paul spent decades preaching so powerfully about Christ's Passion that hardened sinners wept and returned to confession after years away. Remarkably, he continued preaching that same love for forty-five years while experiencing almost no personal consolation in prayer himself, staying faithful through the driest, darkest stretch imaginable. "You cannot gaze long at what God was willing...
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He carried a handwritten notebook.
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him to found, a community of men who would spend their lives meditating on the suffering
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Is this episode right for you?
B2 · Upper-intermediate
Comfortable if you already follow TV news
- 84% of the words are B1 or easier.
- 131 words a minute: a natural pace.
- 32 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.
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The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.
harder words (B2+)
Welcome back to the Catholic Sproust podcast, where we know that every day is a feast day. It's October 20th, so join us for St. Paul of the Cross, the School of the Cross. Michael was 26 years old, barefoot in the middle of winter, walking alone along a road in Tuscany.
He wore a rough black habit that he'd made for himself. It was made of coarse cloth. He had no shoes, no coat against the cold. He carried a handwritten notebook.
Inside, he had written the rule of the new religious congregation that God had asked him to found, a community of men who would spend their lives meditating on the suffering of Christ and preaching that love to the world. Paul was on his way to ask the bishop for permission.
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