God Everywhere Produces His Love
From a letter by Saint Paulinus of Nola, bishop (c. 355-431)
God everywhere produces his love in his people through the Holy Spirit
You have shown, my lord, that you bear within you true charity and perfect love toward my humble person. Truly holy and deservedly blessed, you are a most desirable friend, for my cousin Julian on his return from Carthage delivered the letter which conveyed to us the shining light of your sanctity. As a result it seems to me that I am not just now coming to know your love for me but rather recognizing it as something I was already aware of. For clearly this love of yours came forth from the one who predestined us for himself from the foundation of the world. In him, the maker of all that is to be, we were made before we were born, because he made us and not we ourselves. Shaped by his work and his foreknowledge, then, we were already joined by charity into a likeness of wills and a union of faith, or a faith of unity, that anticipated our present acquaintance. So before we met in person, we became known to each other in the revelation of the Spirit.
Hence I give thanks and boast in the Lord, who, one and the same throughout the world, produces his love in his people through the Holy Spirit whom he pours out upon all flesh. With the flow of the river he gladdens his city among whose citizens he rightly established you to be the first among the princes of his people in your apostolic see. Likewise, he wanted me, whom he raised up when I was downtrodden, and lifted up from the earth when I was destitute, to be numbered among your associates. But I am more grateful for that gift of the Lord by which he established a place for me in your heart and allowed me so to penetrate your affections that I might claim a personal trust in your love. Moved by such kindnesses and gifts, I could not love you in a merely casual or negligent way.
But you should know everything about me and you should be aware that I am a sinner lf long standing, it is not so long ago that I was led out of darkness and the shadow of death; only recently have I begun to breathe in the air of life; only recently have I put my hand to the plough and taken up the cross of Christ. I need to be helped by your prayers to persevere to the end. And if you should lighten my burden by your intercession, this is the reward that will be added on to your merits, for the holy man who helps a laborer (I dare not call myself a brother) will be exalted like a great city.
We have sent to you a loaf of bread in token of our unity; it symbolizes as well the substance of the Trinity. By accepting it you will make it a bread of blessing.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint Paulinus (c. 355-431) was born at Bordeaux in France in 355, the son of the Roman prefect of Gaul. He studied rhetoric and poetry under the poet Ausonius and became a prominent lawyer holding several public offices. He traveled extensively throughout Gaul, Italy, and Spain and married a Spanish lady, Therasia. He resigned his public offices and retired to Aquitaine, where he met Bishop Delphiius of Bordeaux. He and his brother were baptized by him and in 390 Paulinus moved to Spain. When his only son died a week after he was born, Paulinus and his wife gave much of their property to the Church and to the poor and began living lives of great austerity.
In 393, the bishop of Barcelona ordained Paulinus a priest, after which he moved to an estate near the tomb of St. Felix at Nola near Naples, Italy. Over the vehement objections of his relatives, Paulinus sold his estate and belongings in Aquitaine and gave most of it to the poor. He became known for his charities, built a church at Fondi, an aqueduct at Nola, a basilica near the tomb of St. Felix, a hospice for travelers at Nola and housed the poor and needy in his own home, where he lived a semi monastic life with several of his friends.
In about 409, at the age of 54, Paulinus was elected bishop of Nola. Paulinus had a wide circle of friends including St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose and St. Martin of Tours. Of his many writings some fifty one letters, thirty-two poems and a few prose pieces are still extant. Paulinus is ranked with Prudentius as the foremost ‘Christian Latin poets of the patristic period. Above is one of his letters to his bishop.