by Most Reverend Fernando Millán, O.Carm.
Prior General of the Order of Carmelites

Carmel, with all its many branches and groups, is nowadays extended throughout the five continents. It is also present among many cultures and many social contexts. Along with the most conventional of ministries (parishes, schools, houses of spirituality), not so few Carmelites develop an excellent ministry in the peace and justice field, in social promotion, in the assistance of those most in need. It has been for a few decades already that the Order has an international commission on "Peace and Justice and Integrity of Creation." Carmel has taken conscience of the prophetic dimension of our charism and our own identity, which lead us to discover the footprints of the presence of God in the poor and the most vulnerable. Since this presence sometimes appears as sub contrario (in oppression, in misery, in the suffering...), we can become close to it only with a deep contemplative gaze, illuminated by faith and filled with charity, with the tenderness and trust of the faithful ones, with the faith of the mystic, and with the transformative commitment of the prophet.

Well, this labor for the most poor and needy members of our modern societies will receive a stupendous impulse and example in the figure of Venerable Angelo Paoli, who is going to be beatified this coming March 25 at Saint John Lateran, in Rome. His beatification will suppose a reason of great joy and pride for all the Carmelite family, which now counts with another of its children lifted up in the glory of the altars.

Lately, we have had the joy of seeing other beatified or canonized Carmelites: Mother Curcio and Mother Scrilli, foundresses of two Italian Carmelite congregations, the Spanish Martyrs of the 20th century, Mother Candelaria of Saint Joseph, foundress of the Venezuelan Carmelites, and Nuno of Saint Mary. Each one of them highlights some aspect of the Carmelite charism. They offer us the guidelines to live fully our charism. They are and example and a gift for the Carmel of our days.

The witnessing of this Carmelite within the 17th and 18th centuries is very suggesting and even thought-provoking. It is of great actuality, despite the temporal distance which separates us. We have already indicated in previous occasions that this beatification processes are not mere remembrance of a glorious past, nor the "archeological" activity (something like the recuperation of fossils), but a living sign which calls us and questions us about our present and guides us towards our future.

This is why I invite the whole Order of Carmelites and to all the Carmelite family in general t olive with joy this solemn beatification. I invite you to give thanks to God for the Church's official recognition of the sainthood of one of our brothers. I invite you to make a careful study of the saint's biography and it the witnessing of the new blessed. It is to him that I recommend in a very special way all those Carmelites (religious, lay, groups, etc.) who work in areas of poverty and who contribute to heal the life conditions of those most in need. May by his intercession the Lord bless and accompany you in this difficult but necessary task.

1. The availability of a friar
   
   Fr. Angelo Paoli was born non September 1, 1642 in Argigliano, a village near the municipality of Fivizzano. In baptism he received - almost as a premonition- the name of Francis, the poverello of Assisi. Like him, Paoli also will fall in love with Lady Poverty. It is to her that he would serve with all his soul. He was a pious and devoted young an. Since an early age he showed a disposition for religious life. He decided to join the Carmelites due to its Marian emphasis.
   
   The first part of the new blessed in religious life took place between the cities of northern and central Italy. It is noteworthy in the life of the young friar, the fact that he was assigned to many different places and that we could do many different ministries in his province. He was, among many other tasks, novice master in Florence, pastor in Cerniola, grammar teacher in Montecattiny, sacristan and organist in Cerniola, and finally he was called by the Prior General back to Rome, where he was the novice master. He left this position three years later after his own petition to dedicate himself totally to the poor. He has been called with due reason viandante e gorovago dell'ubbedienza (pilgrim and vagabond of obedience).
   
   It is from this fact that comes the first trait of his personality I would like to stress: Fr. Paoli was an obedient man, open to God's ways and always available to whatever his superiors asked of him. In the face of the most structured organizations of the modern congregations, in the face of other congregations of a specific ministry (education, health, missions), in the face of stability of the monk or to the intimate relationship of the diocesan priest with a territory, we mendicants are accused frequently of being disorganized of improvising, of lacking a long-range plan, etc. To be honest, many times they may not be wrong. But mendicancy follows a spirituality too. The mendicant is more open to changes, to the concrete necessity which takes him from one place to another. Mendicant Orders, with an itinerant spirit, have preserved this flexibility and capacity of adaptation to the needs of the times and places with simplicity and dedication. It is perhaps in this way, that Venerable Paoli also reminds us that today something essential to us: we cannot enclose ourselves or reduce ourselves to certain forms of apostolate, places, or concrete situations. We mendicants must remain open to the wind of the Spirit, who will lead us to new social and ecclesial realities requiring of our presence.
   
   Besides, his example supposes -why not saying it- a warning to all Carmelites of the 21st century to avoid every kind of putting in place, excessive bourgeoisies, or lack of disposition to our service to the Order and the Church. It is a challenge to renew our religious consecration.
   
   May the example of the new Blessed illumine our pastoral projects. May he help us to deepen, like mendicants, our vocation. May he call us to live with disposition, openness and generosity.
   
   
2. Devotion for the cross and love for the crucified ones
   
   The mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord is the central mystery of our faith and the axel rod which guides our history of salvation. The cross is at the same time a question and an answer, darkness and light, a symbol of death and torture, and a symbol of life for the believer. The mystery of the cross prologues our life in an intense and special way in the mystery of the crucified ones: the victims of sin in all its forms, the victims of evil, violence, injustice...
   
   Carmel has had along the centuries a deep and intimate devotion to the Cross. We only need to remember, among others: Saint John of the Cross, who reminds us of the Little shepherd-lover, Christ, "in a tree where he spread his lovely arms" (p 10); Saint Teresa of Jesus, who, intrepidly called the cross the "welcomed one" (P7), invites us to fix our eyes in the crucified so that everything "must become nothing to us" (7M 4,8); Jean of Saint-Samson and Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi who have revealed that the cross is the best watchtower to contemplate heaven; Francisco de la Cruz, a CastilianCarmelite from the 16th and 17th centuries and a pilgrim to Jerusalem, carried a heavy wooden cross; Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face who burns with desires to go to missionary land and plant there a "glorious cross" (Ms B, IX, 3rº); Saint Edith Stein, who comes out in the midst of the unfathomable Science of the cross, or Blessed Titus Brandsma preaching on a dirty box, on a Holy Friday in 1942, at the concentration camp in Amesdfoort, and writing not long before in a jail in Scheveningen, his famous poem Before a picture of Jesus in my cell. There he confesses that, "the cross is my joy, not my sorrow." To this list must be included, without doubt, the figure of the poor friar Angelo Paoli, another lover of the Cross of Christ.
   
   
   
   
   
   Blessed Angelo Paoli lived profoundly this devotion and promoted it in a pastoral way all along his life. As early as when he was living with the shepherds on the mountains near his hometown because he became sick being a young friar spread this devotion. He invited them to put crosses on the mountain tops and preaching them with affectively. Later on, when he was pastor in Cerniola, he also extended this devotion. It is very well known the fact that when in Rome he erected many crosses in the city's most notorious places, like Mount Testaccio or Coliseum. Taking advantage of our convent at San Martino ai Monti, Fr. Angelo used to visit the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. On his way back from church, he stopped to help the sick at San Giovanni in Laterano hospital. He took food, he assisted them in their basic needs, and he encouraged them, distracting them even with improvised plays or music. Fr. Angelo died kissing a crucifix very devotedly. The iconography has insisted on this item quite frequently.
   
   Nowadays Carmel finds in the witnessing of this new Blessed a beautiful source of inspiration and a invitation. Our contemplative vocation guides us even deeper in the thickness of the most painful and more bleeding dark nights of our generation. It is there where we can distinguish the mysterious presence of the Lord of life. Even more, the new Blessed knew all along his life to "discover" new ways of poverty: hidden or ignored poverties to which the society of his time showed a few or no sensibility at all. Fr. Angelo had the sensitive enough to receive the sufferings of the young ladies who, by lack of money, saw themselves condemned to singlehood, a synonymous with misery. He was also sensitive to the suffering of those who abandoned the hospitals convalescent sometimes, others still physically recuperating, but in both cases condemned to a life of mendicancy. He also lived the suffering of the families who lost everything due the floodings of the Tiber River. Finally, he was sensitive to the suffering of those who were cured of their illnesses, but suffered from loneliness, sadness, and abandonment. We have a record of wonderful examples of his dedication to all these groups in the biography of our Carmelite. Hence, his witnessing makes us to open the eyes of our heart, to listen to the murmurs of our time, and to respond generously and in solidarity to the new forms of poverty and marginalization generated by our society.
   
   During the last decades, the Church's theology and praxis have underlined the importance of the poor. The poor is even considered as a "theological place." In a first stage, the poor was considered fundamental and almost exclusively as the "economically poor" using merely sociological and economical criteria. Later on, liberation theologies have gradually expanded their conception of the poor and have taken consciousness of other forms of poverty, these also bleeding and painful (poverty of culture, of affectivity, of respect, of dignity, of horizons, of health...). Perhaps in our days, the danger is to go astray in the opposite way, this is, to over spiritualize the concept of poverty. Despite the existence of other forms of poverty, we may forget that economical poverty remains the bloodiest. Material misery is the origin which engenders the rest of all forms of poverty. This is why economical poverty I usually accompanied by a terrible entourage of sufferings, shortcomings, misery ...
   
   The new Blessed leads us to stray away from a form of sentimentalist piety of the cross which does not translate spontaneously in an attitude of service and respect, of love and sensibility, of responsible commitment to the crucified ones of our time. A disincarnated and spiritualist spirituality which systematically ignores the suffering of men and women of our time, it is not a true Christian spirituality nor belongs to the Carmelite charism and tradition.
   
   May the testimony of the new Blessed lead us to be true worshipers and friends of the cross of Christ making us more sensitive to the sufferings of our brothers and sisters. May it makes us more committed with the transformation of our world, more human and more dearer with all.
   
   
3. The poor are the Brothers and sisters of Jesus
   
   As we have pointed our, Fr. Angelo Paoli was characterized by his readiness and charity to assist the needy of his time. Charity and the assistance to the poor has been an essential feature of the Church since her beginnings. Even to the point in which alms, charity, the generous giving of one self to the poor and sick has been considered the distinctive features of Christianity.
   
   In times of Fr. Paoli, the Church also had a multitude of entities, associations and people dedicated to assist the homeless. Fr. Angelo stood out heroically in this service, to which he gave up himself with all his will. But there is, nonetheless, certain features of his ministry that were a novelty, or at least, define the peculiarly of his biographical profile. We will highlight just some of them.
   
   First of all, Fr. Angelo dedicated himself to the poor with true passion. Even though he engaged in many other ministerial activities within and outside the convent -as we have pointed out before -, the assistance to those in need was what really filled him with enthusiasm. The root of this passion is perhaps in his deep and serious spirituality. Paoli was a man of deep and continuous prayer. He was a friar of a constant and authentic piety, a mystic who looked for silence and mortification. Paoli does not approach the poor as a politician, or an ideologist, or a philanthropist. For him, the poor are not a metaphor, a topic for discussion, or statistical data. He approached the poor as a contemplative who saw in them the real Christ, the suffering Christ, poor and crucified for whom he had such a devotion. From this he drew his infamous phrase which he repeated with humility: "Whoever loves God must look for him among the poor."
   
   This spiritual attitude of our own friar was immediate translated into other attitudes which embellish his profile: the happiness he kept even in the most difficult of times and which tried to transmit and spread to the sick and homeless; the full hope in God, the tenderness and care with which he deal with the needy so they never felt humiliated in their sad condition ... They are -and once more it is verbatim from our new Blessed - "the brothers of Jesus" so they must be treated "considering them as the same person as Jesus." Because he put all his trust in God, despite the apparent overflowing activism, he never lost calm or a smile and used to say: "Io ho una dispensa dove non manca mai nulla ..." ("I have a pantry in which nothing is ever lacking"). Thusly in a miraculous way, he kept embracing unceasingly all those who called on his door asking for help.
   
   In order to achieve this task, Fr, Angelo knew how to go to the powerful people of his time. It is well-known that the poor friar, a friend of the poorest and shabbiest of the baroque Rome - and to whom some prior had to chastise seriously so he must wear a new habit - had also many and good friends among the most powerful people of his time. Nobles, high dignitaries, ambassadors, and cardinals called on the Carmelite friar's door to ask for some advice or to offer him assistance in his charitable work. Even though he mentioned once that his relationship with the nobles and rich ones was his biggest cross, he knew - as the very important people - how to treat everyone with the same dignity, respect, and affection: without a servile involvement towards the rich; without haughtiness or spitefulness towards the poorest. Angelo Paoli also knew to discover the poverty which sometimes hides behind economic wealth. Once more his example is a lesson today for all of us, Carmelites of the 21st century, to detect these forms of poverty not just on the countries of the incorrectly called "third world;" but also in western societies, in which there is an ample Carmelite presence and in which another kinds of stabbing poverty are hidden in spite of the economical wellbeing.
   
   The Venerable always kept the same Humble, sober, worthy, sincere and amiable attitude for the poor and miserable ones of the city as for the rich and noble. Even more, without judging the, he garnered their respect and knew how to get them for the cause of the poor; he also got them involved in social projects. In a prophetic way, he called them softly to conversion and charity in the midst of a world full of luxuries and trappings that contrasted scandalously with the misery of the poor.
   
   He also had friendship with some Popes, especially with Clement XI, whom felt deeply the death of Paolo. During his illness the Pope sent his own personal physician. It was this Pope who insisted to engrave on his tomb "father of the poor," a name given to him since his youth.
   
   
4. Integral service to the poor
   
   A last feature of the new Blessed personality, in as much as the assistance to the poor, which calls attention in a powerful way for its relevance. Fr. Angelo understood since the beginning of the 18th century that the attention to the needy had to be integral and not limited only to provide or to cover the bare necessities. When our friar approached the poor, he did not only brought food, clothes, or the basic things for subsistence, but he added catechetical formation and what we today would call counseling, especially with the sick, to whom Fr. Angelo brought music, little improvised plays and, by all means, happiness and hope.
   
   Perhaps it will be convenient to frame here his reputation as a miracle worker. As a matter of fact, from the processes it can be told that he is famous for that (he not only avoided it, but he even hid it voluntarily all through his life). It is in this field where we must be more careful with baroque hagiography. More than centering on the historicity of this or that detail in his biography, his testimony stimulates to assume ourselves, Carmelites of the 21st century, the characteristic sense of his miracle-working phase: to help the sick, heal wounds, heal situations, clean tears, ease poverty and misery, open windows to new horizons, in one word, to perform little miracles with the help of god.
   
   Many other aspects could be highlighted in this profile of our new Blessed. We will only mention his austerity and his coherence in life (it is just enough to se the reproduction of his cell at San Martino ai Monti); the prudence and the sensibleness which he showed in the most difficult situations; his interest in forming the Carmelite youth also in this sensibility to the poor (no doubt that this is a huge challenge already mentioned in some numbers of our Ratio Institutionis Vitae Carmelitanae - for our formation processes); his perseverance and constancy in this service to the poor, without falling into discouragement or being tired, even in moments of incomprehension and cynicism (a true "warning for the sailors," for the lovers of "solidarity of weekends," very trendy this days). The fact that he could combine charity (getting ahead some centuries to the sensibility of the Church) and assistance with a deep sense of justice.
   
   Hopefully the Order of Carmel may keep that same attitude of blind faith in divine providence and enthusiasm in the creative service to the poor of this World. Hopefully our pantry may remain filled with faith, of hope and charity. Hopefully our commitment in solidarity and our compassion will never decay.
   
   
5. The Carmelite
   
   Fr. Angelo also lived with intensity his Carmelite vocation. In fact, it was a well meditated and discerned vocation because he entered the convent after he received tonsure and after having meditated other forms of religious life. According to his biographers, it could have been Marian devotion which oriented him towards Carmel, the Marian Order. Since his youth he lived that profound Marian devotion. We know that he used to visit the hermitages of the Blessed Mother in the nearby fields, where he spent long periods in prayer.
   
   Later in life he knew how t olive and to Express this devotion with the peculiarity of Carmel. During his free time, he made scapulars which became "famous." There are records that when he built the hospital for the convalescents in Rome, the notary and the employees who kept the books, did not want to charge him with money, but only requested scapulars made by him. Fr. Paoli instituted the strength of this simple symbol so beloved and so appreciated by the Carmelite family.
   
   As it was characteristic of the Carmelite piety of the time, Fr. Angelo lived with zeal conventual life and the signs that served to express the love to the Order, its spirituality and traditions. A lover of his habit (for him it was a symbol of poverty, not distinction), faithful to religious observance, despite his multiple occupations, obedient to the superiors, fraternal and close to the brothers in community ... Fr. Angelo was an exemplar Carmelite, a man who found in his Carmelite vocation, not an impediment or a ballast, but a motivator and a source of inspiration for his social labor with the poor.
   
   

His biography turns out to be exceptional and sobering (even detached from baroque hagiographic exaggerations). In more than one occasion, there has been pointed out some similarities with St. Phillip Neri. It is truly moving the scene of Fr. Angelo's last hours. While agonizing and surrounded by his community brothers, totally aware and acknowledging his death with a true spirit of faith and devotion. Outside in the small plaza in front of the convent, the poor, the homeless, the shabby, the needy, the sick gather together to say good bye to whom had been a true father for them. "Fratel caritá" or "the father of the poor" was dying, as he had been called since his youth.

He was dying, but left behind a marvelous testimony. In the city of the martyrs sung by the Christian poets (purpurata pretioso sanguine), whose testimony always charmed Fr. Angelo, since his arrival in Rome, he also was dying as a martyr. He was dying as a witness, as a prophet of ho[e, as a true sign of God's tenderness to the least on the face of the earth.

Today his voice seems to sound with strength to all of us, trembling and tired, as he did it during that unforgettable final conversation with his friend Prince Girolamo Altieri, when he asked him to intercede for his family in the presence of the Lord... A dying Fr. Angelo replies with a great humanity and a certain sense of humor: "... and I commend you my poor and my convalescents." May his words (which we adapted as the title for this letter) be heard with emotion and attention all over the Carmelite Order and family: "I commend you my poor and convalescents." If we are faithful to this message during his beatification, it will be without doubt a fruitful moment of reflection, of excitement, of impetus in our service to the poor of our time.