«I have become all things to all… not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved.» (1Cor 9,22; 10,33)
We know that St. Paul occupies a privileged place in the life and writings of St. Vincent Pallotti. Indeed, Vincent referred often to the letters of St. Paul even though he did not always do an exegesis on the texts. “The holy collector of texts did not have time to comment on them. He must occupy himself with more urgent matters” observed Fr. Francesco Moccia (OOCC XII, p. IX).
Nevertheless, St. Paul’s presence vibrates in the writings of Pallotti and particularly in the short phrase with which Vincent opens his Spiritual Diary: “There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength” (Phil 4,13). It is true that a person cannot save himself or herself but can and must cooperate with God as “a useless servant”. He or she must do all, “all, all, infinitely all, if possible” (OCL I, 19), for the greater glory of God and the sanctification of ones own soul and that of ones neighbour, without neglecting any of the works, great or small, that God entrusts to us. This conviction would lead St. Vincent Pallotti to see the Apostolate as a collaboration between the person and the grace of God. He expresses this dynamic in what appears to be a paradoxical formulation which recalls that of the great mystics: “God will sustain and strengthen all’, he wrote to Francesco Parenti, ‘when we do all, convinced that we cannot do anything
without God” (OCL II, p. 56).
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Unknown artist, Apostles Peter and Paul, russian icon,16th century
