21 June 2008 Solemn opening of the Pauline Year:
Inauguration of the Year for the Pauline Family of Madrid in the St. Paul Conference room of the SSP Provincial House.
Showing of the DVD Paul: From Tarsus to the World, followed by a conference by Fr. Severiano Blanco, cmf.
Eucharistic Celebration presided over by Bishop Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, Auxiliary Bishop of Madrid and Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference.
Refreshments in the garden of the SSP Provincial House.
28 June 2008
With the help of the Five Loaves and Two Fishes Group, the FSP community of Barcelona celebrated the opening of the Pauline Year with a conference guided by Bible scholar Xavier Velasco, who spoke on the theme, Pauls Loftiest Message: Love. The talk was followed by a Eucharistic Celebration. Our sisters who staff the book center are planning to hold other con-ferences and also prayer encounters centered on the Apostle Paul during the Pauline Year.
In Valladolid, home to a very beautiful church dedicated to St. Paul, the Daughters of St. Paul joined forces with the Dominican priests who staff this parish to celebrate the opening of the Pauline Year. The activities held in honor of this event helped the participants get to better know Pauls personality, fidelity to the Gospel, writings and missionary trips. The program planned by the FSPs in collaboration with the Dominican Fathers to celebrate this jubilee year includes conferences, movie showings and Eucharistic Celebrations.
On the apostolic level, all our book centers in Spain are working intensively to disseminate books, posters and other material on St. Paul and the Pauline Year. The booklet 365 Days with St. Paul has so far proved to be the most popular title, with 500 copies disseminated by our Valencia book center alone.
Barcelona : Book Center Showing of the DVD on Paul of Tarsus
On 24 October, 20 pre-teens and 5 catechists joyously took over our FSP Barcelona book center for a day specially organized by Quique, one of our Pauline collaborators, who wanted the young people of his parish to get to know the Pauline mission, especially during this year dedicated to the great Apostle of the Gentiles.
Seated around the room (including on the floor), the young people listened to a pres-entation of the figure of the Apostle and then watched the DVD Paul: From Tarsus to the World.
Afterward, Quique explained the Pauline vocation to the group, telling the young people about the FSP mission to proclaim Christ the Master in the world of communications, emphasizing with special enthusiasm the importance of the book center apostolate.
The encounter was a great success.
Barcelona : St. Paul Reference Point for the 21st Century
The figure of the Apostle Paul continues to capture the interest of many people today.
The proof of this? Almost 600 individuals participated in the Bible Week organized by the Bible Animation Association of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Parish, Barcelona, Spain from 15-23 November 2008. The 9-day mission, which revolved around the theme, The Spirit and Mission of St. Paul, enabled the participants to get to better know the Apostle of the Gentiles, his world, letters and communities, from different perspectives. As the days passed, they came to discover a person who had been so completely conquered by Christ that he dedicated the rest of his life to the cause of the Gospel.
Bible scholars Conchi Lopez, pddm, Pepe Pedregosa, ssp; Justin Martinez, cm, Javier Velasco (a lay professor), Sanchez Jordi Bosch (diocesan biblical scholar) and Ignasi Ricart, cmf, explored the reasons for which St. Paul continues to be such a timely figure and showed how he can serve as a model for 21st century Christians.
The Bible Week also included sessions for children, in which special dynamics were used to help them get to know the great missionary of the Word of God.
The Week concluded with a Eucharistic Celebration, followed by a concert featuring Rogelio Cabado, who performed selections from his CD, Saul Lives Today.
The 9 intense days of the course not only gave everyone a lively glimpse into the life and teachings of the Apostle but also made him more approachable to everyone. The Week also revealed that our contemporary world is profoundly thirsting for the Word of God and feels the need for new and numerous Pauls who are ready and willing to witness to the risen Christ in todays areopagi.
Joint FSP-SSP Catalogue for the Pauline Year
The FSP and SSP publishing houses of Spain have produced a joint catalogue for the Pauline Year.
The colorful 10-page catalogue offers books, pamphlets, CDs, DVDs, posters and calendars, plus an elegant panorama of more than 30 publications on St. Paul that are being widely-diffused throughout the country and that are receiving a warm reception everywhere. The catalogue in digital format is being sent by email to individual customers and lay book centers, while the printed catalogue is being distributed through our book centers.
All the FSP and SSP apostolic centers in Spain (a total of 13) have prepared a special display dedicated to the Apostle of the Gentiles. Its centerpiece is a transparent, internally-illuminated panel (2 m. x 60 cm.), around which assorted material on St. Paul is arranged. The same display in all our book centers is a fresh way of presenting the public with the Pauline Familys common commitment to making our Father known and loved.
Promoting the DVD Paul: an Adventurer of the Faith
All our FSP book centers of Spain are carrying out a vigorous campaign to make St. Paul known and loved. One promotional item that has aroused great interest is the DVD for children entitled, Paul: an Adventurer of the Faith (available in Spanish, Catalan, French and Portuguese). Each book center has set a diffusion goal for the DVD and is striving to reach its target with great enthusiasm, aiming at the future.
Our sisters tell us that setting a target that goes beyond what they consider would be normal diffusion of the DVD has stimulated their creativity to offer it to families, catechists, priests, etc., and has urged them to work in closer union with their lay collaborators so as to carry out a wider diffusion.
On 24 March, the sisters of our FSP book center in Barcelona, in collaboration with the Diocesan Catechetical Delegation and School of Biblical Animation, presented the DVD to the public. Guests speakers for the occasion were Bishop Enric Termes, head of the Diocesan Catechetical Delegation, and Quique Fernandez, a catechist and biblical animator.
In his talk, Bishop Termes underscored the importance of Pauls witness of life and wealth of doctrine for the Church, as well as his timeliness today. The Bishop also emphasized the catechetical value of the DVD and the effectiveness of using the audiovisual medium for contemporary youth. He called attention to the skill with which the animated cartoon was subdivided into a series of short, well-chosen episodes without losing the harmony of the overall story, and also pointed out the originality of the artwork and the clever strategy of presenting the Apostle in a simple yet adventurous way to children.
The two episodes of the series that were shown during the presentation were warmly received by the participants, who thanked the Daughters of St. Paul for making the DVD available in their local language (Catalan).
Valencia – St. Paul for Children
On 12 June the FSP Book Center of Valencia hosted a lively Childrens Day for a group of elementary school students from Vicente Pla Paredes School, who were accompanied by their teacher, Dora.
With the help of José, an FSP collaborator, the students came to know the great Apostle Paul better.
The encounter opened with a brief introduction, followed by a showing of the DVD: Paul: An Adventurer for the Faith. Afterward, the children were invited to tell everyone what events in the film struck them most profoundly and they did so with great enthusiasm.
The encounter ended with a brief prayer session in which each child read aloud a verse taken from the Letters of St. Paul.
Book Center Goal Reached and Even Surpassed!
One of the many initiatives carried out by the Daughters of St. Paul of Spain during the Pauline Year was the dubbing and diffusion of the animated cartoon series for children: Paul: An Adventurer of the Faith.
Fired by their love for St. Paul, our sisters have been striving since 15 February 2009 to diffuse this film through their 5 book centers. And the results have been optimum. They tell us that at the close of the Pauline Year (30 June 2009), thanks to the generous and enthusiastic collaboration of all their lay co-workers, their book centers had diffused a total of 1100 copies of the DVDfar surpassing the goal they had set for themselves.
The successful dissemination of this film was also the result of an excellent promotional campaign, which included encounters in the Barcelona book center to present the DVD to teachers and catechists, and a childrens workshop on the film held in the Valencia book center.
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