The Fonder, blessed James Alberione, described his experience, as a seminarian, which determined his future work and the spirit of the Pauline Family founded by him:

“The night that divided the last century from the present (the night between December 31^st, 1900, and January 1^st, 1901) was crucial for the specific mission and particular spirit in which the Pauline Family would come to light and live.  After the solemn midnight Mass in the Cathedral of Alba, exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament followed.  The seminarians in Philosophy and Theology were free to remain for as long as they liked. 

Not long before there had been a congress (the first he had attended).  He had fully grasped Toniolo’s calm but profound and fascinating speech.  He had read Leo XIII’s invitation to pray for the coming century.  Both spoke of the Church’s needs, of the new means of evil, of the duty to combat the press with the press, organization with organization, of the need to get the Gospel across to the people, of social issues… Particular enlightenment came from the Host, and a greater understanding of that invitation of Jesus: – Come to me, all of you – (Mt 11:28)… He felt deeply obliged to prepare himself to do something for the Lord and for the women and men of the new century with whom he would spend his life”. (James Alberione, Abundantes Divitiae, 13-15)

This profound Eucharistic experience was decisive not only for Alberione’s life but also for the new Charism that was to be born in the Church. Its Spirituality places at its centre living and communicating Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life to all humanity.

We consider Saint Paul the Apostle our model of conformation to Christ and of apostolic zeal. Alberione saw in him the disciple who lived and proclaimed the Divine Master in the fullness of his mystery. The same love of Christ, which transformed Paul into the apostle of the Gentiles, sustains us in ceaseless prayer and tireless dedication so that the Gospel may reach the ends of the earth.

We live under the gaze, protection and intercession of Mary Queen of the Apostles. She introduces us into the school of Jesus Master and teaches us how to love and proclaim him in our daily life.