St Paschal

Paschal grew up in a peasant family and he was a shepherd from the time he was 7 years old.  His parents couldn’t afford to send him to school, but Paschal taught himself to read and write.  He loved to read holy books about God and pray and he loved to whisper his prayers to God as he took care of his sheep.  When he turned 24 years old he became a Franciscan brother.   He was loved by all the other brothers in the monastery because he was so kind and generous.  Everyone noticed that he always did the hardest jobs and always did penance for his sins (did hard things to make up for the sins he committed and for the sins of others) and yet he was a very happy person.  Paschal’s two greatest loves were Jesus in the Eucharist and Mary our Mother.  He prayed the rosary every day and wrote beautiful prayers to her and he loved to serve at Mass.  With some scraps of paper Brother Paschal made a notebook that he used to write down thoughts about God and prayers that he had made up.  After he died, a very smart Archbishop was given the notebook to read and he believed right away that Paschal was in heaven with God.v