pauline spirit: 2008

By look, and word, and deed

[Paul] encompassed, as it were, his brethren with God's mercies and judgments, spread abroad and reared aloft the divine system of doctrine and precept, and seated himself and them securely in the midst of it.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

The power which radiates from St. Paul

is the power of love; it is not only all humanity, considered abstractly, which he loves and wishes to lead to salvation, but it is each one personally, for love knows only persons, individual beings, each of whom expects to be loved for himself.

Henri Daniel-Rops

He was at ease in Athens

among the monuments, and in Galatia among the mountains. He was timid and at the same time authoritative; prudent and yet intrepid; humble and full of just dignity as having been chosen by God.

Igino Giordani

What sacrifice, then,

could equal this sacrifice which Paul offered, immolating it with the sword of the spirit and offering it on the altar raised high above the heavens.

St. John Chrysostom

He knew how to persuade,

for he knew where lay the perplexity; he knew how to console, for he knew the sorrow.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Paul, at the moment he was chosen

an apostle by God, became foremost in suffering and patience, so that we might be made to understand that the distinguishing characteristic of an apostle is patience of every sort.

Cornelius A'Lapide, SJ

He was beaten, he was scourged,

he was chased to and fro, he was imprisoned, he was shipwrecked, he was in this life of all men most miserable, that he might understand how poor a thin mortal life is, and might learn to contemplate and describe fitly the glories of the life immortal.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

St. Paul was the noblest of men

and the most outstanding example of the nobility of human nature and of its possibilities for virtue.

St. John Chrysostom

Like a master thoroughly familiar

with the vast sweep of previous musical scores, Paul weaves their motifs into a finished masterpiece which orchestrates the full message of God with stirring appeal for the heart of every man.

Barnabas Ahern, CP

The risen Christ mastered him.

The personality of Christ, the fact of the Resurrection and all its theological consequences overwhelmed him and took possession of his inmost being.

Lucien Cerfaux

The times in which we live

demand that we have the courage of Paul.

Julius Cardinal Doepfner

The famous passages in which St. Paul

has exalted the all-powerfulness of love are for him not developments of moral theology; he has put into practice these precepts of the charity of Christ; he has lived them.

Henri Daniel-Rops

The more he became famous

the more he sought to remain obscure. Yet God willed that his wisdom, virtues and greatness be known to the whole world.

Cornelius A'Lapide, SJ

He went through trials

of every kind, and this was their issue, to let him into the feelings, and thereby introduce him to the hearts, of high and low, Jews and Gentile.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

After he had made a complete oblation

of himself, he desired to make an oblation of the whole world, earth and sea, Greek and barbarian, every land encompassed by the sky, this land which he traversed as if he were a creature on wings, and not just as a mere traveler.

St. John Chrysostom

Paul is one of the most complete men

in recorded history, in whose formation, grace and nature, Judaism and Christianity combined to make of him a universal person....

Igino Giordani

Such was this great servant of Christ

and Teacher of the Gentiles; yet he says, 'Though I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels...and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass." ...Spiritual discernment, an insight into the Gospel covenant, is no evidence of love.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Vocation and missionary

were inseparable [for Paul]. Thus he represents a model for all Christians, and especially for missionaries 'ad vitam', in other words for the men and women who dedicate themselves entirely to announcing Christ to those people who still do not know Him.

Pope Benedict XVI

If he was merely a forceful man,

fully engaged in action, we would admire him as one of those sublime exceptions which nature sometimes makes to the law of human weakness. But when we read him attentively, how much closer he seems to us, how much more brotherly!

Henri Daniel-Rops

What words will adequately describe

this man's goodness? Or what tongue can adequately chant his praises?

St. John Chrysostom

He was a pastor and a teacher;

a friend and a guide. He could be severe and he could be most gracious; awe-inspiring and meek. He had understanding for all, and he had compassion for all.

Igino Giordani

If there is one point of character

more than another which belonged to St. Paul and discovers itself in all he said and did, it was his power of sympathising with his brethren, nay, with all classes of men.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

The awareness that divine grace alone

could bring about such a conversion never left Paul. When he had already given the best of himself, devoting himself tirelessly to preaching the Gospel, he wrote with renewed fervor: "I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me" (I Cor 15: 10).

Pope Benedict XVI

Instantaneously, a divine light

shone round about him and he was changed from a wolf into a lamb, from Saul to Paul, from a persecutor into a preacher.

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

Paul made a complete sacrifice of himself

every day, and his oblation was two-fold: first, he died daily, and secondly, he was always bearing about in his body the death of Jesus.

St. John Chrysostom

Paul's life was a full one.

He gave himself wholly to Christ, allowing Christ to possess him totally, and he was intent on the service of Christ day and night. On he marched, climbing mountains, crossing plains, sailing over seas; resolute and indomitable, seeing Chrsit in all things, dead to all things else.

Igino Giordani

You see how far the holy Apostle was

from security and self-satisfaction, though he, if any one, would have had a right to feel easy about his state. And the exhortation he gives his children is, "So run, that ye may obtain."

John Henry Cardinal Newman

"Charity is patient"...

Whose heart did Paul paint? He did not know it, but it was a self-portrait, a picture of his own true heart.

E. Boyd Barrett

He was a Hebrew and he was a Greek;

an agent, perhaps a member of the Sanhedrin; a citizen of Rome; an artisan and a student of the Scriptures; a most active man, and also a mystic. He satisfies the learned and the ignorant, the rich and the poor.

Igino Giordani

[In Ephesians 3] St. Paul's mind is so occupied

with the thought of the Church, God's splendid tapestry of Jew and Gentile, that he can think of nothing else for the moment, and for once the Person of Jesus Christ comes in as a kind of afterthought.

Msgr. Ronald Knox

This man who, all his life long,

was involved in excitement and adventure was often to prove himself keenly sensitive.

Henri Daniel-Rops

Is it any surprise

that Pope John Paul began his 1990 encyclical on missionary activity Redemptoris Missio with a tribute to St. Paul?

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

[Paul] was a man whom one could not

come near without going away from him wiser than one came; a fount of knowledge and wisdom ever full...

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Like St Paul,

let us also place our hope and trust "in the grace of God which is with us".

Pope Benedict XVI

In order to understand him

and to benefit from knowing him, one must be inflamed with the same ardor that Paul experienced in all he did; nor should one fear to be stirred up from a calm and static way of life.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

The Christian is another Christ,

and this is what St. Paul says of himself: I live now not with my own life, but with the life of Christ who lives in me.

Bl. James Alberione

Paul held high

not academic decorations, but the naked arms of a Cross.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

Nothing in nature

checked or discouraged him, nor anything that man could do. It might be said that he was genuinely at ease amid difficulties, tension and conflict. His worst trials furnish opportunities for greater accomplishments. He speaks of them with an unfeigned serenity.

Henri Daniel-Rops

He whom for a lifetime I had feared

and disliked as being alien, aloof, a distant person, was, as I last discovered, the lovingest, dearest man in the world. In a revleation as sudden as his own divine experience near Damascus, [Paul] has become my dear, warmhearted friend.

E. Boyd Barrett

I do not say that at this day

we have many specimens or much opportunity of such high deeds and attainments, but in our degree we certainly may follow St. Paul in them.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Paul interests the literati and the theologian,

the artist and the sociologist. He is still all things to all men in the most amazing manner.

Igino Giordani

Christ is my life,

Christ is my thought;
Christ is my desire;
Christ is my love, my wish, my speech,
my very actions are Christ.
I wish nothing else,
I delight in nothing else,
I do nothing else,
I think of nothing else,
I speak of nothing other than Christ.

Cornelius A'Lapide, SJ: Gal.2:20; Phil. 3:8; Gal. 6:14; Rm. 14:8

St. Paul is, if ever a man was,

a churchman. St. Peter, curiously, doesn't use the word "church" in his epistles at all; St. Paul uses it more than sixty times.

Msgr. Ronald Knox

Grace already flourished deeply

in him and he constantly tended his soul to fit it for the growth and development of grace.

St. John Chrysostom

A being of contrasts,

at once tender and demanding, violent and sensitive, energetic and meditative: we may imagine at what cost, through what efforts of self-domination, he was able to achieve unity within himself.

Henri Daniel-Rops

His presence inspired

resolution, confidence and zeal, as one who was the keeper of secrets and the revealer of the whole counsel of God.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

His departure was quite different from his coming to Damascus.

Before he had come as a ruler, led on by irrational passions; now he was the vanquished one, but free with the freedom of God.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

May all who feel called by God

to the apostolic life imitate Paul, so that by obeying promptly and courageously, they will cooperate with God who calls them.

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

We know from Paul's life

that at the heart of conversion is a surrender ot the love of the Risen Lord.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

[Paul] could have answered ten thousand questions

on theological subjects, on all those points about which the Church has disputed since his time, and which we now long to ask him.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

The advice that St Paul gave

to the Thessalonians can still inspire the behaviour of Christians in the context of ecumenical relations today. Above all he said: "Be at peace among yourselves."

Pope Benedict XVI

While before his conversion

Paul had run ever farther away from Christ, after it he does nothing but run ever toward him.

Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

Paul was a man of great talent,

ardent disposition, and flaming nature, as we gather from the Acts of the Apostles. When grace came to inform his nature, he became the chosen instrument of God, extraordinarily efficacious.

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

This man was that exceedingly rare

literary phenomenon, a natural stylist who was genuinely contemptuous of style. Is it very wrong to picture him listening restlessly to a read-back [by his scribe] and suddenly muttering, "All right, all right. let's get on with it"?

Vincent Mc Corry, SJ

What Paul says

is what he sees, what he experiences in the rending of his soul; and in his eyes, thought counts much more than style.

Henri Daniel-Rops

From the Epistles emerges Paul,

the theologian of the Mystical Body; Paul, the Apostle of the Precious Blood; Paul, the saint commissioned to proclaim the unsearchable riches of the Sacred Heart; Paul, the ambassador of Christ the King, yearning, straining for the restoration of all things in Christ; and finally, Paul, the Doctor of Ecumenism.

Emily Daly, CSJ

All who came in touch

with [Paul] gained a measure of the gifts which God had lodged in him.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

No one can approach St. Paul,

whose soul is a firebrand, without feeling the flame.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

"Mysticism" here is simply an attempt

to find a word which evokes (rather than clearly indicating) the distinctive character of Paul's "in Christ," "with Christ," "Christ lives in me"..."

James Dunn
The Theology of Paul the Apostle

By divine intervention,

the relentless persecutor of God's Church suddenly found himself blind and groping in the dark, but henceforth with a great light in his heart, which was to bring him a little later to be an ardent Apostle of the Gospel.

Pope Benedict XVI

With unfaltering hope,

Paul claimed for himself the glory of a heavenly crown.

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

Certainly, after Jesus,

he is one of the originals of whom we have the most information. In fact, we possess not only the account that Luke gives in the Acts of the Apostles, but also a group of Letters that have come directly from his hand and which, without intermediaries, reveal his personality and thought.

Pope Benedict XVI

Apostolate is a continuation

of Christ's work. Christ was the Apostle. ... The apostolate is to dedicate one's energies to win people over for Jesus Christ. ... The apostle believes, results and works. St. Paul believed, resolved and worked.

Blessed James Alberione

St. Paul emphatically assures us

that his acceptance with God did not stand in any of those high endowments which strike us in him at first sight, and which, did we actually see him, doubtless would so much draw us to him.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Paul...did not think of all

men and women willy-nilly "in Christ," whether they want to be or not....The given of humankind's condition is membership in Adam...under the power of sin....

James Dunn
The Theology of Paul the Apostle

You who underwent imprisonment and toil,

pray for us.
You who suffered wounds and dangers, pray for us.
You who were taken up into heaven while still living on earth, pray for us.

Litany of St. Paul

Wearing his workman's apron,

his hands calloused from the loom, he preaches to proletarians, slaves, the offscourings of society, and tells them things that must seem the most outlandish they have ever heard. In Corinth, whose people swim in lust, he preaches chastity in marriage and even virginity...

Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

The first of these

[who "spent their lives for the Lord, the Gospel and the Church"] called by the Lord himself, by the Risen One, to be a true Apostle, is undoubtedly Paul of Tarsus. St John Chrysostom praised him as a person superior even to many angels and archangels (cf. Panegirico, 7, 3). Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy, inspired by Luke's account in Acts (cf. 9: 15), describes him simply as "vessel of election" (Inf. 2: 28), which means: instrument chosen by God. Others called him the "13th Apostle", or directly, "the first after the Only".

Pope Benedict XVI

Lord, what do you want me to do?

Here plainly, my brothers, is the pattern of perfect conversion.... O brief but bursting word, but full, living and active, worthy of full acceptance! How few are found in this pattern...

Bernard of Clairvaux

Sermons for the Advent and Christmas Season
Cistercian Publications
Kalamazoo, MI

One of his highest gifts...

was his spiritual knowledge. He shared and felt the sinfulness and infirmities of human nature; he had a deep insight into the glories of God's grace, such as no natural man can have.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

The opening words

of [Luke's] second book state that it will narrate 'all that Jesus will continue to do and to teach.' That is to say, this volume is the record of works and words of the ascended Lord through the 'servants of the word' (Luke 1:2). Since Paul, the gospel herald to the gentiles, is the dominant servant in the Book of Acts, it is through him that the Lord chiefly acts and teaches.

Paul Barnett
Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

The heartfelt charity

of St. Paul is patient, kind, strong, intelligent and devout.

Blessed James Alberione

Paul, by his heroic deeds,

manifested to the whole world his noble and great faith.

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

Paul's determination

to 'abase' himself (and by working) that [the Corinthians] might be 'exalted' (11:7) is overtly Christological, echoing his earlier statement that the incarnate Christ impoverished himself to make them rich (8:9).

Paul Barnett

Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

Paul's confidence

in himself and his mission carries him always to the front line.

Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

It is...the characteristic of St. Paul,

as manifested to us in his Epistles, to live in the sight of Him who 'searcheth the reins and the heart,' to love to place himself before Him, and, while contemplating God, to dwell on the thought of God's contemplating him.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

What humility Paul showed!

He was at the service of all. He saw life as a service. The apostolate is a service for people's spiritual needs.

Blessed James Alberione

He pioneers without rest

and spends himself, plunging ahead first and dragging the others after him by example.

Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

So much of the story

of the early Church can be traced back to the contemplative and enthusiastic heart of Saint Paul ignited by his intimacy with the Risen Lord.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

St. Paul...seems to delight

in the continual laying open of his heart to God, and submitting it to His scrutiny, and waiting for His Presence upon it...

John Henry Cardinal Newman

No other person

from Christianity's beginnings is mentioned as often in the writings of the apostolic fathers as the apostle Paul.

Andreas Lindemann

Any priest who reads the Acts

of the Apostles and the life of St. Paul and his letters with the spirit of faith cannot help but become aware of new horizons and direction for his ministry and sanctification.

Blessed James Alberione

He shines like a star

of the brightest magnitude in the Church's history, and not only in that of its origins.

Pope Benedict XVI

Christ's own sufferings

spilled over from Golgotha and afflicted Paul the preacher wherever he went. Paul preached Christ crucified and risen, and he saw his missionary experience in similar terms as Christoform.' Paul embodied the Christ-centered message he preached. "

Paul Barnett
Paul, Missionary of Jesus
Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

Who are you Lord?

We are clearly meant to understand by this that the brightness was around him but not within him. Paul heard the Lord's voice...he was being educated for faith...and faith comes from what is heard.

Bernard of Clairvaux

Sermons for the Advent and Christmas Season
Cistercian Publications
Kalamazoo, MI

It is true, Paul is not

always easy to understand, and unfortunately, at the first difficulties some quickly abandon the effort or they may form a sort of aversion for the great Apostle.

Blessed James Alberione

In fact, he will explicitly define himself

as "apostle by vocation" (cf. Rom 1: 1; I Cor 1: 1) or "apostle by the will of God" (II Cor 1: 1; Eph 1: 1; Col 1: 1), as if to emphasize that his conversion was not the result of a development of thought or reflection, but the fruit of divine intervention, an unforeseeable, divine grace.

Pope Benedict XVI

The New Testament...

consists essentially of two great biographies, the biography of Jesus in the four Gospels and the biography of Paul...the human model which so closely resembled the first.

Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

You who were crucified

with Christ, pray for us.
You in whom Christ lived and spoke, pray for us.
You whom nothing could separate from the love of Christ, pray for us.

Litany of St. Paul

Once we are able to see

beyond the details, the gigantic figure of the Apostle will appear in all its holiness and splendor.

Blessed James Alberione

This bold explorer

of the Divinity, this giant whose head towers upward through celestial light, has his feet firmly planted on the ground, and the humanity in his heart responds to the life of all humanity.

Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

Henceforth,

all that had constituted for him a value paradoxically became, according to his words, a loss and refuse (cf. Phil 3: 7-10). And from that moment all his energy was placed at the exclusive service of Jesus Christ and his Gospel.

Pope Benedict XVI

This grace [of Paul's call]

was wondrous both in itself and because of the fact that he was called when his thoughts were all on persecution.

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

St. Paul possesses every quality

necessary to merit the love and devotion of a priest.

Blessed James Alberione

Study of participation in Christ

leads more directly into the rest of Paul's theology than justification.

James Dunn
The Theology of Paul the Apostle

In Paul, certain effects

of God's saving intervention and of its anthropological impact are so delineated that it appears that the 'mystical' is a state that affects all Christians.

Romano Penna

When Paul was alive to the Law

his self (ego) was the controlling factor of his life. But now that he is alive to God, Christ has replaced that self.

Frank Matera
Galatians (Sacra Pagina series)

Paul's powerful intelligence

ranks among the great geniuses of mankind; his firm will makes him capable of remarkable, generous sacrifice; his apostolic activity was demonstrated by works of far-reaching advantage for the Church and for souls; his purity of doctrine and his enlightened piety distinguishes him among the Apostles themselves.

Blessed James Alberione

How can one not

admire a man like this? How can one not thank the Lord for having given an Apostle of this stature?

Pope Benedict XVI

Not even now

has [Paul] ceased to convert people; that is to say, by his example, by his prayers, and by his teachings.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Marked with so many signs

of authenticity, Paul's exceptional vocation showed him to be a man of Providence.

Blessed James Alberione

It is clear that he

would not have been able to face such difficult and at times desperate situations if he did not have a reason of absolute value, before which no limit could be considered insurmountable. For Paul, this reason, as we know, is Jesus Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI

Paul received more abundant grace

than the other Apostles because God wanted to show that what He gives is His, not man's.

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

You who were a most faithful

minister of the Church, pray for us.
You who gave the nations the Gospel of Christ and your very life, pray for us.
You who bore the faithful in your heart and in your chains, pray for us.

Litany of St. Paul

When the voice of Stephen

was silenced, the trumpeting voice of Paul sounded forth.

St. John Chrysostom

It is up to us

to open our eyes to the splendor of light handed down to us by St. Paul. It is a vital light, beneficial, warm, and, like that of the sun, it generates life.

Blessed James Alberione

[Paul's] encounter with Christ

on the road to Damascus literally revolutionized his life. Christ became his raison d'être and the profound motivation of all his apostolic work.

Pope Benedict XVI

Paul's most basic conception

of the salvation process [is] one of transformation (metamorphosis), that is, in particular, as transformation to become like Christ.

James Dunn
The Theology of Paul the Apostle

In every instance,

Paul marveled at God's grace within him, and with praiseworthy humility, he extolled it and preached it with gratitude and joy.

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

Paul is at the same time

a teacher and a witness both in his life and in his apostolate.

Blessed James Alberione

The surprising fact

is that he refers to it [his "conversion"] so seldom.... Perhaps it was more important for Paul to integrate Damascus into his life and theology, to live and to apply the experience rather than to talk about it.

Cardinal Carlo Martini
The Testimony of St. Paul

You who glorified your ministry,

pray for us.
You who awaited the crown after completing your mission, pray for us.

V. You are a vessel of election, O St. Paul the Apostle.
R. Preacher of truth to the whole world.

Litany of St. Paul

In the first place,

Paul helps us to understand the absolutely basic and irreplaceable value of faith.

Pope Benedict XVI

The letters manifest Paul's

great heart and reveal the strength of his wonderful successes and incomparable strength.

Blessed James Alberione

Paul believed firmly

and hoped against hope whenever he undertook anything that was beyond natural human powers, and with prayer and God's help, he successfully carried it through to realization.

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

With good reason,

dearly beloved, is the conversion of the Teacher of the Nations being celebrated today by all the nations with joyful festivities. We see the many branches that have come forth from this root.

Bernard of Clairvaux

Sermons for the Advent and Christmas Season
Cistercian Publications
Kalamazoo, MI

Through the nations,

may your words re-echo
Once again giving light, faith and love.
May each young heart be inflamed with great ardor,
An heir of your word and your wisdom.

Hymn to St. Paul

Paul's was a life given

in total love to the divine Master and to souls. It was a life of toil and exhaustion, of suffering, of prayer and of immolation.

Blessed James Alberione

And yet this man,

born to command and impose his personality on others, is above all a man of love. He needs to love others and to feel himself loved, otherwise life has no meaning for him.

Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

[At his conversion]

Paul... realized that a new approach in his life was absolutely essential. And we find this new approach expressed in his words: "The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2: 20).

Pope Benedict XVI

Paul is a concrete embodiment

of Christ's death and resurrection incarnates his apostolic word, but focused as it is in Christ's death and resurrection. Paul preached Christ crucified and risen, and he embodied Christ crucified and risen. By this he validates both his apostleship and his gospel.

Paul Barnett
Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

We ought to meditate

on the written and spoken, public and private words of Christ and Paul.

Blessed James Alberione

Writing a letter

that is to be read in the assembly...means that Paul is exercising the authoritative side of his apostolic calling as well as the pastoral side (not that the two are separable). He is an ambassador for Christ, a commissioned spokesperson.

Michael J. Gorman
Apostle of the Crucified Lord
Eerdmans

The Cross transformed

[Paul's] teaching and allowed him to evangelize others by helping them to interpret the meanings of their own sufferings.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

The ultimate nature of Paul's authority

and that of his letters [....] is not merely that Paul says, "Obey my words," but rather "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor. 11:10).

Michael J. Gorman
Apostle of the Crucified Lord
Eerdmans

The will always dominates

in men of that temper when they are imbued with some great ideal... For the Christian Paul, the great ideal is Christ, and to this he now devotes, with ardor even more intense, every action of his life."

Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

Paul closely modeled his own life and ministry

on the life and ministry of Christ, and he pointed to that identification to legitimate his ministry, in particular in the face of those self-styled apostles who sought legitimacy on the basis of religious power and 'superiority.'

Paul Barnett
Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

[Paul] puts the Cross of Christ

above any temptation to egoism or pride. The Cross is the true source of his apostolic effectiveness.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

We beg you never to forget

the love that your heart first embraced.
Through all our weakness lead us on
to hope of God's supernal grace.

Hymn to St. Paul, "Pressi Malorum"

It was on through jealousy

and conflict that Paul showed the way to the prize for perseverance.

Pope St. Clement I

Thomas by Christ's side,

John on Christ's heart, Peter in the heart of the Father and Paul in the third heaven obtained the grace of this secret: Thomas in the steadfastness of faith, John in the fullness of charity, Paul in the intimacy of wisdom and Peter in the light of the truth.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

For Paul, the essential mark of apostleship

is conformity to Christ crucified in sacrifice, weakness and suffering.

Michael J. Gorman
Apostle of the Crucified Lord
Eerdmans

Even in his response to criticisms

in mundane matters involving petty grievances and misunderstandings, Paul discloses an inner universe that elsewhere he calls 'the mind of Christ' (by Cor 2: 16).

Paul Barnett
Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

Only a few generous and brave souls

confront the difficulties and give themselves resolutely and devoutly to the study and following of St. Paul. Most people need to take small steps and to have this hard but nourishing bread broken up into small pieces.

Blessed James Alberione

In the Year of Saint Paul,

each of us is called to lift high the Cross of Christ and to carry it with Paul’s courage, determination and trust in God’s providential design.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

Although it has seldom

been recognized, the real business of birth and infancy comes to expression in Paul's letters.

Beverly Roberts Gaventa
Our Mother St. Paul
Westminster John Knox

St. Paul was rich

in natural oratorical qualities. He was full of talent, always balanced and always new, always alive with the charity of Christ.

Blessed James Alberione

Let us face our life

with its joys and sorrows supported by these great sentiments that Paul offers to us. By having an experience of them we will realize how true are the words the Apostle himself wrote: "I know whom I have believed..."

Pope Benedict XVI

Before his conversion,

Paul had not been a man distant from God and from his Law.... In the light of the encounter with Christ, however, he understood that with this he had sought to build up himself and his own justice, and that with all this justice he had lived for himself.

Pope Benedict XVI

This man whom the Light struck down

upon the road was conquered, but in this defeat his heart's most profound desires had been fulfilled.

Henri Daniel-Rops

Of a nervous temperament,

extremely sensitive to all impressions, Paul was by nature impetuous.

Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

In a single moment

on the road to Damascus, St. Paul died to all of his past faults, errors, obstinacy, fair season, and to what ever changed into the earth: family ties, ancestral traditions, earthly hopes, plans for the future.

Blessed James Alberione

Paul teaches us

another important thing: he says that there is no true prayer without the presence of the Spirit within us.

Pope Benedict XVI

For Paul, adherence to the Church

was brought about by a direct intervention of Christ, who in revealing himself on the road to Damascus identified himself with the Church and made Paul realize that persecution of the Church was persecution of himself, the Lord.

Pope Benedict XVI

The conversion of Paul,

his life and works, the churches he founded, his letters and speeches, and his very death are meant for people of every class, social condition, age and place.

Blessed James Alberione

Easily hurt,

[Paul] was prone to brooding especially when the early Christian communities did not live up to the Gospel. Paradoxically, his interior struggles offer us encouragement and strength to continue fighting with regard to our own character and temperament struggles.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

To sadden a community to tears

it is enough to say he would never see them again, as happened in Miletus, and to gladden the faithful in his absence it is enough to announce he will visit them soon, as in the case of the Philippians.

Giuseppe Ricciotti

St. Paul comes alive

in his warm and lofty personality. It is he himself who speaks, admonishes and exhorts. It is his heart that reaches out to his sons and daughters.

Bl. James Alberione

What made Saul the great apostle

to the Gentiles was precisely the fact that Saul was also Paul; that the Jew was also at home in Greek; that the Greek-speaking Jew was also a Roman citizen.... All this is a cue that Paul can do what he does because he is a cultural mestizo.

Justo L. Gonzalez
Santa Biblia

O Glory most excelling

that smote across his path!
O Light that pierced and blinded
the zealot in his wrath!
O Voice that spoke within him
the calm, reproving word!
O Love that sought and held him,
the bondman of the Lord!

Hymn for the Conversion of St. Paul

So close is this identification

with Christ that Paul actually describes his ministry in terms almost identical with those he applies to Christ.

Paul Barnett
Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

That Paul was skilled in rhetoric

...is undeniable. This is a bit ironic, since Paul himself has suspicions about rhetoric as antithetical to the power of the gospel.

Michael J. Gorman
Apostle of the Crucified Lord
Eerdmans

St. Paul is like a giant

in his undertakings, in his teaching, in his sorrows and in his successes.

Blessed James Alberione

He was the keeper of the garments

of the false witnesses and stoners,
approving the death of holy Stephen.
Now he is a column in the living temple,
as sturdy as a palm
as vibrant as a cedar of Lebanon.

Sequence for the Conversion of St. Paul

If Paul were alive today

....to make himself heard, he would ascend the highest pulpits and multiply his words with every means that progress offered: press, movies, radio, television....

Bl. James Alberione

Paul experienced it all:

rejection, calumny, indifference, shipwrecks, imprisonment and, ultimately, martyrdom as symbolized in art by Paul holding a sword.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

In the presence of Paul

many people come to a halt as if face-to-face with a very high mountain whose peak they despair of reaching.

Blessed James Alberione

[Paul's] letters can be down to earth

and practical, but almost always with a rhetorical flair (whether deliberate or not) that communicated with the utmost effectiveness.

Michael J. Gorman
Apostle of the Crucified Lord
Eerdmans

Pray and act

as Paul did in Christ.

Blessed James Alberione

He taught justice to all the world

and, when he had reached the limits of the western world,
he gave his witness before those in authority; then he left this world and was taken up into the holy place, a superb example of endurance.

Pope St. Clement I

Each time I read the letters

of St. Paul, I am overwhelmed with consolation as I hear the sound of this spiritual trumpet.

St. John Chrysostom

Paul did not separate

his persona from his ministry. For Paul's life and work coalesced 'in Christ.' His entire ministry, characterized as it was by hardship and suffering, was driven by the 'love of Christ' (2 Cor 5: 14), that is, by his sense of Christ's love for him expressed in his sacrificial death.

Paul Barnett
Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

O bliss of Paul, beyond all thought!

To paradise, yet living, caught,
He hears the heavenly Mysteries there,
which mortal tongue may not declare.

French hymn to St. Paul

May the fire that the Holy Spirit

cast down into the heart of Saint Paul, which in turn lit up the earth, inflame our hearts to be vibrant and effective missionaries in the Year of Saint Paul and
throughout our lives.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

[Paul] was the least magisterial

of all teachers, and the gentlest and most amiable of all rulers.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

St. Paul chose his field of activity

and made the most of it. Corinth, a very corrupt city, produced wonderful results, since Christianity is a life that is active, transforming and harmonizing. St. Paul aimed for the masses. Let us reach out to everyone, not just a small group of people or few privileged persons.

Blessed James Alberione

Paul shows that the Eucharist

is the source of unity, harmony and communion in the Body. Our reverent reception of the Eucharist is the great spark of missionary activity that leads us, like Saint Paul, to the ends of the earth.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

Paul...was at the same time

converted to Christ and to the Church. This leads one to understand why the Church later became so present in Paul's thoughts, heart and activity.

Pope Benedict XVI

We therefore learn from Paul

that the Spirit's action directs our life towards the great values of love, joy, communion and hope. It is our task to experience this every day, complying with the inner promptings of the Spirit and helped in our discernment by the Apostle's enlightened guidance.

Pope Benedict XVI

Saying that Paul

is in the thick of his ministry means not only in the thick of activities but also of sufferings.

Carlo-Maria Cardinal Martini
In the Thick of His Ministry
St. Paul Publications, Slough

If we could only learn

to love St. Paul in the manner of St. Anthony Zaccaria, who called him "Our beloved Father!"

Blessed James Alberione

On the road to Damascus,

St. Paul died to everything. He rose from his baptism another man, another Christ.

Blessed James Alberione

Paul exhausted himself

in his mission for the whole world, certain of victorious success.

Blessed James Alberione

[Paul] was put in chains

seven times, sent into exile, and stoned; a herald both in the east and the west, he achieved a noble fame by his faith.

Pope St. Clement I

In the first letter to the Thessalonians

... Paul refers to his prayer for his own: A prayer that is born from his heart, the heart of an apostle, and which expresses in words of great tenderness.

Renato Perino

Paul was born a Jew,

lived a Jew, and died a Jew. It was therefore obviously as a Jew that he experienced the once-crucified Jesus as the resurrected and exalted Lord.

Michael J. Gorman
Apostle of the Crucified Lord
Eerdmans

Paul's love for mankind

is not a thing of sweet sentimentality or empty attitudinizing, but of sacrifice, devotion, and renunciation. His love represents not only his own natural inclinations, but a charity that is willed.

Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

St. Paul, vessel of election,

was chosen as a teacher and learned person for every age. Not only are the lofty apostolic virtues that St. Paul acquired commendable, but so too is every happening, and detail of his life.

Blessed James Alberione

St. Paul derived much delight

from the Name of Jesus. It was like honey in his mouth, harmony to his ears, and rejoicing in his heart.

Cornelius A'Lapide, SJ

How many potential “Saint Pauls”

might we influence by radiating the power of Christ from deep within as Saint Stephen did?

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

To be an apostle

is not merely to preach, but also to live, the gospel. This means for Paul that his life (and those of his colleagues) will especially reflect the reality of Christ crucified.

Michael J. Gorman
Apostle of the Crucified Lord
Eerdmans

No historical prophet

came around on his experience as Paul did when called to his task.

Alan Segal

In some respects a letter from Paul

was not really a letter at all.... It was intended for oral reading to a community of believers gathered, almost certainly, for worship. This circumstance alone elevated the status of the letter to near scriptural standing, since the Scriptures of Israel would have been the primary source for readings in the assembly.

Michael J. Gorman
Apostle of the Crucified Lord
Eerdmans

The definitive biography of [Paul]

is yet to be written and may never be written. But were the apostle to have written an autobiography, without doubt he would have stressed the cruciform and Christocentric pattern of his life. Ben Witherington III
The Paul Quest

May the Year of Saint Paul,

the untiring evangelizer, be a time for renewing our missionary heart. ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel’ (1 Cor 9,16).
Oscar Andres Cardenal Rodriguez Maradiaga, SDB
Archbishop of Tegucigalpa (Honduras)

Gates of Heaven; two lamps for the great world.

Paul thunders with the Word,
Peter flashes from the Rock;
The first opens Heaven with his doctrine,
the other with the keys...

Venantius Fortunatus

Dear brothers and sisters,

as in early times, today too Christ needs apostles ready to sacrifice themselves. He needs
witnesses and martyrs like St. Paul.
Pope Benedict XVI
June 28, 2007

Many great saints

have built their lives on Galatians 2:20: “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

St. Paul introduces himself

as the teacher of the gentiles. His universality should be seen not only with regard to the peoples he converted, but from the point of view of his all-embracing learning.

Blessed James Alberione

In his letters and still more

in the course of his ministry, Paul gives us a clue to his approach: He is the "Preacher of truth all over the world. " He is the teacher, Magister, as he declares himself.

Blessed James Alberione

The Cross of Jesus Christ

is at the center of all that Paul does. He teaches us how to deal with the hardships and grief of life.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

Some of those Churches

also caused him worry and chagrin.... Yet, he felt bound to the Communities he founded in a way that was far from cold and bureaucratic but rather intense and passionate. Thus, for example, he described the Philippians as "my brethren, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown" (Phil 4: 1).

Pope Benedict XVI

The Year of Saint Paul

is a time for us to stand on the shoulders of Catholic saints through the centuries and to live
Paul’s life-changing words in ways that address the world’s need for holiness in the 21st Century.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

In his few brief letters

Paul repeats the name of Jesus a good 219 times, and the name of Christ 401 times.

Cornelius A'Lapide, SJ

Paul was aware of his personal weaknesses,

his intellectual and personality shortcomings, his unnamed struggle with “a thorn in his flesh.”(2 Corinthians 12:7) But his humble awareness of these weaknesses only made him more reliant on Christ.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

Paul's understanding

of his personal weakness drove him to open up to the presence and power of Christ within him.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

There is no one

who loved Christ more ardently than Paul, and no one who was more pleasing to God than Paul.

St. John Chrysostom

We know from Paul’s life

that at the heart of conversion is a surrender to the love of the Risen Lord.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

But if there is one tenet

to which Paul stuck firmly it was mutual edification: "Let all things be done for edification" (I Cor 14: 26). Everything contributes to weaving the ecclesial fabric evenly, not only without slack patches but also without holes or tears.

Pope Benedict XVI

Paul uses maternal imagery

more often than he does paternal imagery, a feature that is impressive, especially when we consider its virtual absence from most discussions of the Pauline letters.

Beverly Roberts Gaventa
Our Mother St. Paul
Westminster John Knox

Paul appeared to [me] to be truly

the apostle. Therefore every apostle and every apostolate could draw from him.

Bl. James Alberione

Paul taught: "Do not quench the Spirit"

(I Thes 5: 19), that is, make room generously for the unforeseeable dynamism of the charismatic manifestations of the Spirit, who is an ever new source of energy and vitality.

Pope Benedict XVI

Christ lived within him

as the initial force, the sustaining power, and the ultimate purpose of his every thought, wish, word and deed.

Dionysius

It was his [Paul's] ambition

to lead every person to God and as far as lay within his power he realized his ambition.

St. John Chrysostom

Paul was steeped

in love for God and for Christ.... This love permeated his writings and he infused it in those with whom he came in contact.

Cornelius A'Lapide, SJ

St. Paul lived the whole Christ:

he plumbed the profound mysteries of his doctrine, of his heart, of his holiness, of his humanity and divinity.

Bl. James Alberione
Abundantes Divitiae Gratiae Suae (1954)

St. Paul has a heart that is rarely found,

the heart of a father and a mother in one: of a mother who loves immensely, and of a father who upholds and strengthens.

Bl. James Alberione
(Sermon, February 1938)

My grandfather, I'm told,

used to say that he "looked forward to having some very interesting conversations with St. Paul when he got to heaven." Two clerical gentlemen talking at ease in a club! It never seemed to cross his mind that an encounter with St. Paul might be rather an overwhelming experience for an Evangelical clergyman of good family. But when Dante saw the great apostles in heaven they affected him like mountains."

C.S. Lewis
Letters to Malcolm, letter 2

He lived and worked for Christ,

for him he suffered and died. How timely is his example today!
Pope Benedict XVI

[Paul's life as a persecutor]

... gave him an extended insight, on the one hand, into the ways and designs of Providence, and, on the other hand, into the workings of sin in the human heart, and the various modes of thinking in which the mind is actually trained.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Saint Paul understood

how sin works in human nature and how the Holy Spirit can completely transform habits of corruption.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

Once persecutor of Christ's flock

its staunch defender you became
when, driven by the love divine,
your former self you overcame.

Hymn to St. Paul, "Pressi Malorum"

On the one hand,

Paul was the recipient of God's power, whereas the newcomers [to Corinth] were (professed) executors of power; and on the other, God's power rested upon Paul in weakness, whereas the newcomers believe that God multiplied his power out of their power.

Paul Barnett
Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

For the love of Christ,

Paul, as in a duel, would defy his enemies, griefs, dangers, demons, all of the world, and even hell itself.

Cornelius A'Lapide, SJ

all of Saul’s energetic personality,

previously focused on the persecution of Christianity suddenly became focused on the spread of
Christianity.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

The best way

that we can celebrate the Year of Saint Paul is to go to the Risen Lord and ask Him about what deep and intimate conversion of life He is calling us to.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

This "I" of Paul

is not an isolated "I" but an "I" in the "we" of the Church, in the "we" of the apostolic faith.

Pope Benedict XVI

It seemed that Christ

had become the mind, soul, life and spirit of St. Paul, speaking, working, and suffering through him. "Do you seek a proof of the Christ who speaks in me?" (2 Cor. 13:3).

Cornelius A'Lapide, SJ

Every time I read the letters

of the Blessed Apostle Paul I am filled with yearning, for recognizing him a friendly voice, as if he were present with me and I were listening to him. At the same time I experienced sadness and sorrow that not everyone, as would be right and just, knows such a man.

St. John Chrysostom

St. Paul

is always modern.

Blessed James Alberione

Paul certainly remains the Apostle

par excellence, founder and pastor of many Churches. Yet it clearly appears that he did not do everything on his own but relied on trustworthy people who shared in his endeavours and responsibilities.

Pope Benedict XVI

What humility Paul showed!

How many times Paul recalled his early life when he was not yet converted, did not as yet know Christ. Every so often, in his letters and then in his speeches, he alludes to what he was in his early life.

Blessed James Alberione

Paul explicitly recognizes in Prisca and Aquila

two true and important collaborators of his apostolate. Not by chance does Paul compare, in the Letter to the Ephesians, the matrimonial relationship to the spousal communion that happens between Christ and the Church (cf. Eph 5: 25-33). Even more, we can maintain that the Apostle indirectly models the life of the entire Church on that of the family.

Pope Benedict XVI

Get to know St. Paul better:

much has already been written of his exalted human and spiritual personality, but much remains to be said.

Blessed James Alberione

Paul and the other Apostles,

wholly taken up by love for God, radiated it everywhere, and thus they glorified the greatness of God.
Cornelius A'Lapide, SJ

Paul and the other Apostles,

wholly taken up by love for God, radiated it everywhere, and thus they glorified the greatness of God.

Cornelius A'Lapide, SJ

The authentic missionary spirit

has always been characterized by urgency, by a kind of anxiety; it has always been a synthesis of passion and a faction. ... In this regard, we can think of St. Paul.

Renato Perino

As Paul had retired to his native town

of Tarsus, [Barnabas] went there to look for him. Thus, at that important moment, Barnabas, as it were, restored Paul to the Church; in this sense he gave back to her the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Pope Benedict XVI

We sing the glorious conquest

before Damascus' gate
when Saul, the Church's spoiler,
Came breathing threats and hate.
The ravening wolf rushed forward
full early to the prey:
But lo! The Shepherd met him
and bound him fast today.

Hymn for the Conversion of St. Paul

Holiness does not consist

in never having erred or sinned. Holiness increases the capacity for conversion, for repentance, for willingness to start again and, especially, for reconciliation and forgiveness. So it was that Paul, who had been somewhat harsh and bitter with regard to Mark, in the end found himself with him once again.

Pope Benedict XVI

The various feelings

of so ardent and sensitive a nature are reflected in his impetuous writings. He passes abruptly from anxious agitation to confident serenity, from threats and scorn to understanding affection, from scathing irony to sorrowful exhortation."

Giuseppe Ricciotti

From such fiery love for God

sprung that artdent love for his neighbor which made him long to convert the whole world to Christ.

Cornelius A'Lapide, SJ

So much of the story

of the early Church can be traced back to the contemplative and enthusiastic heart of Saint Paul ignited by his intimacy with the Risen Lord.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

Paul expressed his appreciation

of Apollos' work, but reprimanded the Corinthians for wounding the Body of Christ by splitting it into opposing factions. From this whole affair he drew an important teaching: Be it I or Apollos, he says, we are none other than diakonoi, that is, simple ministers, through whom you have come to the faith (cf. I Cor 3: 5).

Pope Benedict XVI

His awful rashness and blindness,

his self-confident, headstrong, cruel rage against the worshippers of the true Messiah, then his strange conversion, then the length of time that elapsed before his solemn ordination, during which he was left to meditate in private on all that had happened, and to anticipate the future – all this constituted a peculiar preparation for the office of preaching to a lost world, dead in sin.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Imitate Paul

in order to imitate Christ. Imitate Paul in order to see how a purely human being can be, a holy person, a priest and an apostle like Christ. Paul is for us our life, our doctrine, our mediator and intercessor.
Blessed James Alberione

Neither Paul nor Jesus

ever claimed an effortless victory over evil.

Bruce Chilton
Rabbi Paul

Paul does not act as a "soloist",

on his own, but together with these collaborators in the "we" of the Church.

Pope Benedict XVI

Paul's doctrine forms a part

of all dogmatic theology; it throws light on moral teaching; it is decisive at vital points of the liturgy.
Blessed James Alberione

Stephen’s glowing, peaceful face

and his forgiveness of his persecutors as he died must have made an indelible impression
on Saul, and prepared him for the experience of the Risen Lord.

Bishop Michael Saltarelli

Paul, a former violent persecutor of Christians,

when he fell to the ground dazzled by the divine light on the road to Damascus, did not hesitate to change sides to the Crucified One and followed him without second thoughts.
Pope Benedict XVI

Well did St. Bernard write

of men like St. Paul: "They venture to do great things because they are great men; and what they venture, they achieve. Great faith merits great successes, and one receives in proportion to his trust in the beneficence of the Lord..."

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

I wonder if it is accurate

to speak of 'Paul's conversion,'since he never used that term for the event of Damascus. Perhaps we have understood very little of what actually happened to him.

Cardinal Carlo Martini
The Testimony of St. Paul

Raised to the third heaven....

Paul resembled a new Moses sent by God, and a celestial doctor of the people descended from heaven.

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

Prisoner of Christ,

holy and wise,
With hope-filled hearts we look to you in this hour.

Hymn to St. Paul (French)

If Paul were alive today,

he would continue to blaze with that twofold flame of one and the same fire: zeal for God and his Christ, and for the people of every place.
Bl. James Alberione

The roots of Paul's life,

secret and public, reach deeply into his charisms and mystical experiences; without these, it is unexplainable."
Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

The pilot is proven

in the storm, the soldier in battle. The deep-rooted tree is never displaced even t hough the winds may buffet it. So, too, the Apostle Paul...spoke of not being downhearted but rather of being made better by adversities...
St. Cyprian of Carthage

Such is the closeness

of his identification with Christ that, as Christ suffered 'for' (hyper) others (as in 5:21), so too did Paul. Paul has been afflicted for (hyper) the Corinthians' 'comfort and salvation' (1:6); he has been 'spent for (hyper) [their] souls' (12:15). Paul does not use the specific language of 'imitating' Christ in this letter, as he does elsewhere, but the idea is present."
Paul Barnett

Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

By the same grace of God,

and at the same time, Paul was called by Him to the grace of the faith and to the apostolate.
Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

At yet other times,

he showed a real feeling for them that was not only paternal but also maternal, such as when he turned to those he was addressing, calling them: "My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you" (Gal 4: 19).

Pope Benedict XVI

Such was his longing for Christ

that he wanted to defer his reward and remain amid the struggle; those were his priorities.
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 2 in Praise of St. Paul

Though housed

in a narrow prison, Paul dwelt in Heaven.

St. John Chrysostom
Homily 2 in Praise of St. Paul

Paul would have run short on people to evangelize

before he would ever fall short of serving them.

Bl. James Alberione

I give you as a model

the charity of Paul which he showed to his new converts...

St. John Bosco

Those who know St. Paul

know Jesus Christ. Those who imitates St. Paul imitate Jesus Christ. Those who have the heart of St. Paul have the heart of Jesus Christ.
Blessed James Alberione

You see how far the holy Apostle was

The Christ, Who conquered him,

will parade him on the highways of the world, as His captive and His slave. As for Saul, he will find the hours of his life always too few to attest adequately his love for the One who had loved him enough to strike him to the heart.
Henri Daniel-Rops

He teaches the equality

of Jew and Greek, of Greek and Barbarian and Scythian. This was the surest way to solicit the insults of Jew and Greek, Barbarian and Scythian together.
Giuseppe Ricciotti

My prayer is Paul's,

my apostolate is Paul's, so that they may be Christ's prayer and apostolate.
Blessed James Alberione

Above all, we must be

transparent before God, as Paul was: "It is not ourselves we preach, but Jesus Christ as Lord ... shining in our hearts."
Renato Perino

Let's glorify Jesus, the Master

who revealed the manifold wisdom of God to St. Paul.
Blessed James Alberione

In Galatians 4:19 ...

... Paul remains in labor, not until the child is born, but until Christ is born in the child.

Beverly Roberts Gaventa
Our Mother St. Paul
(Westminster John Knox)

Admiration of and devotion to St. Paul

...began especially with study and meditation of letter to the Romans. From then on, his personality, his holiness, his heart, his intimacy with Jesus, his contribution to dogmatic and moral teaching, the mark he left on the Church's organization, his zeal for all the nations: all became subjects of meditation.
Blessed James Alberione

[Paul's] powerful soul

outstrips his weak body; but it is his intelligence that transcends time and space and embraces heaven and earth, the past and the future and one marvelous synthesis.
Blessed James Alberione

No one is a missionary

unless he or she is a person of profound prayer: prayer with a particular characteristic that we can call apostolic, and that we find expressed in many points in the letters of St. Paul.

Renato Perino

[Paul] feels everything

that happens to them; when one of them is weak, he is weak; when another undergoes some deep spiritual crisis he is aflame..."
Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

Paul is the most faithful interpreter

of the Gospel, presenting it to all humanity, and applying it in practical terms to individual, family and social necessities.
Blessed James Alberione

It is not sufficient to observe

that Paul is concerned for the community as distinct from the individual, whether that community be described as the Church, Israel, or the entirety of humankind. Paul's theological horizon is nothing less than the cosmos itself which is in need of deliverance ...

Beverly Roberts Gaventa

Our Mother St. Paul
Westminster John Knox

St. Paul's conversion

begins in humility. He turns to God in his nothingness: "What do you want me to do?" Prayer for all humility is the nourishment and root of his conversion; persevering humility is what completes it.

Blessed Timothy Giaccardo

When one says only "the Apostle"

it is understood as referring to St. Paul, so high above the ordinary is he exalted.

Blessed James Alberione

One does not have the impression

that the pre-Damascus Paul was a man of played a conscience. Paradoxically, Paul becomes fully aware that he was ' in Adam' (a sinner subject to death) only when he became a man 'in Christ"

Paul Barnett

Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

Keep before you, also,

the example of St. Paul working so hard and suffering so much in the exercise of his mission. In the face of everything, he remained tireless, up to the time when he declared: ‘I have finished my course.’

Bl. James Alberione

The Pauline year

constitutes a further incentive to deepen the knowledge of St. Paul and assimilate his apostolic ardor.

Rev. S. Sassi
Superior General of the Society of St. Paul
(letter to Benedict XVI)

Paul the apostle of Christ

sought to conform his thinking and behavior according to the example of Christ. Indeed, this will become his major defense to those who dismiss his ministry as inferior and weak.

Paul Barnett
Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

Paul was the singer of God,

the proclaim our of the glory of God, the promoter of the worship of God, the one set apart by God, the prisoner for Christ who lived in Christ.

Blessed James Alberione

"God's power rests on my weakness."

In this affirmation Paul formulates the great law of the apostolate: the absolute primacy of God over the human instrument.

Renato Perino

Paul was the true "man of God":

A man filled to an exceptional degree with grace, a man to whom the things of God were particularly entrusted, a man especially obligated to God, a man who could say "His grace in me has not been fruitless."

Blessed James Alberione

We know extremely little

about the other Apostles...while we have a rich biography, in part an autobiography, of this thirteenth companion, this Apostle born out of time (1 Cor 15:8).

Giuseppe Ricciotti
Paul the Apostle

As to thy last Apostle's heart

Thy lightning glance did then impart
Zeal's never-dying fire,
So teach us on Thy shrine to lay
Our hearts, and let them day by day
Intenser blaze and higher.

John Keble

You who were a vessel of election for Christ,

...pray for us.
You who were made preacher, apostle and doctor of the Gentiles in truth, pray for us.
You whose apostolate was confirmed by marvels and wonders, pray for us.

Litany of St. Paul

Who can altogether despair

over the enormity of any crime whatever when they hear that Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the Lord's disciples, suddenly becomes a vessel of election?"

Bernard of Clairvaux

Sermons for the Advent and Christmas Season
Cistercian Publications
Kalamazoo, MI

[Paul's] mind was

like some instrument of music, harp or viol, the strings of which vibrate, though untouched, by the notes which other instruments give forth, and he was ever, according to his own precept, 'rejoicing with them that rejoice, and weeping with them that wept'."
John Henry Cardinal Newman

Even when he gives vent

to his sufferings most forcefully, he emerges absolutely certain of the charism that has been given to him, his vocation, his mission as a gift of the Holy Spirit."

Carlo-Maria Cardinal Martini
In the Thick of His Ministry
St. Paul Publications, Slough

Greatly admiring our Redeemer

we sing the marvel of the Savior,
of his mercies and clemency.
Christ chose him to be leader of His flock
who had once raised the cross for the Lamb.
Sequence for the Conversion of St. Paul

Paul the apostle of Christ

sought to conform his thinking and behavior according to the example of Christ. Indeed, this will become his major defense to those who dismiss his ministry as inferior and weak."

Paul Barnett Paul, Missionary of Jesus
ISBN 978-0-8028-4891-8

From thee, illustrious Teacher Paul,

Sounds forth the Church's trumpet call,
throughout the world, from pole to pole,
like tempest's blast, like thunder's roll.

(from a French hymn to St. Paul)

Blessed Paul, pray for us

You who obtained the mercy of God, pray for us.
You in whom the Son of God was revealed, pray for us.

Litany of St. Paul

With a lightning flash from heaven

and from outside it enlightens [Saul,] someone as yet incapable of receiving light within. And a voice came... We cannot doubt a truth that enters through both windows--that is, both eyes and ears.

Bernard of Clairvaux

Sermons for the Advent and Christmas Season
Cistercian Publications
Kalamazoo, MI

O return to us, Paul, Christ's Apostle!

Now is the hour of hatred and darkness.
Come and pour out Christ's love in all its splendor
throughout a world that is striving for true peace.

Hymn to St. Paul

Paul's life after his conversion

illustrates a zeal for the gospel tempered by grace, which contrasts with his prior relentless zeal for persecution."

Bill Doggett
Commentary for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

New Proclamation Commentary for Feasts, Holy Days and Other Celebrations
Fortress Press

Paul links all

the great creative acts of God in the Old Testament with what has happened to him."

Carlo-Maria Cardinal Martini

The Testimony of St. Paul
St. Paul Publications, Slough

Heavenly secrets are stored within this vase,

contained within this ark so precious,
in this vessel of election for God.
Of all abysses, he is the most profound;
of the heights, he is the most celestial,
summing up all within himself.
Sequence for the Conversion of St. Paul

Addressing this society which bore within it

an undeniable religious anguish, Paul declared that what it was suffering from was a great absence, an absence which could be remedied by only one being, one truth, one presence.

Daniel-Rops

St. Paul: Apostle of Nations
Fides Publishers, 1953

The lamp his holy words display

Hath filled the world with glorious rays,
and doubt and error are o'erthrown
that truth may reign and reign alone.

French hymn to St. Paul

Paul, once converted,

became a minister of conversion to the whole world.

Bernard of Clairvaux

Sermons for the Advent and Christmas Season
Cistercian Publications
Kalamazoo, MI

The story [of Paul's conversion]

is dramatic in and of itself, but at its heart it demonstrates that even the most fervent enemy of Jesus is not beyond the reach of his love and redemption."

Bill Doggett
Commentary for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

New Proclamation Commentary for Feasts, Holy Days and Other Celebrations
Fortress Press

The Apostle instinctively experiences his sufferings

not as a solitary personal fate, but as Christ's sufferings in him, because they occur within the ministry that the Lord Jesus has entrusted to him.... he calls them Christ's sufferings in himself.

Carlo-Maria Cardinal Martini

In the Thick of His Ministry
St. Paul Publications, Slough