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