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