pauline spirit

Peter and Paul

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are illustrious Martyrs, leaders of Martyrs, princes of the Apostles, two great luminaries placed by God in his Church, like two shining eyes.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

May the Pauline Year, which ends today, continue in your mind and heart!

Paul did not recklessly run into dangers,

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or relapse into timidity and flee. Life was very dear to him because of the opportunities for good which it afforded him.

St. John Chrysostom

St. Paul lived the whole Christ:

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

Bl. James Alberione

[Paul] labored to make his thought clear...

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twisting and reshaping a phrase as if it were iron melting in a flame, so that he, the artisan, seems to sweat over his exertions.... He gathers his thoughts and he strikes, so that they seem to spring like sparks from every side of the anvil.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

He teaches the equality

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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

Both disciples [Peter and Paul]

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seemed to radiate something divine from their persons. They were so filled with grace and the Holy Spirit that the faithful who merely glanced at them felt a certain mysterious movement to do good, which led them to conform their way of life to the faith they professed....

Nicephorus

The splendor of the Risen One

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left him blind; presenting also externally what the interior reality was, his blindness in regard to the truth, to the light, which is Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI

You will find Paul saying

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and doing many other things which seem high-handed, yet it is especially these that show his moderation.

St. John Chrysostom

Dying, Paul consecrated his soul to heaven,

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his glory to eternity, his faithful to the Church, his body and blood along with the Christian faith, to Rome.

Cornelius a Lapide, SJ

By his own example

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and gthe example of Christ, Paul earnestly recommended the Christians to tolerate, bear and relieve one another's burdens as well as their own.

Cornelius a Lapide, SJ

Now he exhorted by letter,

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at other times by his presence; now by means of discourses, at other times by deeds.

St. John Chrysostom

If we seek virtue,

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there is nothing to prevent us from becoming like Paul.

St. John Chrysostom

St. Paul has a heart that is rarely found,

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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

Paul and the other New Testament writers

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initiate a new literature which is not preoccupied with style but with souls; or better still, with the one and only person who counts--Jesus Christ.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

The Christ, Who conquered him,

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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

[Paul] placed himself

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in an attitude of complete service... This remains the
mission of all the apostles of Christ in all times: to be fellow workers of true
joy.

Pope Benedict XVI

It was not simply a conversion,

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a maturing of [Paul's] "I," rather, it was death and resurrection for himself: a life of his died and a new one was born with the Risen Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI

The blessed Paul,

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manifesting the power of human zeal to enable us to fly to Heaven without the help of anels, archangels and the other heavenly powers...bids us imitate Christ through his example.

St. John Chrysostom

St. Paul was a man of great variety

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and multiplicity in speech and actions, not in the sense that he often changed his mind or personality, but in that, remaaining always the same, he knew how to adapt the truth to varying circumstances.

St. John Chrysostom

Even though he had knowledge

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by revelation from God, Paul would put aside eery other occupation to apply himself to the reading and studying of Sacred Scripture.

Cornelius a Lapide, SJ

St. Paul gave himself

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to the Gospel with all this life; we can say 24 hours out of 24! And he carried out his ministry with fidelity and joy.

Pope Benedict XVI

God is not a respecter of persons.

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He made Paul, and He made you. He is your Lord as much as Paul's, and as He proclaimed Paul he wishes to crown you.

St. John Chrysostom

In praising Paul,

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I praise the apostolate; even more, I praise God, the Author of Paul and of the apostolate."

Cornelius a Lapide, SJ
(paraphrasing Gregory Nanzianzen's words on Athanasius)
The Personality of St. Paul

Paul wishes to be only an exemplar for Christ.

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If he asks his own disciples that they, too, become imitators of him, Paul, it is because he has become an imitator of Christ.... a reproduction of Christ Himself.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

[Paul] has been given a vision of faith

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which reaches beyond the purely pragmatic and the habitual, routine facts. It is a truly supernatural gift, the power of the Spirit which was always strong within him.

Carlo Cardinal Martini
The Testimony of St. Paul

You have seen a man, then,

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traversing the entire earth.... As if the entire population of the world were his children he was always in a hurry, always on the move, always anxious to lead all to the Kingdom of Heaven.

St. John Chrysostom

God in his mercy deprived him of sight

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because of his previous shortsightedness, in order to improve his subsequent vision.

St. John Chrysostom

Paul, most humble himself

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and in all that concerned him, was likewise most noble and sublime in all that concerned Christ and the glory of God.

Cornelius a Lapide, SJ
The Personality of St. Paul

Paul lives the life of Christ crucified;

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in Christ he dies, yearning to be dissolved and to be with Him.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

I give you as a model

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

St. John Bosco

Paul was small

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of body and short. He was a bit bent or bowed down. Hos face was splendid and made him look older than he really was...

Nicephorus

St. Paul was not transformed

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by a thought but by an event, by the irresistible presence of the Risen One, whom he could never again doubt, so strong had been the evidence of the event, of that encounter.

Pope Benedict XVI

Let us pray

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that the Lord, who made Paul see his light and hear his word and touched his heart profoundly, make us also see his light...

Pope Benedict XVI

Paul was the nobles of men

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

St. John Chrysostom

[Paul's] long martyrdom

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consisted of never-ending dangers, tribulations, and persecutions, which he himself enumerated.

Cornelius a Lapide, SJ

As though he were the father

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of the whole world, [Paul] struggled unceasingly to steer all into the kingdom of God.

St. John Chrysostom

Since, then, charity is the beginning and the end,

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and the sum of blessings, let us imitate Paul in this respect. For charity was the secret of his sanctity.

St. John Chrysostom

To the one who loves St. Paul,

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he does not appear as a stern wielder of the sword, but as the most ardent and tender person ever to love Christ.

Bl. James Alberione

The heart of Paul

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is the heart of Christ; the word of Paul is the word Christ speaks through him.... He carries Christ to others, and gives himself wholly to the life of Christ.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

At other times

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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

After his encounter

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with the Risen Christ... Paul could not continue to live as he did before. Now he felt invested by the Lord with the charge to proclaim his Gospel as an apostle.

Pope Benedict XVI

We must not think

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that Paul locked himself blindly in an event. In reality, the opposite occurred, because the risen Christ is the light of truth, the light of God himself. This enlarged his heart, and opened it to all.

Pope Benedict XVI

Captivated by [Paul's] words,

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those who warred on him quickly became fuel to this fire of the Holy Spirit, so that through them the word spread further and reached others.

St. John Chrysostom

[Paul was]

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the rhetorician of Christ, the fisherman of the world who, by means of fourteen letters, real spiritual nets, draws the world to salvation.

St. John Chrysostom

Having been taken up to heaven,

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[Paul] seemed an angel from above, sent by God to recall people to heaven.

Cornelius a Lapide, SJ

The apostle also shares

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in the destiny of appearing as 'a stumbling block' and 'foolishness,' and Paul knows it; this is the experience of his life.

Pope Benedict XVI

Just acquire Paul's charity

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and you will acquire the crown of perfection.

St. John Chrysostom

He is humble

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and he can be sarcastic; he is tender and also terrible. When in anguish, he recommends joyfulness. He passes from the dizzy heights of mysticism to scorching invectives...

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

All that Paul does,

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all that he teaches, he does as anotehr Christ. He is engaged in an intense drama with Christ for the center.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

We never find in Paul

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any merely destructive criticism. There is reproof, never bitter resignation. His apostolic transfiguration, by God's gift, enables him always to see the good things first.

Carlo Cardinal Martini
The Testimony of St. Paul

Such was his longing for Christ

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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

As if he were the common father of the whole world,

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[Paul] emulated the love of earthly fathers, or rather, he surpassed them in ... love and concern and expended his money, his words, his body and soul, his all, for those he loved.

St. John Chrysostom

Whoever comes close to Paul

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is transformed, bit by bit, and learns to live as he did, and to pray as he did.

Bl. James Alberione

Paul had no fear of suffering.

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Since he must reproduce Christ in himself, it was not surprising that he should repeat Christ's sufferings.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

By the same grace of God,

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and at the same time, Paul was called by Him to the grace of the faith and to the apostolate.

Cornelius A' Lapide, SJ

There has probably seldom been

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anyone at the same time hated with such a fiery hatred and loved with such strong passion as Paul.

Adolf Deissmann

The Risen One spoke with Paul,

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called him to the apostolate, made him a true apostle, a witness of the resurrection, with the specific charge to proclaim the Gospel to the pagans, to the Greco-Roman world.

Pope Benedict XVI

[In Paul] we see a determination

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that is explained only by a soul truly fascinated by the light of the Gospel, enamored of Christ, a soul sustained by a profound conviction.

Pope Benedict XVI

[Paul's] one and only object

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was the salvation of those that heard and saw him.

St. John Chrysostom

Keep before you, also,

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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

No one ever wept

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with as much feeling over his own misfortunes as Paul wept for the woes of others.

St. John Chrysostom

In his greatness

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he was more ardent than any flame of fire in the crown of all virtues, namely, charity. Just as iron thrust into fire becomes all fiery, so Paul was consumed with charity and became charity incarnate.

St. John Chrysostom

Paul took delight

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only in that which was above all else: the love of Christ.

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

He would rather be in chains,

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on a ship adrift at the mercy of the waves, in a city obsessed by pride and dissolute by evil living, than not to be an Apostle.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

The pilot is proven

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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

Paul also feels that he is

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a true apostle and it seems clear, therefore, that the Pauline concept of apostolate is not restricted to the group of Twelve.

Pope Benedict XVI

Having opened himself to Christ

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with all his heart, he became able to engage in a wider dialogue with all, he made himself everything to all. Hence he could really be the apostle to the pagans.

Pope Benedict XVI

Just as a fire grows as it catches

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on to different materials and gains increases from what it comes in contact with, so the words of Paul converted to himself everybody that encountered them..

St. John Chrysostom

Paul made every member of the faithful

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an apostle, so that all endeavored to increase Christ's glory, to spread the faith and lead parents, children, relatives...to embrace it.

Cornelius a Lapide, SJ

Paul attained

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higher perfection every day. He longed for greater hardships, greater struggles, greater dangers, and greater sufferings for Christ, in the same way that fire in a forest spreads until the entire forest is ablaze.

St. John Chrysostom

No one like Paul,

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has demonstrated how the proclamation of the cross of Christ appears as 'a stumbling block' and 'foolishness,' to which many react with incomprehension and rejection.

Pope Benedict XVI

Paul shows the way that leads there,

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Peter unlocks the door of Heaven.
They stand against the enemy as two armed fortresses;
Towers of faith, whom the city, head of the world, contains.

Venantius Fortunatus

Paul scorned honors, riches, glory

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and all earthly goods.... [for] his mind was accustomed to dwell constantly upon heaven.

Cornelius a Lapide, SJ
The Personality of St. Paul

The Apostle, since he concurs with God

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for the building up of the Mystical Body of Christ, regards his work as similar to the maternity of Mary who gave life to Christ.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

At the root of everything

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lies the fact that he [Paul] is inseparable from Christ.

Carlo Cardinal Martini
The Testimony of St. Paul

Why do you wonder if Paul,

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when he calls some to himself, does not think it beneath his consideration to be concerned for their temporal welfare and makes reference to this in an epistle?

St. John Chrysostom

There was much in St. paul's character

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which was not changed on his conversion, but merely directed to other and higher objects, and purified; it was his creed that was changed, and his soul by regeneration...

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Addressing this society which bore within it

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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.

Henri Daniel-Rops

St. Paul: Apostle of Nations
Fides Publishers, 1953

He fights and weeps

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and writes and travels, bears chains and make tents, all in order to present to God on the day of Judgement an Apostolate complete, unspoiled and unwasted.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

The roots of Paul's life,

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secret and public, reach deeply into his charisms and mystical experiences; without these, it is unexplainable.

Giuseppe Ricciotti

Saint Paul was steadfast

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in his many difficulties and persecutions, sustained above all by the unfailing love of Christ (cf. Rom 8:35-39). May the example of his apostolic zeal inspire and
encourage us today!

Pope Benedict XVI

[In the Damascus encounter,]

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Paul learned that, despite the immediateness of his relationship with the Risen One, he must enter the communion of the Church, be baptized, and live in harmony with the other apostles.

Pope Benedict XVI

Today at Paul's entry

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not into the city but into the world, let us all turn out to watch. For he carries the standard of no mere earthly king, but the cross of Chrsit, Lord of heaven.

St. John Chrysostom

Because Christ had made Paul

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his own (cf. Phil 3:12), could not help but preach the Good News he had received (cf. 1 Cor 9:16). So it is with us.

Pope Benedict XVI

What must have been

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the sentiments of [Paul's] soul during those last moments of his life? Who can imagine his ardent protests of love, his prayers, his burning desire for God and Christ...?

Cornelius a Lapide, SJ

Would that I might see

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the dust of [Paul's] heart. If one should call it the heart of the whole world, he would not err. This heart was all-embracing: entire cities, peoples and nations were gathered within it.

St. John Chrysostom

His, indeed, was a "wonderful conversion,"

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as our Church in one place calls it, because it was so unexpected, and (as far as the appearance went) so sudden. Who of the suffering Christians, against whom he was raging so furiously, could have conceived that their enemy was to be the great preacher and champion of the despised Cross?

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Paul links all

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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

Paul, giving the whole of himself,

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gives the whole of the Gospel; his mouth is open wide to declare it, his heart is filled and enlarged with Christ's presence.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

Even after so many centuries,

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Paul's letters convey a personality that is overwhelming.

Scott Hahn

In the same way that fire

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applying itself to different materials is reinforced even more ... so Paul's word won to his cause all those with whom he related, and those who made war on him, captivated by his speeches, became fuel for this spiritual fire.

St. John Chrysostom

In his own letters,

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Paul describes his experience not so much in terms of a conversion, but as a call to apostleship and a commission to preach the Gospel.

Pope Benedict XVI

The Apostle Paul

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is a paradigm of the first order, from whom all of us today have much to learn.

Pope Benedict XVI

Paul was not terrified or injured

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by multitudes of...enemies or by threats or persecution. All these things served to drive him on; they were like high winds continually whipping up the flame of charity in his heart....

Cornelius a Lapide, SJ

Paul's greeting alone

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was enough to fill with grace the one who received it.

St. John Chrysostom

A typical element

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of the true apostle, brought well into the light by St. Paul, is a sort of identification between the Gospel and the evangelizer, both destined to the same goal.

Pope Benedict XVI

When we read and dwell on St. Paul's history,

2009-03-05T01:45:00.000-08:00

we may discern and insist upon the suitableness of his character, before his conversion, for that display of free grace which was made in him.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

To show His power, [God]

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put forth His hand into the very midst of the persecutors of His Son, and seized upon the most strenuous among them.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Paul is a voice

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that speaks only for the Gospel; his person is a means for Evangelization. Having given himself to Christ, he sees only the glory of Christ.

Igino Giordani
St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr

Paul understood that the essential thing for him

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is Christ: all the things he does, whatever he performs, however enthusiastically he preaches, all is Christ living within him.

Carlo Cardinal Martini
The Testimony of St. Paul