SAINT PAUL June 30, 2024

Sunday after Sunday we listen to St Paul’s epistles.

     It is over two thousand years since the birth of St. Paul in Tarsus, in modern-day eastern Turkey. Paul, originally called Saul, was a Jew by race, yet also a Roman citizen (a comparatively rare privilege especially among the Jews). It was this dignity which eventually led to his being beheaded rather than crucified like Our Lord or St. Peter.

His persecution of the early Church, including the stoning of St. Stephen, and his dramatic conversion at the gates of Damascus, are well known.

     We can study his wonderful Epistles, or letters to the Christian congregations (or in Paul’s terminology, “Churches”) which he had founded or visited, — or to young protégés like Timothy and Titus, whom he had trained up as successors in administering the sacraments, and in teaching and governing the infant Church.

     These letters altogether make up the largest single body of documents in the New Testament and, together with the teachings of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, are the most profound reflections on the person and work of Christ and of Christ’s relation to His Body on earth, the Catholic Church.

                                                     ~ FR. PAUL DOBSON