In college, I majored in American Literature but took acting classes because I enjoyed the immediacy of theater. On stage everything happens in the moment. On a recent Sunday I was celebrating Mass and began the ceremony with the sign of the cross and then extended my hands to deliver the greeting: Grace to you […]
“For our gospel did not come to you in word alone but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction” (1 Thess 1:5). In ancient times the city of Thessalonica was an important trade city situated along the Via Egnatia, the Roman Empire’s major east-west thoroughfare, running from Byzantium to the […]
And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him, provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that […]
I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me; rather, I went into Arabia — Galatians 1:17. John the Baptist was dead. Herod Antipas had had him executed to placate the cruelty of Herodias, his second wife, who had demanded that the king deliver to her the prophet’s head. An ugly night […]
I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry. Once I was a blasphemer and a persecutor of the Church, an arrogant man. But I have I have been treated mercifully because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief. […]
The disciple Ananias hurried along the Via Recta through Damascus to the house of a man named Judas, a leading synagogue member. The door opened and the occupant admitted Ananias and then led him through a hallway to a room at the back of the house where he found a young man rapt in prayer. […]
When Saint Paul met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus he was about thirty years old. Paul was the son, as he testified in his own letters, of a Pharisee, who also was the son of a Pharisee. Circumcised eight days after his birth according to the Law of Moses, Paul came from a […]
Jesus Christ fulfilled the prophecies and the promises of what God had revealed to his chosen people, the Jews, long ago in the First Testament. This is why there remains such a close connection between Judaism and Catholicism, two religions rooted in biblical revelation and faith in one eternal and saving God who in ways […]
Saint Paul wrote that he was “all things to all people.” Paul was a Jew, a Roman citizen, a Pharisee, an apostle, a preacher, a teacher, a tentmaker, and an evangelizer. And Paul was a writer. Thirteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are attributed to him, making him a prolific composer. He […]
PRAY DAILY. I had only been in town a couple of days when I started noticing these bumper stickers. I saw them on cars, trucks, and vans around the city, and many of the same cars bore another sticker that read, TRUST JESUS. I thought, “Could there be a correlation?” Pray daily. Trust Jesus. If […]
In the ancient world, most peoples believed in a universe that had many gods. But even without the help of biblical revelation, Greek philosophers figured something out. There could only be one Supreme Being, only one almighty and omnipotent Ruler of all, only one God. In the twelfth chapter of Luke, Jesus asks a question. […]
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His Body, that is, the Church (Col 1:24). When I first read St. Paul’s words to the people of Colossae, I was stunned and I’m sure that I’m not alone. […]
