On this the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul I will speak on the varieties of Revelation that each Apostle received from Jesus Christ, and what said Revelation means to us and to our Church today. There really is only one great Revelation—the Word made Flesh—but each of us receives it differently, in the amount […]
William Shakespeare famously wrote “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” and so it is with us. Each of us “performs” each day on the world’s stage before the spectacle of our fellow man and before the saints and angels in heaven, under the watchful eyes of God. We […]
Today is the Feast of St. Luke the evangelist. Luke was a native of Antioch and unlike the other New Testament writers, was not a Jew, but a Greek. When we look for Luke in the Scriptures, we first come across his Gospel, but from a historical perspective, his first mention is not in the […]
SHE DIED ANYWAY. Decay in the marrow. Radiation robbed her radiance. Fragile peals of thunder protected summer showers that watered her flowers. If the thunder don’t get you then the lightning will. Life submits to death. My parents, Moose and Sylvia, made an odd couple, like an elephant and a tickbird. He was Oscar. She […]
His name was Saul. In his young and undiscovered days, before he became Paul the Apostle, he worked as lead prosecutor for the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court in Jerusalem. In those days Saul was eager to make a name for himself, to kill or to die to obtain notoriety. “Someday,” he thought, “I’m going […]
His name was Saul. In his young and undiscovered days, before he became Paul the Apostle, he worked as lead prosecutor for the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court in Jerusalem. In those days Saul was eager to make a name for himself, to kill or to die to obtain notoriety. “Someday,” he thought, “I’m going […]
In the realm of effective written communication, it is essential to first master the basics of grammar before attempting to compose a persuasive essay. Perhaps the first official school lesson most children learn is to recite the alphabet. From there years are spent memorizing and putting into practice the rules of good grammar. Without this […]
Saint Paul’s letters addressed to the Thessalonians are the oldest New Testament writings. He wrote them during his second missionary journey, less than 20 years after the Resurrection. On that journey he entered Europe for the first time and the Macedonian city of Thessalonica was his second stop. In 1 Thessalonians he praises the members […]
Following my ordination my bishop assigned me to work in two yoked parishes. “Yoked” churches share a pastoral staff but are not merged. The pastor and myself worked to merge the parishes. One parish was Irish. The other was Puerto Rican. The linguistic and traditional differences were palpable. Often I reflected on the sixth chapter […]
The story of Paul’s journey into Arabia begins and ends in the Temple at Jerusalem (Acts 7:1—8:1; 22:17-21). Paul made his scriptural debut as the young prosecutor who guarded the cloaks of the members of the lynch mob who stoned Stephen (Acts 7:58; 8:1). Scripture offers scant details about the next few years of Paul: […]
The Temple authorities cracked down on the Nazoreans. Peter and the Apostles were rounded up and brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court. The majority of its members favored a drastic sentence. It was the influential Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, who took the initiative of securing their […]
In ancient times the city of Damascus employed a system of subterranean canals that irrigated the plains and supplied Damascenes with drinking water. Some of these aqueducts were more than a mile in length. It was through these canals that Saint Paul escaped the city to enter Arabia (Gal 1:17), and through them he returned […]
A great light enveloped Saul of Tarsus, the zealous Pharisee and persecutor of the Church. Blinded by the light, he fell to the ground and heard a voice call him twice by name. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”“Who are you Lord?” Saul asked. The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” […]
There is certain work of Christian literature written c. AD 190 that tells the story of how Saint Paul baptized a lion. By the power of God Paul tamed the animal, baptized him by immersion, and claimed the creature for Christ. “I, Paul, en route to Jericho, accompanied by two pious women, was confronted by […]
Saint Paul the Apostle was born in the ancient city of Tarsus in the Roman province of Cilicia (present-day Turkey) in the year of Our Lord 8, 12-14 years after the birth of Jesus Christ. [1] The city was situated thirty miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea and nestled beneath the shadows of the Tarsus […]
At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for 40 days, tempted by the devil. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him. —Mk 1:12-13 “A veil of thick darkness hangs over Paul’s visit to the Arabia.” [1] The Reverend George Rawlinson, a 19th-century […]
When discussing the arguments against Sola Scriptura, we Catholics have a lot of strong arguments. Here at The Bad Evangelist Club, we help you to avoid bad arguments like the one below so the good ones have more credibility. The Argument Any debate around Sola Scriptura will focus on 2 Timothy 3:14-17, which goes as […]
The season of Advent is about hope. That is the message to be taken from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans. His message of hope in Christ speaks to Christians throughout the millennia as it did to the Church at Rome c. AD 57. Back then the Roman Christians experienced persecution at the […]
Do you ever feel competitive with your spouse? If you enjoy a friendly challenge involving word games, board games, or sports games, why not try a spiritual challenge based on advice from St. Paul? Although St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians contains his most well-known wisdom on love, his Letter to the Romans also teaches […]
That I, Paul, might not become too elated, because of the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to […]
This is an excerpt from an upcoming work of fiction about the life of St. Paul by Father Tucker Cordani. **** That night Ananias showed up at Judas’s house on Via Recta. This was where they had brought me after the vision. Ananias found me in my room in the back on my bed reading […]
For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia —Galatians 4:25. In the Scriptures, the desert is the setting for purification, and the mountain is the site of revelation. Moses led the Israelites through the desert to prepare them to receive the Law, which God handed down on Mount Sinai (Ex 20:1-17) amid peals of thunder and […]
“At once, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and angels ministered to him” (Mark 1:12-13). These are the words written by Saint Mark that begin the story of Jesus’s works following his baptism in the Jordan River […]
I was born to be a New York Giants fan. Being a fan is, quite literally, my birthright. My father is a lifelong fan, and in 1971, the year I was born, star running back Tucker Frederickson completed his final season with the team. Spellbound with nostalgia, my father ensured that Frederickson would remain a […]
