``Where
the Bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be;
even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church'' Ignatius of
Antioch, 1st c. A.D
Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul
It was around
A.D. 35, a few years after the Crucifixion,
Resurrection,
and Ascension of Lord Christ.
The Pentecost had come and gone,
and the various Apostles -- all of them Hebrew -- were about the
business of spreading the news of what they'd seen.
But those Jews who were reistant to the Gospel were busy, too. And a
man named Saul -- a tentmaker from Tarsus (in modern Turkey) and a
student of the prestigious Rabbi Gamaliel -- was
among them. He later said of himself, "I persecuted the church of God,
and wasted it. And I made progress in the Jews' religion above many of
my equals in my own nation, being more abundantly zealous for the
traditions of my fathers."1 Among his victims was the
Church's very first martyr, St.
Stephen, the deacon, stoned to death when he defended the truth of
Christ before a council of Jews he was brought before, a story
recounted in Acts 7:54-59:
Now hearing
these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed with their
teeth at him. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up
steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God. And he said: Behold, I see the heavens opened, and
the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
And they crying out with a loud voice, stopped their ears,
and with one accord ran violently upon him. And casting him forth
without the city, they stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their
garments at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul. And they
stoned Stephen, invoking, and saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
And falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: Lord, lay
not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep
in the Lord. And Saul was consenting to his death.
After participating in the martyrdom of St. Stephen, he went to the
Jewish high priest and arranged with him to go to Damascus in Syria,
round up Christians there, bind them, and bring them back to Jerusalem
for the same sort of punishment. But on the way, something spectacular
happened. It's described in Acts 9:3-9:
And as he went
on his journey, it came to pass that he drew nigh to Damascus; and
suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. And falling on the
ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? Who said: Who art thou, Lord?
And He: I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee
to kick against the goad..[a "goad" is a sort of prod used to move
beasts of burden along. Jesus is saying that Saul was resisting the
supernatural prodding he was being given]
And he trembling and astonished, said: Lord, what wilt Thou
have me to do?
And the Lord said to him: Arise, and go into the city, and
there it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Now the men who went in company with him, stood amazed,
hearing indeed a voice, but seeing no man [we learn later in Acts 22:9
that Saul's companions didn't see Who spoke, but they did see His
Light].
And Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he saw
nothing. But they leading him by the hands, brought him to Damascus.
And he was there three days, without sight, and he did neither eat nor
drink.
Knocked off his horse to the ground and literally blinded by the Light
of Christ! One can only imagine the intense shame and utter shock felt
by Saul after this -- and especially after hearing Lord Christ Himself
asking why Saul was persecuting Him. For three days he sat in a
stranger's house, unable to see, and not eating or drinking a thing.
But the Lord wasn't done with Saul. He then appeared to a man named
Ananias
who lived in Damascus,
telling him to go to the house of a man named Judas, where he'd find
the newly-converted Saul. Ananias told Jesus that he'd heard of Saul,
and that
what he'd heard was not good at all. But Jesus told him to go anyway,
that Saul would carry His Name to the gentiles and to the kings.
Ananias did as he was told, making his way to Judas's house. There, he
met Saul,
laid hands on him to restore his eyesight and fill him with the Holy
Ghost, and then baptized him.
Thus Saul became Paul, the "13th Apostle".2 Note that his
changing his name from Saul, a Jewish name, to Paul, a Roman one, is
indicative of his shedding completely his Pharisaical past. He
immediately
went into the synagogues of Damascus and preached, for which his former
co-religionists conspired to kill him, lying in wait for him at the
gates of
the city day and night. But his new Christian friends helped him
escape by lowering him down outside the walls of the city in a basket.
He then went off to Jerusalem, met up with Christ's disciples, and
began spreading the Gospel all over the Middle East before finally
making his way to Rome where he was martyred by being beheaded by a
sword (we remember these aspects of his life on the Feast of SS Peter and Paul on
June 29).
Something
to note about this story: even after such a miraculous conversion, St.
Paul himself did not take his salvation for granted. Unlike what some
Protestants think, it is not so that we only need to have a "religious
experience" and we are then assured of salvation. St. Paul got himself baptized by the Church. And even
after that, he didn't take salvation for granted. As he told the
Corinthians,
Know
you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one
receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that
striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they
indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an
incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so
fight, not as one beating the air: But
I chastise my body, and bring it
into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself
should become a castaway. (I Corinthians 9:24-27)
We must believe, repent, be baptized, obey the
precepts of the Church, work to acquire
the cardinal virtues, love God with all our hearts, minds, souls,
and strength, love our
neighbors as ourselves, and be steadfast til the end.
Customs
First, a prayer for the day, this one from today's Collect:
God, Who has
taught the whole world by the preaching of blessed Paul, Thy apostle,
we beseech Thee, grant us, who this day celebrate his conversion, that
we may advance toward Thee by following his example.
And there is the lovely Litany
of St. Paul which would be perfect for this feast.
As to music for the day, there is the brief choral work Saule, Saule,
quid me persequeris (Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?) by
Giaches
de Wert (1535 - 1596):
Saule, Saule,
quid me perséqueris?
Quis es, Dómine?
Ego sum Iesus, quem tu perséqueris.
Durum est tibi contra stímulum calcitráre.
Surge et ingrédere civitátem,
et dicétur tibi, quid te opórteat fácere.
Saul, Saul, why
are are you persecuting me?
Who are you, Lord?
I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting.
It is hard to kick against the goad.
Get up, go into the city
and you will be told what you are to do.
And there is also this much longer work by Felix Mendelssohn (1809 -
1847): Paulus (Op. 36):
A good use of
the day is to stop and consider how well you emulate St. Paul by
bringing to others the message of Christ. Consider paragraphs 15 and 16
of Pope Leo XIII's Sapientiae Christianae (1890),
my emphasis:
15. ... Now,
faith, as a virtue, is a great boon of divine grace and goodness;
nevertheless, the objects themselves to which faith is to be applied
are scarcely known in any other way than through the hearing. "How
shall they believe Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they
hear without a preacher? Faith then cometh by hearing, and hearing by
the word of Christ." Since, then, faith is necessary for salvation, it
follows that the word of Christ must be preached. The office, indeed,
of preaching, that is, of teaching, lies by divine right in the
province of the pastors, namely, of the bishops whom "the Holy Spirit
has placed to rule the Church of God." It belongs, above all, to the
Roman Pontiff, vicar of Jesus Christ, established as head of the
universal Church, teacher of all that pertains to morals and faith.
16. No one, however, must entertain the notion that private
individuals are prevented from taking some active part in this duty of
teaching, especially those on whom God has bestowed gifts of mind with
the strong wish of rendering themselves useful. These, so often as
circumstances demand, may take upon themselves, not, indeed, the office
of the pastor, but the task of communicating to others what they have
themselves received, becoming, as it were, living echoes of their
masters in the faith. Such co-operation on the part of the laity has
seemed to the Fathers of the [Ed. First] Vatican Council so opportune
and fruitful of good that they thought well to invite it. "All faithful
Christians, but those chiefly who are in a prominent position, or
engaged in teaching, we entreat, by the compassion of Jesus Christ, and
enjoin by the authority of the same God and Saviour, that they bring
aid to ward off and eliminate these errors from holy Church, and
contribute their zealous help in spreading abroad the light of
undefiled faith." Let each one,
therefore, bear in mind that he both can and should, so far as may be,
preach the Catholic faith by the authority of his example, and by open
and constant profession of the obligations it imposes. In
respect, consequently, to the duties that bind us to God and the
Church, it should be borne earnestly in mind that in propagating
Christian truth and warding off errors the zeal of the laity should, as
far as possible, be brought actively into play.
Know your Faith, learn how to defend it, and spread it around! Don't ever be ashamed
of it! Cross yourself publicly. Wear those
ashes on Ash Wednesday. Pray before meals, even in restaurants. Bow
your head when you say or hear the Name of
Jesus, no matter whom you're with (and, men, remove your hats).
When you hear an ambulance, police car, or fire truck, stop and pray an
Ave for anyone in trouble, no matter who's around. When you pass by a
cemetery, pray the Eternal Rest prayer
for the dead. When you pass by a Catholic (or Orthodox) Church, bow
your head and cross yourself in reverence to Christ inside it. Love
God, and love your neighbor. Set an example for others. Read and think
about Christ's parable of the
Lamp Under a Basket:
Matthew 5:14-16
You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain
cannot be
hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon
a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let
your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and
glorify your Father Who is in heaven.
Teach your children this parable, and tell them to never, ever be
ashamed to be a follower of Christ. Teaching them the old song "This
Little Light of Mine" may help. Here it is sung by the Oak Ridge Boys:
This little
light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!
This little
light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!
Jesus gave me the light, I'm gonna let it shine!
Jesus gave me the light, I'm gonna let it shine!
Jesus gave me the light, I'm gonna let it shine!
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!
I won't let
Satan blow it out, I'm gonna let it shine!
I won't let Satan blow it out, I'm gonna let it shine!
I won't let Satan blow it out, I'm gonna let it shine!
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!
Hide it under a
bushel, no! I'm gonna let it shine!
Hide it under a bushel, no! I'm gonna let it shine!
Hide it under a bushel, no! I'm gonna let it shine!
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!
Gonna let it shine til Jesus comes, I'm gonna let it shine!
Gonna let it shine til Jesus comes, I'm gonna let it shine!
Gonna let it shine til Jesus comes, I'm gonna let it shine!
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!
Note: This feast was once also the Octave of a Feast of the Chair of
St. Peter on January 18, which beautifully tied together the missions
of St. Peter and St. Paul. There is a second feast celebrating the Chair of St. Peter on February 22. The
first Chair of St. Peter feast was done away with in 1960, but the
practice of engaging in eight days of prayer for the conversion of all
to the Catholic Faith that began on January 18 and ended on the
Conversion of St. Paul continues. These days of prayer are known as "The Chair of Unity Octave."
Readings
From "The Liturgical Year"
byDom Prosper
Gueranger
We have already seen how the Gentiles, in the person of the Three Magi,
offered their mystic gifts to the Divine Child of Bethlehem, and
received from him, in return, the precious gifts of faith, hope, and
charity. The harvest is ripe; it is time for the reaper to come. But
who is to be God’s laborer? The Apostles of Christ are still living
under the very shadow of mount Sion. All of them have received the
mission to preach the gospel of salvation to the uttermost parts of the
world; but not one among them has as yet received the special character
of Apostle of the Gentiles. Peter, who had received the Apostleship of
Circumcision, is sent specially, as was Christ himself, to the sheep
that are lost of the house of Israel. And yet, as he is the Head and
the Foundation, it belongs to him to open the door of Faith to the
Gentiles, which he solemnly does, by conferring Baptism on Cornelius,
the Roman Centurion.
But the Church is to have one more Apostle—an Apostle for the
Gentiles—and he is to be the fruit of the martyrdom and prayer of St.
Stephen. Saul, a citizen of Tarsus, has not seen Christ in the flesh,
and yet Christ alone can make an Apostle. It is then, from heaven,
where he reigns impassible and glorified, that Jesus will call Saul to
be his disciple, just as, during the period of his active life, he
called the fishermen of Genesareth to follow him and hearken to his
teachings. The Son of God will raise Saul up to the third heaven, and
there will reveal to him all his mysteries: and when Saul, having come
down again to this earth, shall have seen Peter, and compared his
Gospel with that recognized by Peter—he can say, in all truth, that he
is an Apostle of Christ Jesus, and that he has done nothing less than
the great Apostles.
It is on this glorious day of the Conversion of Saul, who is soon to
change his name into Paul, that this great work is commenced. It is on
this day, that is heard the Almighty voice which breaketh the cedars of
Libanus, and can make a persecuting Jew become first a Christian, and
then an Apostle. This admirable transformation had been prophesied by
Jacob, when, upon his death bed, he unfolded, to each of his sons, the
future of the tribe of which was to be the father. Juda was to have the
precedence of honor; from his royal race was to be born the Redeemer,
the Expected of nations. Benjamin’s turn came; his glory is not to be
compared with that of his brother Juda, and yet it was to be very
great—for from his tribe is to be born Paul, the Apostle of the Gentile
nations.
These are the words of the dying Prophet: Benjamin, a ravenous wolf, in
the morning shall eat the prey, and in the evening shall divide the
spoil. Who, says an ancient writer, is he that in the morning of
impetuous youth, goes like a wolf, in pursuit of the sheep of Christ,
breathing threatenings and slaughter against them? Is it not Saul on
the road to Damascus, the bearer and doer of the high priest’s orders,
and stained with the blood of Stephen, whom he has stoned by the hands
of all those over whose garments he kept watch? And he who, in the
evening, not only does not despoil, but with a charitable and peaceful
hand, breaks to the hungry the bread of life—is it not Paul, of the
tribe of Benjamin, the Apostle of Christ, burning with zeal for his
brethren, making himself all to all, and wishing even to be an anathema
for their sakes?
Oh! the power of our dear Jesus! how wonderful! how irresistible! He
wishes that the first worshippers at his Crib should be humble
Shepherds – and he invites them by his Angels, whose sweet hymn was
enough to lead these simple-hearted men to the Stable, where lies, in
swaddling-clothes, He who is the hope of Israel. He would have the
Gentile Princes, the Magi, do him homage – and bids to arise in the
heavens a Star, whose mysterious apparition, joined to the interior
speaking of the Holy Ghost, induces these men of desire to come from
the far East, and lay, at the feet of an humble Babe, their riches and
their hearts. When the time is come for forming the Apostolic College,
he approaches the banks of the sea of Tiberias, and with this single
word: Follow me, he draws after him such as he wishes to have as his
Disciples. In the midst of all the humiliations of his Passion, he has
but to look at the unfaithful Peter, and Peter is a penitent. To-day,
it is from heaven that he evinces his power: all the mysteries of our
redemption have been accomplished, and he wishes to show mankind, that
he is the sole author and master of the Apostolate, and that his
alliance with the Gentiles is now perfect: – he speaks; the sound of
his reproach bursts like thunder over the head of this hot Pharisee,
who is bent on annihilating the Church; he takes this heart of the Jew,
and, by his grace, turns it into the heart of the Apostle, the Vessel
of election, the Paul who is afterwards to say of himself: I live not
I, but Christ liveth in me.
The commemoration of this great event was to be a Feast in the Church,
and it had a right to be kept as near as might be to the one which
celebrates the martyrdom of St. Stephen, for Paul is the Proto-martyr’s
convert. The anniversary of his martyrdom would, of course, have to be
solemnised at the summer-solstice; where, then, place the Feast of his
Conversion if not near Christmas, and thus our own Apostle would be at
Jesus’ Crib, and Stephen’s side? Moreover, the Magi could claim him, as
being the conqueror of that Gentile-world, of which they were the
first-fruits.
And lastly, it was necessary, in order to give the court of our
Infant-King its full beauty, that the two Princes of the Church – the
Apostle of the Jews, and the Apostle of the Gentiles – should stand
close to the mystic Crib; Peter, with his Keys, and Paul, with his
Sword. Bethlehem thus becomes the perfect figure of the Church, and the
riches of this season of the Cycle are abundant beyond measure.
Let us borrow from the ancient Liturgies a suitable expression of our
admiration of our Apostle’s Conversion. The following Sequence, which
belongs to the 10th century, is found in the old Missals of the
Churches of Germany. It is full of mysterious allusions, which bear a
certain grandeur of thought.
The Lord said: I
will turn him from Basan (the land of barrenness); I will turn him
into the deep sea (of my faith).
What he said he did, when he prostrated Saul, and raised him
up Paul, by his Incarnate Word, by whom also he made the world. It was while
opposing this Word, that the Jew heard the voice: Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me?
I am Christ: it is hard for thee to kick against the goad. The earth was
moved at the presence of the Lord; it trembled and
then was at rest. Paul, when he
knew the Lord Jesus, believed, and ceased to persecute the Christians.
He became, O God, the tongue of thy faithful ones; leaving
thine enemies, he returned to thee. For it is Paul,
who, by the mouth of the Priests throughout the world, proclaims the
commandments, teaching that the Crucified is no other than God, the Christ, Who reigneth
with the Father and the Holy Ghost; and Paul is his witness.
By Paul the Priests have ruminated the law and the Gospel; and by these, as
with two millstones, have pounded and prepared
every spiritual medicine, whereby the wounded are healed, and the
hungry are fed. O Jesus! hear
his prayers for us sinners; turn to us; give us life;
Who didst turn Paul into a true convert, for the sake of all
who are to return to thee, and didst make him the vessel of election. When he preached
God to men, the sea beheld and fled, the Jordan was turned back, because the
multitude of the nations, returning from the depths of sin, to the
confusion of Og the King of Basan,
Now adore but thee, O Christ! their creator, whom they
believe to have come, in the flesh, to redeem them. Amen.
The Roman-French Missals give us this beautiful Hymn of Adam of
Saint-Victor.
Church of the
Gentiles! sing with heart and voice thy hymn of triumph, and make the
heavens echo.
Paul, the Doctor of the Gentiles, has finished his course,
and triumphs in glory.
This is he that was the youthful Benjamin, the ravenous wolf,
the devourer of the prey, the enemy of the Faithful.
He was a wolf in the morning, but in the evening, a lamb. The
night was past, the day-star rose, and he preaches the Gospel.
This is he that marched in the road of death, but was stayed,
as he goes to Damascus, by Him who is the Way of Life.
He had breathed forth threats, but at length he yields; he
prostrates, and obeys; he is made captive, and goes whither he is led.
He is sent to Ananias -- the wolf to the lamb: his stormy
heart is calm.
He receives the sacrament of the font; its saving waters turn
the venom of his soul into the fragrance of love.
He becomes a sacred vessel, a vessel divine, a vessel that
gives forth to men the sweet wine of the grace of doctrine.
He visits the synagogues, and proves the Christian faith by
unfolding the prophets.
He preaches the cross of Christ; and for that Cross’ sake
himself does bear the cross, dying a thousand deaths.
Yet dies not, but is a living victim, conquering every pain
by unconquered courage.
He is set apart by God as the teacher of the Gentiles; and by
the wisdom of God he overcomes the wise ones of the world.
Rapt to the third heaven, he sees the Father and Son in one
substance.
The mighty Rome, and the learned Greece -- both bow down
their heads, and learn the Mysteries, and embrace the Faith of Christ.
The Cross triumphs! Then does Nero rage to see this Paul
spreading the Faith by his preaching, and sentences him to die by the
sword.
Thus disburthened from the flesh, Paul sees the true Sun, the
Only Begotten of the Father.
He sees the Light in Light, by whose almighty power we shun
the pains of hell. Amen.
The ancient Sacramentaries give us nothing upon the Conversion of St.
Paul. We take the following Prayer and Preface from the Gallican Missal
published by Dom Mabillon, under the title of Missale Gothicum.
O God, who, by a
voice from heaven, didst strike with terror thine Apostle Paul when
raging against the holiness of the Christian Religion, and, on this the
day of his Vocation, didst change him both in his heart and his name:
and him, whom the Church once dreaded as her persecutor, she now
rejoices in having as her Teacher in the commandments of God: whom,
also, thou didst strike with exterior blindness, that thou mightest
give him interior sight: to whom, moreover, when the darkness of his
cruelty was removed, thou didst give the knowledge of thy divine law,
whereby he might call the Gentiles: and didst thrice deliver him from
shipwreck, which he suffered for the Faith, saving this thy devoted
servant from the waves of the sea: grant also to us, we beseech thee,
who are solemnizing both his conversion and his faith, that, after the
blindness of our sins, we may be permitted to see Thee, in heaven, who
didst enlighten Paul, here on earth.
It is meet and just, yea it is right and just, that we should
give thanks to thee, O Holy Lord, Almighty Father, Eternal God: who, to
show that thou desirest to forgive all men their sins, didst win over
the persecutor of thy Church with one word of thy calling, and
straightways made the persecutor our teacher: for, he that had received
epistles from others unto the destruction of the Churches, began to
write his own unto their restoration; and who, to show that Saul had
become Paul, did immediately, as a wise architect, lay the foundation,
giving joy to thy holy Catholic Church, by becoming her builder after
being her destroyer: and in such wise did he defend her, that he feared
neither tortures nor very death, and became a Head of the Church after
having crushed the members of the Church, delivering up the head of his
own body, that he might be united with the Divine Head Christ, in all
his members, by whom also he merited to be made a vessel of election,
and received into the dwelling of his own heart this same Jesus Christ
thy Son, our Lord.
We give thee thanks, Jesus! who hast, this day, prostrated thine enemy
by thy power, and raised him up again by thy mercy. Truly art thou the
Mighty God, and thy victories shall be praised by all creatures. How
wonderful art thou, in thy plans for the world’s salvation! Thou makest
men thy associates in the work of the preaching of thy word, and in the
dispensing of thy Mysteries; and, in order to make Paul worthy of such
an honour, thou usest all the resources of thy grace. It pleased thee
to make an Apostle of Stephen’s murderer, that so thy sovereign power
might be shown to the world, thy love of souls be evinced in its
richest gratuitous generosity, and grace abound where sin had so
abounded. Sweet Saviour! often visit us with this grace which converts
the heart; for we desire to have the life of grace abundantly, and we
feel that its very principle is often in danger within us. Convert us,
as thou didst thine Apostle; and after having converted us, assist us;
for, without thee, we can do nothing. Go before us, follow us, stand by
our side; never leave us, but as thou hast given us the commencement,
secure to us our perseverance to the end. Give us that Christian
wisdom, which will teach us how to acknowledge, with fear and love,
that mysterious gift of grace, which no creature can merit, and to
which, nevertheless, a creature’s will may put an obstacle. We are
captives: thou alone art master of the instrument, wherewith we can
break our chains; thou puttest it into our hands, bidding us make use
of it; so that our deliverance is thy work, not ours – but our
captivity, if it continue, can only be attributed to our negligence and
sloth. Give us, Lord, this thy grace; and graciously receive the
promise we now make, that we will render it fruitful by co-operating
with it.
Assist us, thou holy Apostle of Jesus ! to correspond with the merciful
designs of God in our regard; obtain of him, for us, that we may be
overcome by the sweetness of an Infant-God. His voice does not make
itself heard; he does not blind us by the glare of his divine light;
but this we know – he often complains that we persecute him! Oh! that
we could have the courage to say to him, with a heart honest like
thine: Lord! what wilt thou that we do? He would answer, and tell us,
to be simple, and to become little children, like himself – to
recognise now, after so many Christmases of indifference, the love he
shows us in this mystery of Bethlehem – to declare war against sin – to
resist our evil inclinations – and to advance in virtue, by walking in
his divine footsteps. Thou hast said, in one of thine Epistles: If any
man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him he anathema! (1 Corinthians
16:22) Oh! teach us to know this dear Jesus more and more, that so we
may grow in his love; and, by thy prayers, preserve us from that
ingratitude which turns even the sweet Mysteries of this holy season
into our own greater condemnation.
Glorious Vessel of election! pray for the conversion of sinners, who
have forgotten their God. When on this earth, thou didst spend thyself
for the salvation of souls; continue thy ministry, now that thou art
reigning in heaven, and draw down, upon them that persecute Jesus, the
graces which triumph over the hardest hearts. Apostle of the Gentiles!
look with an eye of loving pity on so many nations, that are still
sitting in the shadow of death. During thy mortal life, thou wast
divided between two ardent desires – one, to be with Christ, the other,
to remain longer on earth labouring for the salvation of immortal
souls: now, that thou art united for ever with the Jesus thou didst
preach to men, forget not the poor ones to whom their God is a
stranger. Raise up in the Church apostolic men, who may continue thy
work. Pray to our Lord that he bless their labours, and the blood of
such among them as are Martyrs of zeal. Shield, with thy protection,
the See of Peter, thy Brother-Apostle and thy Leader.
Support the authority of the Church of Rome, which has inherited thy
power, and looks upon thee as her second defense. May thy powerful
intercession lead her enemies into humble submission, destroy schisms
and heresies, and fill her Pastors with thy spirit, that, like thee,
they may seek, not themselves, but solely and in all things the
interests of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Footnotes
1 Galatians 1:13-14
2 An Apostle is one who is called directly
by Christ. Paul wasn't one of "the original twelve," but because he was
called by Christ directly, he is considered an "Apostle." A mnemonic by
which you can remember the names of the original 12 Apostles: Peter
(formerly Simon), Andrew, James the Grater, John, Phillip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the Less, Jude, Simon, and Judas (replaced by
Matthias):
Peter, Andrew,
James and John,
Phil and Bart and Matt and Tom,
James the Less and Jude and Simon --
Then Judas who betrayed the God-man.
All of the Apostles can be called "disciples" -- which simply
means they were students of Christ -- but the Bible speaks of many
"disciples"
-- many of whom were women. Note that two of the Apostles -- John and
Matthew -- are also Evangelists (the men who wrote the Gospels).
