Saint Paul Archivi

Posts tagged "Saint Paul"

Pseudo-Homilies 23 – The Pearl

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A As always, once again I will make an exception to the rule I have given myself, and I won’t focus on a single theme. At least I’d hope to be concise, but even that would be a (desired, unlikely) change. On predestination (reprise) Our first topic comes from the Second Reading, which in a way represents a continuation of our discourse on predestination addressed in the previous article. In fact St. Paul in the Letter to the Romans parallels these two planes, which seem impossible to reconcile: the eternity of the creation, whereby God “already” knew everything “immediately”, and our becoming. Are…

Pseudo-Homilies 20 – Flesh

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A This time I decided to focus on the Second Reading, if only because I wanted to explore an angle, a way of seeing it, which isn’t usually taken into consideration by today’s homilists. I’ll start slightly earlier; from the Letter to the Romans, chapter 8. My passage goes from verse 5 to the verses 8 and 9 which are read in churches on this occasion: For those who live according to the flesh are concerned with the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit with the things of the spirit. The concern of the flesh is death,…

Pseudo-Homilies 14 – Pentecost and Speaking in Tongues

I wanted to talk about a specific book that I read many years ago and that left a mark in my memory: Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo, by Eric Hansen. Please be patient, in due time I’ll explain why and what this holiday has to do with it. Pentecost Sunday. Mass during the Day (Year A) Another Easter season coming to a close; caught up in the routine and focusing on the main theme, we run the risk of losing sight of some usually neglected details of the Pentecost. Luckily I’m here at your service, to cross the T’s and dot the I’s so you don’t have…

Progressives vs. Saint Paul, statism vs. realism

Some food for thought, an inspiration coming from last Sunday’s Mass reading. I promise: if you’re not Catholic (heck, even if you’re an atheist) you can find this article worth reading, since the following Bible verse is just a starting point. Let’s see then. From Philemon 1, 14: but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary. In this letter Saint Paul tells his friend Philemon that he’s sending back to him a slave named Onesimus, converted by Paul to Christianity but still technically a property of his master Philemon. Paul explicitly asks him to…