A Community of Love, Unity and Service

St. Paul

This feast day commemorates the martyrdom of the two great Apostles, assigned by tradition tothe same day of June in the year 67. They had been imprisoned in the famous Mamertine Prisonof Rome and both had foreseen their approaching death. Saint Peter was crucified; Saint Paul, aRoman citizen, was slain by the sword. Tomorrow the Church commemorates the Apostle of theGentiles; today is dedicated primarily to Saint Peter.

The Chief of the Apostles was a native of Galilee like Our Lord. As he was fishing on its large lake he was called by Our Lord to be one of His apostles. Peter was poor and unlearned, butcandid, eager, and loving. In his heart, first of all, his conviction grew, and then from his lipscame the spontaneous confession: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Our Lord chose him and prepared him to be the Rock on which He would build His Church, His Vicar onearth, the Head and Prince of His Apostles, the center and indispensable bond of the Church’sunity, the unique channel of all spiritual powers, the guardian and unerring teacher of His truth.

All Scripture is alive with Saint Peter; his name appears no fewer than 160 times in the NewTestament. But it is after Pentecost that he stands out in the full grandeur of his office. He seesto the replacement of the fallen disciple; he admits the Jews by thousands into the fold and in theperson of Cornelius, opens it to the Gentiles; he founds and for a time rules the Church atAntioch.

Ten years after the Ascension Saint Peter transferred his apostolic capital to Rome, going inperson to the center of the majestic Roman Empire, where were gathered the glories and riches ofthe earth, along with all the powers of evil. From there he sent Saint Mark, his valued secretary,to establish the Church of Alexandria in Egypt. In Rome Saint Peter’s Chair was placed; there fortwenty-five years he labored at building up the great Roman Church. He was crucified by orderof Nero and buried on the Vatican Hill, where now the Basilica stands which bears his name.

St. Peter

This feast day commemorates the martyrdom of the two great Apostles, assigned by tradition tothe same day of June in the year 67. They had been imprisoned in the famous Mamertine Prisonof Rome and both had foreseen their approaching death. Saint Peter was crucified; Saint Paul, aRoman citizen, was slain by the sword. Tomorrow the Church commemorates the Apostle of theGentiles; today is dedicated primarily to Saint Peter.

The Chief of the Apostles was a native of Galilee like Our Lord. As he was fishing on its large lake he was called by Our Lord to be one of His apostles. Peter was poor and unlearned, butcandid, eager, and loving. In his heart, first of all, his conviction grew, and then from his lipscame the spontaneous confession: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Our Lord chose him and prepared him to be the Rock on which He would build His Church, His Vicar onearth, the Head and Prince of His Apostles, the center and indispensable bond of the Church’sunity, the unique channel of all spiritual powers, the guardian and unerring teacher of His truth.

All Scripture is alive with Saint Peter; his name appears no fewer than 160 times in the NewTestament. But it is after Pentecost that he stands out in the full grandeur of his office. He seesto the replacement of the fallen disciple; he admits the Jews by thousands into the fold and in theperson of Cornelius, opens it to the Gentiles; he founds and for a time rules the Church atAntioch.

Ten years after the Ascension Saint Peter transferred his apostolic capital to Rome, going inperson to the center of the majestic Roman Empire, where were gathered the glories and riches ofthe earth, along with all the powers of evil. From there he sent Saint Mark, his valued secretary,to establish the Church of Alexandria in Egypt. In Rome Saint Peter’s Chair was placed; there fortwenty-five years he labored at building up the great Roman Church. He was crucified by orderof Nero and buried on the Vatican Hill, where now the Basilica stands which bears his name.

St. Paul, The Commemoration of

Saint Paul was originally Saul of Tarsus, born in that city of Cilicia of Jewish parents, two or three years after the Saviour was born in Bethlehem of Judea. He studied in Jerusalem at the feet of thefamous teacher Gamaliel, who later would be converted and listed among the Saints.

While still a young man, Saul was present to oversee, as commanding officer, the stoning of the proto-martyr Stephen. In his restless zeal he pressed on to Damascus, “breathing threats andslaughter against the disciples of Christ,” intending to drag them from their houses and imprisonthem. But on the road a light from heaven struck him to the earth. He heard a voice which said,“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.” He asked who was speaking, and astonished on hearing His Name, inquired what Jesus wanted of him. Andthen, struck blind, for three days he saw nothing more. But he had been told what to do. He wasled by the hand to Damascus, where he remained in the house of a Christian until, three days later,he rose for his baptism by a Christian leader of that city. Then he saw the light of day again, andthe brilliance of the full truth for the first time, as another man, a new creature in Jesus Christ.

He left Damascus for a long retreat in Arabia, before he set out at the call of God, and carried the Gospel to the uttermost limits of the known western world, for years living and laboring with nothought but that of Christ crucified, no desire but to dispense himself for Him. He became theApostle to the Gentiles, whom he had been taught to hate. But he would gladly have beenanathema if he could thereby have saved his own countrymen from condemnation, though theysought his life. Perils by land and sea could not dampen his courage, nor sufferings and age dullthe tenderness of his heart.

When finally he knew that his hour had come to be dissolved and to be with Christ, as he had long desired, he wrote during his second imprisonment to his spiritual son Timothy, that he had“fought the good fight, finished his course, kept the faith", and that there remained for him toreceive the crown of justice which His Lord was preparing for him on the final day. With SaintPeter in his final year he consecrated Rome, the new holy city, by his martyrdom.

Saint Paul has left to the Church fourteen Epistles, which have been a fountainhead of doctrine, elucidating the most basic truths taught by Christ, and constituting the consolation and delight ofher greatest Saints. His interior life, insofar as words can express it, lies open before us in thesedivine writings; it is the life of one who has died forever to himself, and risen again in Christ Jesus. Saint John Chrysostom, his imitator, wrote: “The heart of Paul is the Heart of Christ!” Nor willhis labor cease while the race of man continues. Even now, like a chivalrous knight, he standsalive in our midst, and captivates each of his readers to the obedience of Christ.

Daily Mass