St. Paul continues his missionary journey and ends up in Ephesus, another major city in the empire. Here he goes about building up the newly formed Christian community — “altogether there were about twelve men.” When we think of great preachers we imagine them in vast arenas with thousands of hearers and mass conversions. But… Read More »

“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?” the angel asked the apostles after Jesus departed from them. You can picture the scene. They were all just standing around gazing into the heavens wondering what just happened. The Acts of the Apostles does not tell us how the apostles responded to… Read More »

Seemingly from out of nowhere, St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles talks about a preacher named Apollos. While he is portrayed as an effective speaker, his formation in the faith seems to have been lacking. But St. Paul does not shut him down, but rather works with him to deepen his understanding of… Read More »

How fitting that in these days before Mother’s Day in the US that the daily gospel reading is taken from John 16 where Jesus uses the image of a mother giving birth to describe the life of Christians in the world. Reflection on the experience of women has been one of the great advances in… Read More »

St. Paul was able to ply his tent-making trade at Corinth because of the Isthmian Games. In non-Olympic years there would be a great need for tents for the participants and the spectators who attended the games. Corinth proved to be exactly the right place for Paul to live out his vision of Christianity. It… Read More »

St. Paul coming to Athens was like the country boy entering Harvard. He wanted to dazzle the sophisticates who lived there with his wit and erudition. The sermon St. Luke records in Acts 17 shows the Apostle using logical and persuasive argument. The sermon was not very successful. That caused St. Paul to re-think his… Read More »

St. Paul always insisted that his authority came due to his personal contact with the Risen Jesus. However, he knew that was not the whole story. As he says in his first letter to the Corinthians, “I handed on to you what I myself received.” Paul knew that he was part of a tradition and… Read More »

St. Luke describes the Jesus movement rippling out like a pebbled dropped into a pond. From the Hebrew-speakers in Jerusalem it moves out to Greek-speaking Jews, to suspect Samaritans, to African converts to Judaism, into the “God-fearing” pagans who knew something of Judaism and then in Antioch to both Jewish and Gentile (i.e. pagan) followers… Read More »

The Church does not look on the fifty days of the Easter season as starting at the high point of Easter and then gradually rolling down the hill. Rather, Easter and the fiftieth day — Pentecost — are looked on as twin poles with the energy of the season flowing between them. In these last… Read More »

My guess is that St. Paul was not happy that he was “prevented from preaching the message in the province of Asia” and was not allowed “to go on into Bithynia.” He had plans. He had things to do. He, no doubt, felt frustrated that he wasn’t able to carry them out. It was only… Read More »