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God the Father is the giver of Holy Scripture;
God the Son is the theme of Holy Scripture;
and God the Spirit ... is the author, authenticator, and interpreter of Holy Scripture.
- James I. Packer, God has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible
(Scripture leads us to God. Spend some time reading and listening this day.)
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ACTS 22:3-16; PS 117:1BC, 2
MK 16:15-18
Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:
"Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
"The men who were traveling with [Saul] stood there speechless." —Acts 9:7
The conversion of St. Paul is so spectacular, so sudden, and so unexpected that it leaves us awestruck at the sovereign majesty and converting power of the Lord Jesus. Because of the incomprehensible power of Jesus to convert anyone, even the worst of sinners like St. Paul (1 Tm 1:15), each one of us "shall stand speechless" in the sight of God (Is 52:15), "for nothing is impossible with God" (Lk 1:37). Therefore, today's feast of the Conversion
of Saint Paul is a sign of great hope for us (see 1 Pt 1:3).
The conversion of St. Paul is so important that it is recorded three times in the Acts of the Apostles. Possibly you have long been praying for the conversion of loved ones, family members, or leaders. I encourage you to read and pray Paul's conversion accounts for the conversion of someone whom you struggle to imagine could ever convert. For example, if you are praying for three people to come to faith in Jesus, pray Acts 9:1-22 for one
person, pray Acts 22:3-16 for the second person, and pray Acts 26:1-23 for the conversion of the third.
Jesus has come that all might be saved (1 Tm 2:4). Believe in His converting power. St. Paul, pray for us and all those in need of conversion.
Prayer: "Those things I used to consider gain I have now reappraised as loss in the light of Christ. I have come to rate all as loss in the light of the surpassing knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil 3:7-8).
Promise: "Saul for his part grew steadily more powerful, and reduced the Jewish community of Damascus to silence with his proofs that this Jesus was the Messiah." —Acts 9:22
Praise: The humbled Saul of Taurus may have taken the Baptismal name Paulus because it means "small."
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
CHAPTER II. THE DIVINE ACTION WORKS UNCEASINGLY FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF SOULS.
SECTION IV. The Revelations of God.
God reveals Himself to us in as mysterious a manner in the most ordinary circumstances, and as truly and adorably as in the great events of History or of Holy Scripture.
All the events which form the world's history show forth these divine attributes; all teach the same adorable word. We cannot doubt it, although we do not see. What is meant by the existence of Turks, heretics, and all the other enemies of the Church? Surely they all proclaim loudly the divine perfections. Pharaoh and the impious men who follow his example are allowed to exist only for that purpose, but assuredly, unless beheld
with the eye of faith, it would all have the exactly contrary appearance. To behold divine mysteries it is necessary to shut the eyes to what is external, and to cease to reason. You speak, Lord, to the generality of men by great public events. Every resolution is as a wave from the sea of Your providence, raising storms and tempests in the minds of those who question Your mysterious action. You speak also to each individual soul by the circumstances occurring at every moment of life. Instead,
however, of hearing Your voice in these events, and receiving with awe what is obscure and mysterious in these Your words, men see in their only the outward aspect, or chance, or the caprice of others, and censure everything. They would like to add, or diminish, or reform, and to allow themselves absolute liberty to commit any excess, the least of which would be a criminal and unheard-of outrage. They respect the holy Scriptures, however, and will not permit the addition of even a single comma.
“It is the word of God” say they, “and is altogether holy and true. If we cannot understand it, it is all the more wonderful and we must give glory to God, and render justice to the depths of His wisdom.” All this is perfectly true, but when you read Gods word from moment to moment, not written with ink on paper, but on your soul with suffering, and the daily actions that you have to perform, does it not merit some attention on your part? How is it that you cannot see the will of God in all
this? Instead you find fault with everything that happens, nothing pleases you. Do you not see that you are gauging everything by the senses, and by reason, not by faith the only true standard; and that when you read the word of God in the sacred Scriptures with the eye of faith, you do wrong to make use only of your reason in reading the word in His marvellous operations.d them! And the effect of these terrible mysteries which will continue till the end of time is still the living word,
teaching us His wisdom, power, and goodness.
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