St. Paul Archives - Amazing Catechists

St. Paul the Apostle

Where would we be without St. Paul? We all know the story of his conversion. He was thrown off his horse and blinded by the light of Christ. Many times, God does the same to us – He throws us off our horse. God redirected Paul’s loyalty toward truth. Paul held the robes of those who stoned St. Stephen. Paul was loyal to Judaism. God opened his eyes to the fullness of truth. Because of this, Paul became the apostle to the Gentiles and I for one am grateful.

When planning my trip to Italy in 2021, my itinerary included five days in Rome. Many YouTube videos and even my friends said five days in Rome was too long. However, I had an extensive list of places I wanted to see in Rome and knew I needed at least five days to complete the list.

St. Paul Outside the Walls

One of the places on my list was the Catholic Church dedicated to St. Paul known as – St. Paul Outside the Walls. Like many of the churches in Rome, the structure was massive, and the architecture was stunning.

As I approached the outside of the church, I could see a statue of St. Paul.

Differences between St. Paul and St. Peter

Earlier in my trip, during my tour of the Vatican, I learned of the differences between the statues of St. Paul and St. Peter. St. Peter is always holding two keys – one is gold, and the other is silver. The first key represents the power to bind and loose in heaven which indicates spiritual authority. The second key represents the power to bind and loose on earth, indicating temporal authority.

St. Paul is always holding a book and a sword. The book represents the epistles written by St. Paul in the New Testament. The sword depicts the way he was martyred. He was a Roman citizen and, therefore, could not be crucified. He was beheaded by the sword in Rome in 67AD.

The beauty of this church is beyond words. There are so many beautiful churches in Italy – it is difficult to pick one over another.

As I walked through the front doors of this amazing basilica, my eyes canvassed the building from right to left and then up and down. I didn’t want to miss anything. As I slowly walked down the massive corridors of this beautiful basilica, I thought of St. Paul and all that he did for us. But I also thought of the people who built this beautiful building.

One of four major papal basilicas

St. Paul Outside the Walls is one of Rome’s four major papal basilicas. The three other major papal basilicas are Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter’s, and Saint Mary Major. I visited all of them and so much more – which is why I needed five days in Rome!

The Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine I over the burial place of St. Paul.

A National Monument

The first basilica was consecrated by Pope Sylvester in 324. In 386, Emperor Theodosius I erected a much larger basilica with a nave and four aisles – which is what we see today. The basilica was built outside the Aurelian Walls as indicated in its name. The Aurelian Walls were city walls built between 271AD and 275AD during the reign of Roman Emperor Aurelian. The basilica endured many renovations due to fire, lightning, and seize by the Saracen raid in 846. Massive reconstruction began in 1825 as instructed by Pope Leo XII. The transept is the part of the basilica that extends on either side of the nave to form the arms of the cross. This was added to the basilica during the 1825 renovation. The transept and high altar were consecrated in 1840 and opened to the public. The entire basilica was reconsecrated in 1854 in the presence of Pope Pius IX and fifty cardinals. The basilica has been declared a national monument by the Italian government.

Side Altars & Chapels

Like many of the other basilicas visited, there were several side altars and chapels.

The Chapel of St. Benedict was dedicated to the patriarch of western monasticism and was built by the architect Luigi Poletti, director of the reconstruction of the basilica after the fire of 1823.

The Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament was built to house the venerated wooden crucifix of the 14^th century.

As I continued to walk around this basilica, I was amazed to see a chapel dedicated to St. Stephen. Before the fire of 1823, there was an altar dedicated to St. Stephen near the tomb of St. Paul. After the fire, reconstruction included the Chapel of St. Stephen. The statue of St. Stephen is the focal point of this chapel. This work of art was carved by Rinaldo Rinaldi from white marble and depicts an adolescent Stephen with his eyes lifted up as described in the Acts of the Apostles.

I can’t say enough about the beauty of Catholicism and the dedication and devotion of those who built these magnificent structures.

Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, Italy

The Freedom to……………….Shoes: Reject The Comfort of Sin

By Gabe Garnica

St. Teresa of Avila once stated, “We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials.”

Shoes, Comfort, Sin, and Appearances

I recently saw a woman wobbling down the street and having great difficulty walking. The other woman she was with kept pointing to this woman’s shoes and shaking her head. Ultimately, the stumbling woman simply took off her shoes and began to walk barefoot. From what I could decipher from a distance, it appears that the woman had been sacrificing comfort for appearances. While the shoes looked great and clearly fit the rest of her outfit, they did not fit her feet and proved more trouble than they were worth.

This recent Lent provided me with many opportunities to think about comfort, sin, and appearances.

Comfort is a Relative Thing

According to St. Paul, “For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine; but according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables.” (2 Tim 4:1-4)

Our world tells us that we can never have too much comfort. After all, what rational person would ever reject a more comfortable chair in favor of an uncomfortable one? Comfort is often equated in this world with money, such that most see having a lot of money as the way to find greater comfort. In the sense, many of us would question the sanity of someone like St. Francis of Assisi, who turned his back on a great fortune to live a life of poverty and want. Having too much money or too much comfort will not get anyone in this society any sympathy.

However, comfort is a relative thing. We probably all need at least some of it to function on a long-term basis. On the other hand, too much comfort may do us as much, if not more, harm than good. Comfort tends to slip us into the mentality of forgetting God and His blessings. Comfort tends to make us complacent and lukewarm in our faith. Comfort even fools us into believing that our happiness is wholly our own doing.

Comfort is a vicious cycle into self-obsession. The more comfortable we feel, the more selfish and self-absorbed we tend to become. Content in our own convenient abundance, we tend to forget the need and suffering of others.

We need only look at Christ to remember that comfort and Christianity are often polar opposites in this world. Our Lord was born into and regularly faced poverty, rejection, and inconvenience. If we aspire to follow Christ, we must likewise aspire to, and even embrace, discomfort as the price.

Tolerance for Sin as Compromise for Comfort

Fulton Sheen said, “Tolerance applies only to persons, never to truth…or principles. About these things, we must be intolerant.”

Psychologists tell us that people tend to seek stability and consistency in their lives while instinctively pulling away from discomfort and chaos. It would be wonderful if this all meant that everyone lined up in neat lines marching toward heaven and salvation and away from the chaos of sin. However, human nature is an arrogant fool. Sadly, we find that this world increasingly views sin as sanity and rejection of sin as chaos. Charity and mercy call on us to be tolerant of the sinner, but intolerant of the sin—most especially our own.

Increasingly surrounded and enticed by sin, we often find it much more comfortable to accept, rationalize, and even embrace sin as the path of least upheaval and greater acceptance by this world. We wear the distorted shoes of sin so often that we soon see our limp as the accepted way to walk.

Reject the Appearances and Moral Fashions of this World

This society immerses itself in the notion of tolerance as a universal good without accepting the reality that not all tolerance is a good thing. What would happen if we tolerated murder, rape, and other violent crimes? Is it even rational to be a Catholic who supports abortion? Obsessed with appearances and superficial morality, we too often stumble along in shoes of sin we got in the habit of wearing.

We cannot be tolerant of sin in our lives. We must foster a personality and nature that rejects the sin that will surely come across our way with each passing day. Being weak and inconsistent human beings, we will often fall in some way during this year. Rather than spend all of our time and efforts avoiding the falls, we must dedicate a good portion of our preparation and fortitude to constructively dealing with the falls that will surely come.

Conclusion

As members of this society and world, we can all fall for the lure of acceptance, popularity, and group pressure. If we get too used to wearing the warped shoes of sin, we will eventually become so accustomed to their fit that all confession, contrition, or remorse will seem useless and unnecessary.

Lukewarm compromise and those who sold out their morals become increasingly tepid in our faith. The greatest evil and lie is feeling hopeless under the weight of our sins. Divine Mercy reminds us that Christ will always reach out to us if we reach out to him. We reach out to Our Lord by frequent confession and Communion, prayer, and good works for others.

Stop stumbling along in the distorted shoes of sin just for acceptance or the sake of appearances. Do not seek the comfort and convenience of this world over the struggles of following Christ. Embrace the discomfort of your sin as the sign that you have not compromised your faith and values. Likewise, embrace Divine Mercy as Our Lord’s promise to reach out to you as long as you find sin uncomfortable in your life. Above all, love God so much that you will always see sin as an intolerable and uncomfortable pair of shoes you simply refuse to wear.

2018 Gabriel Garnica

Hope in Rising

By Elizabeth Tichvon

Today’s First Reading from St. Paul to the Thessalonians is a verse that is special to my soul. When my Sister-in-Law’s beloved Mother died, she asked that I choose and give one of the Readings at the funeral Mass. While I was honored that she wanted me to participate, I saw it as complete obedience to our Lord – to share the immense hope that can only be found in Him.

As a catechist and disciple of Christ, I am moved by the Holy Spirit to bring this good news to those He puts in front of me. My heart ached for my dear Sister-in-Law and her family, but at the same time was burning to share the hope that’s in our own Resurrection. Yes! Our own Resurrection. I knew that, although many there were Christians, they did not know. So I chose this verse by St. Paul because it consoles us with hope. Hope, because like Christ, we will rise.

“We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day. Our resurrection, like his own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity.” (Catechism, Para. 989)

Today the Reading came up in the Liturgy again, and once more it ignited the flame in my heart to share it.

Did you know?

________________________

“We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,

about those who have fallen asleep,

so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,

so too will God, through Jesus,

bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord,

that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord,

will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself, with a word of command,

with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God,

will come down from heaven,

and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive, who are left,

will be caught up together with them in the clouds

to meet the Lord in the air.

Thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore, console one another with these words” (1 Thes 4:13-18).

Elizabeth Tichvon, Catechist Daily

Don’t Let Self-Doubt Stop You

By Karee Santos

Although Catholic blogs play an important role in catechesis and evangelization, I’m sure that every Catholic blogger has asked themselves at least once why they do it. Is it really worth the time spent away from work, from family, from prayer? Is anybody listening? Does anybody care? One of my friends recently shut down his personal blog altogether, saying “While I have a lot of respect for many bloggers, I feel the blogosphere to be a net negative to the Catholic Faith. … It is the epitome of Francis’ ‘self-referential Church.’ Far from leading to a deepening of the faith, it has led to a corrosion of it.” Could this be true?

My friend’s words certainly don’t describe the work of Catholic bloggers I work with. But I’ve seen the corner of the Catholic blogosphere he describes — the place where people attack one another viciously over minute points of doctrine or liturgical practices that baffle non-Catholics and fail to bring anyone to a holier and more peaceful frame of mind. I regularly engage in verbal fisticuffs with Catholics on LinkedIn who insist that if the majority of lay Catholics reject the Church’s doctrine on artificial birth control, then the lay Catholics must be right and the Popes must be wrong. I have to ask myself if I’m really helping when I enter the fray.

And my answer has to be yes. Every blogger, like every Christian, is a witness to the strength of God’s love alive in the world. Every one of us has a story of struggles, joys, heartaches, and glimmers of the salvation that awaits us. We follow Christ for deeply personal reasons that uniquely showcase the majesty of God’s creation and the depths of his mercy.

As the beloved disciple John said in writing his Gospel, “there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” When we bloggers share the difference that Jesus has made in our lives, we are drawing on an infinite store of spiritual power and wisdom that could more than fill all the books in the world. When we blog from a place of prayer and compassion, keeping the ultimate goal of salavation of souls in mind, we are fulfilling our Baptismal mission to spread the Good News.

We don’t, or shouldn’t, blog to show that we’re better Catholics than anyone else. Our blog should not be a trophy case displaying our own intelligence or faithfulness, because in our heart of hearts we know that we’ve all done stupid and faithless things. Our blog should feature installments in the story of our on-going love affair with God. Because no matter how mixed our motivations, if we weren’t in love with God we wouldn’t be blogging or commenting or arguing online in the first place.

Some readers have called me arrogant and judgmental, and I have to accept those accusations as true since my husband and my spiritual director have echoed them on occasion. But those accusations need to lead me to greater warmth, greater compassion, and greater understanding. They can’t sink me into self-doubt and despair. The solution for me and maybe for many of us is to give more, not to give up. Even from within a prison of our own inadequacies and sinfulness, we can still preach the Word of God.

St. Paul shows us how to continue our work of evangelization no matter what the shape or size of our prison. While St. Paul was in house arrest in Rome, he welcomed all who came to him and boldly taught them about Jesus Christ (Acts 28: 16-31). Under this same incarceration, he also wrote the great prison epistles of Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians — back when people wrote in ink rather than in bits and bytes. So, following the great missionary example of St. Paul, I will continue to pray, to write, and to share with others my love of God even from behind my own internal and often invisible prison walls.

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