In his homily at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis highlighted the life of St. Paul, using it as an example for Christians. He said his life was comprised of 'three dimensions:â? actively preaching, resisting persecution, and prayer.
POPE FRANCIS
'But this fighter, this preacher with a wide horizon, always increasing, had this mystical dimension of encountering Jesus. Paul's strength was this encounter with the Lord, which took place while praying, like in his first encounter on his way towards Damascus, where he went to persecute Christians. Paul is the man that met the Lord, and he does not forget it, and he lets the Lord find him, and he seeks the Lord. A man of prayer.â?
Pope Francis said that St. Paul was also a man always on the go spreading the Gospel, never waiting.
EXCERPTS OF HOMILY IN ENGLISH
(Source: Vatican Radio)
'Instead St Paul was driven by a passion for preaching and was always on the move, announcing Jesus Christ to the world. This passion for preaching led to a second characteristic of the apostleâ??s life which was the persecutions he suffered at the hands of the religious leaders of his day. St. Paul was inspired by the Spirit and was able to sow divisions between the Sadducees, who didnâ??t believe in the Resurrection and the Pharisees, who did.'
'The third aspect of Paulâ??s life, was that of prayer, of his intimate relationship with the Lord. Alongside this tireless mission of preaching to the ends of the earth and struggling against his persecutors, Paul displays a mystic dimension of his encounter with the Risen Christ, whom he first met on the road to Damascus.'
'Paulâ??s strength comes from being a man of prayer who constantly seeks and encounters the Lord. I pray that we too may be given the grace to learn these three attitudes of preaching, of resisting persecution and of encountering Christ through prayer.'
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