In Honor of Saint Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles

It was my privilege to have made six different trips to Eternal City, Rome (1984, 1987, 1993, 1995, 1996, and 2005), and each of those trips involved pilgrimages to Rome’s four major basilicas: Saint Peter, Saint Mary Major, Saint John Lateran (the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour), and Saint Paul Outside the Walls on the Ostian way.

The Basilica of Saint Peter is built on the very site where our first pope was martyred.

The Basilica of Saint Paul is built on the very site where the Apostles to the Gentiles was martyred.

The Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour, which is a true pope’s cathedral as the Bishop of Rome, is built on the site of an ancient Roman fort, signifying the transfer of the military power of the Roman Empire to the spiritual power of the true Faith and the true emperor of the world, a true and legitimate Successor of Saint Peter.

And, of course, the Basilica of Saint Major, was on the site on the Esquiline Hill:

In the time of Pope Liberius, there lived at Rome a certain nobleman named John and a noble lady his wife, who had no children to whom to leave their substance. Then they vowed that they would make the most holy Virgin Mother of God their heiress, and earnestly besought her in some way to make known to them upon what godly work she would that the money should be spent. The blessed Virgin Mary graciously listened to their prayers and heart-felt earnestness, and by a miracle assured them of her will.

On the 5th day of August, which is that time when the heat of summer waxeth greatest in Rome, a part of the Esquiline Hill was covered by night with snow. And on this same night the Mother of God appeared in a dream to John and his wife separately, and told them that on that spot, which in the morning they should see clad with snow, they should build a Church, to be dedicated in the name of the Virgin Mary, for that this was the way in which she chose that they should make her their heiress. John went and told it to Pope Liberius, who declared that he also had been visited by a like dream.

Therefore he came in a solemn procession of Priests and people to the snow-clad hill, and traced upon that spot the plan of a Church which was built with the money of John and his wife. It was afterwards rebuilt by Sixtus III. At the beginning it was called by divers names, sometimes the Liberian Basilica, sometimes the Church of St Mary-at-the-Manger. Howbeit, since there are in Rome many Churches called after the Holy Virgin Mary, and this Church doth excel them all, both in honour, and because of the strange sign wherewith it was dedicated, it hath come to be called the Church of St Mary, the Greater. The memory of the dedication thereof is kept every year by a Feast-day that taketh name from the wonderful fall of snow which on this day took place. (Matins, The Divine Office, August 5, Feast of Our Lady of the Snows.)

The Feast of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Saint Peter and Paul is celebrated November 18,

The Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of the Most Holy Saviour is celebrated on November 9, and the Feast of Dedication of the Archbasilica of Saint Mary Major is celebrated on August 5.

This all comes to mind as yesterday, Monday, June 30, 2025, was the Commemoration of Saint Paul, which reminded me that I had spent time much time in prayer at the Basilica of Saint Paul, which, as noted just above, is the very place where the former Saul of Tarsus, a zealous Jewish persecutor of Christians who was converted to the true Faith by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself, was martyred.

As we know, Saint Paul was chosen by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. Saint Paul himself said that he was “chosen out of time” by Our Lord to be added to the number of the Apostles even though he had been a fierce persecutor of the Holy Faith, having presided over the stoning of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, whose prayers from Heaven won the fire-breathing hater of Catholics, Saul of Tarsus of the Tribe of Benjamin, for Christ the King and His true Church.

The former Saul did not become some kind of generic “Christian; he was a Catholic bishop, and he defended Catholic truth with inspired eloquence, defending the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist even though he himself, of course, had not been present at the Last Supper as He had received the doctrine directly from Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself as the Apostle recounted in his First Epistle to the Corinthians (commentary by Bishop Richard Challoner is indented in the passages below):

18 For first of all I hear that when you come together in the church, there are schisms among you; and in part I believe it.  19 For there must be also heresies: that they also, who are approved, may be made manifest among you.  20 When you come therefore together into one place, it is not now to eat the Lord's supper.

[19] "There must be also heresies": By reason of the pride and perversity of man's heart; not by God's will or appointment; who nevertheless draws good out of this evil, manifesting, by that occasion, who are the good and firm Christians, and making their faith more remarkable.

[20] "The Lord's supper": So the apostle here calls the charity feasts observed by the primitive Christians; and reprehends the abuses of the Corinthians, on these occasions; which were the more criminal, because these feasts were accompanied with the celebrating of the eucharistic sacrifice and sacrament.

 21 For every one taketh before his own supper to eat. And one indeed is hungry and another is drunk.  22 What, have you not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God; and put them to shame that have not? What shall I say to you? Do I praise you? In this I praise you not.  23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.  24 And giving thanks, broke, and said: Take ye, and eat: this is my body, which shall be delivered for you: this do for the commemoration of me.  25 In like manner also the chalice, after he had supped, saying: This chalice is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of me.

 26 For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he come.  27 Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.  28 But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice.  29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.  30 Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep.

[27] "Or drink": Here erroneous translators corrupted the text, by putting "and drink" (contrary to the original) instead of "or drink".

[27] "Guilty of the body": not discerning the body. This demonstrates the real presence of the body and blood of Christ, even to the unworthy communicant; who otherwise could not be guilty of the body and blood of Christ, or justly condemned for not discerning the Lord's body.

[28] "Drink of the chalice": This is not said by way of command, but by way of allowance, viz., where and when it is agreeable to the practice and discipline of the church.

31 But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.  32 But whilst we are judged, we are chastised by the Lord, that we be not condemned with this world.  33 Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.  34 If any man be hungry, let him eat at home; that you come not together unto judgment. And the rest I will set in order, when I come. (1 Corinthians 11: 20-32; Commentary by Bishop Richard Challoner, who had undertaken a revision of the Douay-Rheims Bible in the Eighteenth Century.)

How sad it is that many Protestant sects have tried to claim Saint Paul as their own because Martin Luther misrepresented the following verses from Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Romans by adding the word “alone” to “justified by the faith of Christ”:

Through the forbearance of God, for the shewing of his justice in this time; that he himself may be just, and the justifier of him, who is of the faith of Jesus Christ.  27 Where is then thy boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.  28 For we account a man to be justified by faith, without the works of the law. 29 Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.  30 For it is one God, that justifieth circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. (Romans 3: 26-30.)

Bishop Richard Challoner explained that Saint Paul was not endorsing the presumptuousness of Protestants but a firm trust in the power of the sacraments to maintain us in a state of justification after Baptism that is provided by Sanctifying Grace:

[28] "By faith": The faith, to which the apostle here attributes man's justification, is not a presumptuous assurance of our being justified; but a firm and lively belief of all that God has revealed or promised. Heb. 11. A faith working through charity in Jesus Christ. Gal. 5. 6. In short, a faith which takes in hope, love, repentance, and the use of the sacraments. And the works which he here excludes, are only the works of the law: that is, such as are done by the law of nature, or that of Moses, antecedent to the faith of Christ: but by no means, such as follow faith, and proceed from it.

Saint Paul elaborated on this theme in his Epistle to the Galatians that is also misused by Protestants for their own heretical purposes:

But knowing that man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ; we also believe in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.  17 But if while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners; is Christ then the minister of sin? God forbid.  18 For if I build up again the things which I have destroyed, I make myself a prevaricator.  19 For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I may live to God: with Christ I am nailed to the cross.  20 And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me. And that I live now in the flesh: I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself for me.

 21 I cast not away the grace of God. For if justice be by the law, then Christ died in vain.

 (Galatians 2: 16-21.)

Saint Paul was indeed affirming that the Mosaic Law can justify no one, that Justification comes solely from being in a state of Sanctifying Grace as a member of the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order.

Father George Leo Haydock provided a commentary about verses 16-21 of Saint Paul the Apostle’s Epistle to the Galatians:

Ver. 16. &c. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. St. Paul, to the end of the chapter, seems to continue his discourse to St. Peter, but chiefly to the Jewish Galatians, to shew that both the Gentiles, whom the Jews called and looked upon as sinners, and also the Jews, when converted, could only hope to be justified and saved by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. — But if while we seek to be justified in Christ, by faith in him, and by his grace, we ourselves also are found sinners, as the false doctors teach you, and not to be justified but by the ceremonies and works of the law of Moses, this blasphemous consequence must follow, that Christ is the minister and author of sin, by making us believe that by faith in him, and complying with his doctrine, we may be justified and saved. For thus we must be considered transgressors, unless we renew and build again what Christ and we have destroyed. — For by the law I am dead to the law. That is, says St. Jerome, by the evangelical law of Christ I am dead to the ancient law and its ceremonies. Others expound it, that by the law and its types and figures, and by the predictions contained in the law, I know the Mosaical law hath now ceased, in which sense he might say, by the law I am dead to the law. — If justice. That is, if justification and salvation be to be had, or could have been had by the works of the law; therefore Christ died in vain, and it was not necessary that he should become our Redeemer. (Witham)

Ver. 19. He here expresses the change which had been wrought in him. The law to which he had been attached, had passed away from him. Now he was so united to Christ and his cross, that he says: Not I, but Christ liveth in me. The strong expressions made use of by St. Paul with regard to the Jewish law in this chapter, may appear strange, and very capable of a wrong interpretation. But we must ever bear in mind that St. Paul speaks exclusively of the ceremonial part of the law, and not of the moral, contained in the decalogue: of this latter he says in his epistle to the Romans, (ii. 13.) the doers of the law shall be justified. But to effect this, was and is necessary the grace which Jesus Christ has merited and obtained for all, grace which God has shed on all, more or less, from the commencement of the world. (Galatians 2 – Haydock Commentary Online.)

In other words, we need Sanctifying Grace to faithfully observe the Ten Commandments (the Decalogue). The ceremonial law of the Mosaic precepts has been superseded. It is gone. It is dead. It has the power to save no one. Justification comes solely from being a baptized member of the Catholic Church who is in a state of Sanctifying Grace.

Saint Thomas Aquinas explained the passages whose meaning were tortured and mangled by the both Protestants and Modernists:

Or, in another way: a man is said to live according to that in which he chiefly puts his affection and in which he is mainly delighted. Hence men who take their greatest pleasure in study or in hunting say that this is their life. However, each man has his own private interest by which he seeks that which is his own. Therefore, when someone lives seeking only what is his own, he lives only unto himself; but when he seeks the good of others, he is said to live for them. Accordingly, because the Apostle had set aside his love of self through the cross of Christ, he said that be was dead so far as love of self was concerned, declaring that with Christ I am nailed to the cross, i.e., through the cross of Christ my own private love has been removed from me. Hence he says God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (6:14): “If one died for all, then all were dead. And Christ died for all, that they also who live may not now live to themselves, but unto him who died for them” (2 Cor 5:14). And I live, now not 1, i.e., I no longer live as though having any interest in my own good, but Christ liveth in me, i.e., I have Christ alone in my affection and Christ Himself is my life: “To me, to live is Christ; and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).

Then when he says, And that I live now in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, he answers a twofold difficulty that might arise from his words. One is how he lives and yet it is not he who lives; the second is how he is nailed to the cross. Therefore he clears up these two points. First of all, the first one, namely, how he lives and yet it is not he who lives. He answers this when he says And that I live now in the flesh I live in the faith of the Son of God. Here it should be noted that, strictly speaking, those things are said to live which are moved by an inner principle. Now the soul of Paul was set between his body and God; the body, indeed, was vivified and moved by the soul of Paul, but his soul by Christ. Hence as to the life of the flesh, Paul himself lived and this is what he says, namely, and that I live now in the flesh, i.e., by the life of the flesh; but as to his relation to God, Christ lived in Paul. Therefore he says, I live in the faith of the Son of God through which He dwells in me and moves me: “But the just shall live in his faith” (Hab. 2:4). And note that he says in the flesh, not “by the flesh,” because this is evil.

Secondly, he shows that he is nailed to the cross, saying: Because the love of Christ, which He showed to me in dying on the cross for me, brings it about that I am always nailed with Him. And this is what he says, who loved me: “He first loved us” (I Jn 4:10). And He loved me to the extent of giving himself and not some other sacrifice for me: “He loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Rev 1:5); “As Christ loved the church and delivered himself up for it, that he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life” (Eph 5:25).

But it should be noted that the Son delivered Himself, and the Father His Son: “He spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us” (Rom 8:32). Judas, too, delivered Him up, as is said in Matthew (26:48). It is all one event, but the intention is not the same, because the Father did so out of love, the Son out of obedience along with love, but Judas out of avarice and treachery.

Then when he says, I cast not away the grace of God, he draws the principal conclusion. First, he draws the conclusion; secondly, he explains it. He says, therefore: Because I have received from God so great a grace that He delivered Himself, and I live in the faith of the Son of God, I cast not away the grace of God, i.e., I do not repudiate it or show myself ungrateful: “The grace of God in me hath not been void, but I have labored more abundantly than all they” (1 Cor 15:10). Hence another version has, I am not ungrateful for the grace of God.” “Looking diligently lest any man be wanting to the grace of God” (Heb 12:15), i.e., by showing myself unworthy because of ingratitude.

A form of repudiation and of ingratitude would exist, if I were to say that the Law is necessary in order to be justified. Hence he says, For if justice be by the law, then Christ died in vain, i.e., if the Law is sufficient, i.e., if the works of the Law suffice to justify a man, Christ died to no purpose and in vain, because He died in order to make us just: “Christ also died once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might offer us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). Now if this could have been done through the Law, the death of Christ would have been superfluous. But He did not die in vain or labor to no purpose, as it is said in Isaiah (49:4); because through Him alone came justifying grace and truth, as it is said in John (1:17). Therefore, if any were just before the passion of Christ, this too was through the faith of Christ to come, in Whom they believed and in Whose faith they were saved. (Chapter 2 - Patristic Bible Commentary.)

Thus, it is necessary for all men to have belief in Our Lord’s Redemptive Act on the wood of the Cross and that the graces which He won thereon and are administered into the hearts and souls of men through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces, by the power of God the Holy Ghost at work in the Catholic Church. Men must also pray for the graces necessary to cooperate with the graces they receive an  Saint Paul was indeed affirming that the Mosaic Law can justify no one, that Justification comes solely from being in a state of Sanctifying Grace as a member of the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order.

Moreover, even though Saint Paul the Apostle’s stirring definition of the Supernatural Virtue of Charity in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Chapter 13) has been used by the conciliarists to justify their exercises in false ecumenism, the Apostle to the Gentiles was no ecumenist as he hated heresy for love of God and taught that there could be no fellowship with the works of darkness.

Bishop George Hay, the Apostolic Administrator of Scotland at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, provided an exegesis of Saint Paul’s admonition about maintaining a fellowship in religious matters with non-Catholics:

Now it is the true religion of Jesus Christ, the true doctrine of His gospel, which is justice and light; all false doctrines are injustice and darkness; it is by our holy faith that we belong to Christ, and are temples of the living God; all false religions flow from the father of lies, and make those who embrace them unbelievers; therefore all participation, all fellowship, all communication with false religions, is here expressly forbidden by the Word of God. We have seen above 2 that we are obliged to love the persons of those who are engaged in false religions, to wish them well, and to do them good; but here we are expressly forbidden all communication in their religion — that is, in their false tenets, and worship. Hence the learned and pious English divines who published at Rheims their translation of the New Testament, in their note upon this passage, say: "Generally, here is forbidden conversation and dealing with unbelievers in prayers, or meetings at their schismatical service, or other divine office whatsoever; which the apostle here uttereth in more particular terms, that Christian people may take the better heed of it."

(2) The next general command to avoid all religious communication with those who are heretics, or have a false religion, is this, — "A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, AVOID; knowing that he that is such a one is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment." (Tit. 3:10)

Here we see another general command to avoid all such — that is, to flee from them, to have no communication with them. But in what are we commanded to flee from them? Not as to their persons, or the necessary communications of society; for then, as the same holy apostle says upon a similar occasion, "You must needs go out of the world." [1] Cor. 5:10) Not as to the offices of Christian charity; for these we are commanded by Christ himself, in the person of the good Samaritan, to give to all mankind, whatever their religion be: therefore, in the most restricted and limited sense which the words can bear, the thing in which we are commanded to avoid them is in all matters of religion; in that in which they themselves are subverted and sin; in things relating to God and His service. In these they err, in these they are subverted, in these they are condemned; therefore in these we must avoid them.

Hence the pious translators of the Rheims New Testament, in their note on this text, say, "Heretics, therefore, must not wonder if we warn all Catholics, by the words of the apostle in this place, to take heed of them, and to shun their preachings, books, and conventicles."

(3) A third general command on this subject is manifestly included in this zealous injunction of the apostle: "We charge you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother walking disorderly, and not according to the tradition which they have received from us." (2 Thes. 3:6)

In this passage, all the different sects of false religions are particularly pointed out; for, however they may differ in other respects they generally agree in this, of rejecting apostolical traditions handed down to us by the Church of Christ; all such the apostle here charges us, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to avoid — to withdraw ourselves from them. Now it is evident that the most limited sense in which this command, so warmly laid on us by the apostle, can be taken, is to withdraw ourselves from them in everything relating to religion, — from their sacraments, prayers, preachings, religious meetings, and the like. It is in these things that they "do not walk according to the tradition received from the apostles". In these things, then, we are here commanded, in the name of Christ Himself, "to withdraw ourselves from them".

Seeing, therefore, that the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of this holy apostle, has so often, and in such strong terms, forbidden all manner of fellowship in religion with those who are out of His holy Church, let us not be deceived by the specious but vain sophistry of cunning men, who lie in wait to deceive; let us not offend our God, by transgressing these His express commands, by joining in the prayers or going to the meetings of such as are separated from His holy Church, lest He should withdraw His holy grace from US, and as we expose ourselves to the danger, leave us to perish in it.

Let us hear and follow the advice and command of the same holy apostle: "As therefore ye have received Jesus Christ the Lord, walk ye in Him; rooted and built up in Him, and confirmed in the faith; as also ye have learned, abounding in Him in thanksgiving. Beware lest any man impose upon you by philosophy and vain deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to Christ." (Col. 2:6) Wherefore, to all those arguments which may be brought from human, worldly, or interested motives, to induce us to join in or to partake of any religious duty with those of a false religion, though in appearance only, we ought to oppose this one, — "God has expressly forbidden it, therefore no human power can make it lawful” . . . .

St. Paul also exhorts us to "give thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His beloved Son." (Col. 1:12) Where it is manifest that as the true Faith of Jesus Christ is the only light that conducts to salvation, and that it is only in His Kingdom — that is, in His Church — where that heavenly light is to be found, so all false religions are darkness; and that to be separated from the Kingdom of Christ is to be in darkness as to the great affair of eternity. And indeed what greater or more miserable darkness can a soul be in than to be led away by seducing spirits, and "departing from the faith of Christ, give heed to the doctrine of devils". (1 Tim. 4:1) St. Paul, deploring the state of such souls, says that they "have their understandings darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance: that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts". (Eph. 4:18)

On this account the same holy apostle exhorts us in the most pressing manner to take care not to be seduced from the light of our holy Faith by the vain words and seducing speeches of false teachers, by which we would certainly incur the anger of God; and, to prevent so great a misery, He not only exhorts us to walk as children of the light in the practice of all holy virtues, but expressly commands us to avoid all communication in religion with those who walk in the darkness of error. "Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief; be ye not, therefore, partakers with them. For ye were theretofore darkness; but now light in the Lord; walk ye as the children of the light,

. . . and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness". (Eph. 5:6)

Here, then, we have an express command, not only not to partake with the unfruitful works of darkness — that is, not to join in any false religion, or partake of its rites or sacraments — but also, not to have any fellowship with its professors, not to be present at their meetings or sermons, or any other of their religious offices, lest we be deceived by them, and incur the anger of the Almighty, provoke Him to withdraw His assistance from us, and leave us to ourselves, in punishment of our disobedience.

(3) St. Paul, full of zeal for the good of souls, and solicitous to preserve us from all danger of losing our holy Faith, the groundwork of our salvation, renews the same command in his Epistle to the Romans, by way of entreaty, beseeching us to avoid all such communication with those of a false religion. He also shows us by what sign we should discover them, and points out the source of our danger from them: "Now I beseech you, brethren, to mark them who cause dissensions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and to avoid them; for they that are such serve not Our Lord Christ, but their own belly, and by pleasing speeches and good words seduce the hearts of the innocent". (Rom. 16:17)

See here whom we are to avoid — "those that cause dissensions contrary to the ancient doctrine"; all those who, hating, left the true Faith and doctrine which they had learned, and which has been handed down to us from the beginning by the Church of Christ, follow strange doctrines, and make divisions and dissensions in the Christian world. And why are we to avoid them? Because they are not servants of Christ, but slaves to their own belly, whose hearts are placed upon the enjoyments of this world, and who, by "pleasing speeches and good words, seduce the hearts of the innocent" — that is, do not bring good reasons or solid arguments to seduce people to their evil ways, so as to convince the understanding, for that is impossible; but practice upon their hearts and passions, relaxing the laws of the gospel, granting liberties to the inclinations of flesh and blood, laying aside the sacred rules of mortification of the passions and of self-denial, promising worldly wealth, and ease, and honors, and, by pleasing speeches of this kind, seducing the heart, and engaging people to their ways.

(4) The same argument and command the apostle repeats in his epistle to his beloved disciple Timothy, where he gives a sad picture, indeed, of all false teachers, telling us that they put on an outward show of piety the better to deceive, "having an appearance, indeed, of godliness, but denying the power thereof;" then he immediately gives this command: "Now these avoid: for of this sort are they that creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, who are led away with divers desires"; and adds this sign by which they may be known, that, not having the true Faith of Christ, and being out of His holy Church — the only sure rule for knowing the truth — they are never settled, but are always altering and changing their opinions, "ever learning, and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth"; because, as he adds, "they resist the truth, being corrupted in their mind, and reprobate concerning the Faith". (2 Tim. 3:5)

The Catholic Church can never sanction any kind of “interreligious prayer services,” and the fact that the counterfeit church of conciliarism has done so for over sixty years should be proof it enough that this utterly false religious sect is the counterfeit ape of Holy Mother Church, she who is the spotless, virginal mystical spouse of her Divine Founder, Invisible Head, and Mystical Bridegroom.

Moreover, contrary to what was preached by the late Argentine Apostate, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Saint Paul the Apostle repeatedly preached against impurity and vice:

Brethren: Even as you have learned from us how you ought to walk to please God - as indeed you are walking we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus to make even greater progress. For you know what precepts I have given to you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you abstain from immorality; that every one of you learn how to possess his vessel in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and overreach his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, as we have told you before and have testified. For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness, in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Thessalonians 4: 1-7.)

Dom Prosper Gueranger also explained the lesson from Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Thessalonians by teaching us that the Apostle to the Gentile was showing us the “manner of life” that “should be followed by Christians,” a manner of life that is far, far different than the pagan spirit that permeates the counterfeit church of conciliarism’s “reconciliation” the world and its errors.

Here the apostle shows what manner of life should be followed by Christians; and the Church, by repeating his words, exhorts the faithful to profit of the present season of grace, and regain the beauty of the image of God, which the grace of Baptism first gave them. A Christian is a ‘vessel of honour,’ formed and enriched by the hand of God; let him, therefore, shun whatsoever would degrade his noble origin, and turn him into a vessel of dishonor, fit only to be broken and cast with the unclean into the sink of hell. The Christian religion has so far ennobled man, that even his very body may share in the soul’s sanctity; on the other hand it teaches us that this sanctity of the soul is impaired, yea, altogether effaced, by the loss of the body’s purity. The whole man, therefore, both body and soul, is to be reformed by the practices of this holy season. Let us purify the soul by the confession of our sins by compunction of heart, by the love of God; and let us give back its dignity to the body, by making it bear the yoke of penance, that that so it may b be, henceforth, subservient and docile to the soul, on the day, of the general resurrection, may partake in her eternal bliss. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Volume V, Lent—Book 1, pp. 186-190, 192-194.)

Most of the people alive today do not know God.

To paraphrase the late Father John Anthony Hardon, S.J.: Let me repeat myself in order to be very clear.

Most of the people alive today do not know God.

What do I mean?

I shan’t tarry in an explanation.

We live during a very unique and perhaps almost entirely unparalleled time in human history in which there are large segments of the world’s population who live only for their pleasures of their senses and who view themselves, others and the events of the world solely through natural eyes of the body. Unlike even the pagans and barbarians of yore who were bound together in some kind of cult of belief, however inchoate, and a form of public pietas, many hundreds of millions of people around the world give no thought to anything other than the events of the moment.

This is true even here in the United States of America as more and more of the products of America’s concentration camps and publicly-financed institutions of indoctrination (public schools) are godless self-seekers who know nothing about the fact that they have immortal souls created in the image and likeness of God and that have been redeemed by the Most Precious Blood of His Co-Equal, Co-Equal Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The thought of sudden death never occurs to them, which is why so many of them are compelled to go to bars and other “establishments” where diabolical noise that is marketed as “music” is played as but a tragic foretaste of the screeching, screaming, pounding and endless pains that will be their lot for all eternity in the fiery dungeon of hell if they do not convert to the true Faith and reform their lives as they seek to make reparation for their sins.

Additionally, most Protestants, Orthodox and a significant number of Catholics attached to the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism in the mistaken belief that they are in the Catholic Church and not her counterfeit ape do not know Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and the immutable truths truly He has entrusted exclusively to our mater and magister, Holy Mother Church, for their infallible explication and eternal safekeeping. Aping either Protestant “pastors” and alleged “Scriptural scholars” or the conciliar “pontiffs,” most nominal Protestants and Catholics project their own self-serving beliefs about what God should be and teach rather than submit themselves to the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law without exception and without complaint.

Moreover, there is a very small but nevertheless disproportionately influential number of people in the United States of America and elsewhere in the world who rejected the Sacred Divinity of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ whose souls are captive to the adversary by means of Original Sin. Blinded by this captivity to the forces of darkness, Talmudists, Kabbalists, Zionists, Masons (and naturalists of all descriptions, permutations and variations), Mohammedans, Buddhists, Hindus, Shintoists, Theosophists, tree worshippers, ancestor worshippers, Animists and their “Great Thumb,” Bahaists, Zoroastrianists, occultists, devil worshippers and others add to social discord, especially in times of natural disasters, catastrophes, wars and outbreaks of contagion and pestilence. Almost the entirety of American social life is supposed to bow the head and bend the knee by keeping silent about the Holy Name of Jesus publicly so that those Who deny, if not mock and despise, His Sacred Divinity will not “feel” “offended” or “bullied.”

Such a recipe of error, confusion, infidelity, apostasy, heresy and naturalism produces a situation where people sin wantonly as it is protected under the cover of the civil law as a “human right” and celebrated wildly all throughout the nooks and crannies of what is said to be “popular culture.” Those who have no understanding of the purpose of their very existence nor of any concept of redemptive suffering are easy pickings for statists who seek to exploit various crises to quell public fears but wind up increasing them by the draconian measures that are floated as a response to this or that problem.

Indeed, the world in which we live celebrates impurity, up to and including perverse sins against nature, which Saint Paul the Apostle condemned firmly, not that his Divinely inspired writing matters to the likes of the notorious “Father” James Martin, S.J., who continues to call sodomite behavior as being pleasing to God without one word of rebuke as of yet from Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV:

For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error. And as they liked not to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness, full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity, whisperers, Detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, foolish, dissolute, without affection, without fidelity, without mercy. Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things, are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them. (Romans 1: 18-32.)

1 It is absolutely heard, that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as the like is not among the heathens; that one should have his father's wife.  2 And you are puffed up; and have not rather mourned, that he might be taken away from among you, that hath done this deed.  3 I indeed, absent in body, but present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, him that hath so done,  4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus;  5 To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 6 Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven corrupteth the whole lump?  7 Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened. For Christ our pasch is sacrificed.  8 Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.  9 I wrote to you in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators.  10 I mean not with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or the extortioners, or the servers of idols; otherwise you must needs go out of this world.

 11 But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat.  12 For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not you judge them that are within?  13 For them that are without, God will judge. Put away the evil one from among yourselves. (1 Corinthians 5: 1-13.)

[9] Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, [10] Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God. (1 Cor. 6: 9)

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane novelties of words, and oppositions of knowledge falsely so called.

 21 Which some promising, have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. (1 Timothy 6: 20.)

Be ye therefore followers of God, as most dear children;  2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness.  3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints. 4 Or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose; but rather giving of thanks.  5 For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols), hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

6 Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief.  7 Be ye not therefore partakers with them.  8 For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk then as children of the light.  9 For the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth;  10 Proving what is well pleasing to God:

11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.  12 For the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of.  13 But all things that are reproved, are made manifest by the light; for all that is made manifest is light.  14 Wherefore he saith: Rise thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead: and Christ unwise, (Ephesians 5: 1-15.)

Saint Paul also warned us about the very times in which we would be living, including the fact that there would come a time when men would not endure sound doctrine and there would come upon the world an “operation of error” before exhorting us to remain steadfast in our traditions, which, by the way, have been shattered by the conciliar “popes” and the false doctrines of their false religious sect:

[1] I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming, and his kingdom: [2] Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. [3] 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: [4] And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. [5] But be thou vigilant, labour in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill thy ministry. Be sober. (2 Tim. 4: 1-15.)

And now you know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time. [7] For the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way. [8] And then that wicked one shall be revealed whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth; and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, him, [9] Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, [10] And in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Therefore God shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying: [11] That all may be judged who have not believed the truth, but have consented to iniquity. [12] But we ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of God, for that God hath chosen you firstfruits unto salvation, in sanctification of the spirit, and faith of the truth: [13] Whereunto also he hath called you by our gospel, unto the purchasing of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. [14] Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle. [15] Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God and our Father, who hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, and good hope in grace, [16] Exhort your hearts, and confirm you in every good work and word. (2 Thessalonians 2: 6-16.)

Truth does not change over time. Our understanding of truth may deepen over time, never in a way, however, that it can be contradicted.

We will be persecuted.

We will be hated.

We will be blamed for the problems caused by the revolutionaries of Modernity and Modernism.

So what?

Dom Prosper Gueranger provided a very cogent chronology of how the fire-breathing hater and persecutor of Christians named Saul became Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, and then describes where the new convert traveled in his missionary efforts to convert the Gentiles to the true Faith:

Whereas the Greeks on this day are uniting in one Solemnity, the Memory, as they express it, of the illustrious Saints, the Twelve Apostles, worthy of all praise, (Menæa, June 30)—let us follow in spirit the Roman populace, who are gathered around the successor of Peter, and are making the splendid basilica on the Ostian Way re-echo with songs of victory, while he is offering to the Doctor of the Gentiles, the grateful homage of the city and of the world.

On the Twenty-fifth of January, we beheld Stephen leading to Christ’s mystic crib, the once ravenous wolf of Benjamin, (Genesis 49:27) tamed at last, but who in the morning of his impetuous youth, had filled the Church of God with tears and bloodshed. His evening did indeed come when as Jacob had foreseen, Saul, the persecutor, would outstrip all his predecessors among Christ’s disciples, in giving increase to the Fold, and in feeding the Flock, with the choicest food of his heavenly doctrine. (The following is mainly borrowed from Dom Guéranger in his work: Sainte Cécile et la société romaine aux deux premiers siécles, as was likewise the passage concerning St Peter below)

By an unexampled privilege, Our Lord though already seated at the Right Hand of his Father, vouchsafed not only to call, but personally to instruct this new disciple, so that he might one day be numbered amongst his Apostles. The ways of God can never be contradictory one to another; hence, this creation of a new apostle may not be accomplished in a manner derogatory to the divine constitution already delivered to the Christian Church by the Son of God. Therefore, as soon as the illustrious convert emerges from those sublime contemplations, during which the Christian dogma has been poured into his soul, he must needs go to Jerusalem to see Peter, as he himself relates to his disciples in Galatia. “It behooved him,” says Bossuet, “to collate his own Gospel with that of the prince of the apostles.” (Sermon sur l’unité) From that moment, aggregated as a cooperator in the preaching of the Gospel, we see him at Antioch (in the “Acts of the Apostles”), accompanied by Barnabas, presenting himself to the work of opening the Church unto the Gentiles, the conversion of Cornelius having been already effected by Peter himself. He passes a whole year in this city, reaping an abundant harvest. After Peter’s imprisonment in Jerusalem, at his subsequent departure for Rome, a warning from on high makes known to those who preside over the Church at Antioch that the moment is come for them to impose hands on the two missionaries, and confer on them the sacred character of Ordination.

From that hour Paul attains the full stature of an apostle, and it is clear that the mission unto which he had been preparing is now opened. At the same time, in St. Luke’s narrative, Barnabas almost disappears, retaining but a very secondary position. The new Apostle has his own disciples, and he henceforth takes the lead in a long series of peregrinations marked by as many conquests. His first is to Cyprus, where he seals an alliance with ancient Rome, analogous to that which Peter contracted at Cesarea.

In the year 43, when Paul landed in Cyprus, its proconsul was Sergius Paulus, illustrious for his ancestry, but still more so for the wisdom of his government. He wished to hear Paul and Barnabas: a miracle worked by Paul, under his very eyes, convinced him of the truth of his teaching; and the Christian Church counted, that day, among her sons one who was heir to the proudest name among the noble families of Rome. Touching was the mutual exchange that took place on this occasion. The Roman Patrician had just been freed by the Jew from the yoke of the Gentiles; in return, the Jew hitherto called Saul received and henceforth adopted the name of Paul, as a trophy worthy of the Apostle of the Gentiles.

From Cyprus Paul travelled successively to Cilicia, Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia, everywhere preaching the Gospel and founding Churches. He then returned to Antioch in the year 47, and found the Church there in a state of violent agitation. A party of Jews, who had come over to Christianity from the ranks of the Pharisees, while consenting indeed to the admission of gentiles into the Church, were maintaining that this could only be on condition of their being likewise subjected to Mosaic practices, such as circumcision, distinction of meats, etc. The Christians, who had been received from among the gentiles, were disgusted at this servitude to which Peter had not subjected them; and thus the controversy became so hot that Paul deemed it necessary to undertake a journey to Jerusalem where Peter had lately arrived, a fugitive from Rome, and where the Apostolic College was at that moment furthermore represented by John, as well as by James the bishop of the city. These being assembled to deliberate on the question, it was decreed, in the name and under the influence of the Holy Ghost, that the exacting of anything relative to Jewish rites should be utterly forbidden in the case of gentile converts.

A Brief Interjection:

The Council of Jerusalem was Holy Mother Church’s first general council, which met to decide a question about which Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had never spoken directly and about which there is nothing explicit in Sacred Scripture.

Guided infallibly by the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, the council fathers, presided over by Saint James the Lesser, the Bishop of Jerusalem, decided, as Dom Prosper Gueranger related above, to impose no burdens of the old Mosaic Law upon Gentile converts to Christianity.

The decision announced by Saint James the Lesser is one of the proofs that Holy Mother Church has long used to demonstrate that Apostolic (Sacred) Tradition is, along with Sacred Tradition, one of the two sources of Divine Revelation entrusted exclusively to her by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to be taught infallibly and safeguarded eternally.

In other words, the very words of the Acts of the Apostles that recount the events of the Council of Jerusalem disprove Protestantism’s rejection of Apostolic Tradition as a source of Divine Revelation.

Back to Dom Prosper Gueranger’s reflection on Saint Paul:

It was on this occasion, too, that Paul received from these Pillars, as he styles them, the confirmation of this his apostolate superadded to that of the Twelve, and to be specially exercised in favor of the gentiles. By this extraordinary ministry deputed to the nations, the Christian Church definitively asserted her independence of Judaism; and the gentiles could now freely come flocking into her bosom.

Paul then resumed his course of apostolic journeys over all the Provinces he had already evangelized, in order to confirm the Churches. Thence, passing through Phrygia, he came to Macedonia, stayed a while at Athens, and then on to Corinth, where he remained a year and a half. At his departure he left in this city a flourishing Church, whereby he excited against him the fury of the Jews. From Corinth, Paul went to Ephesus, where he stayed two years. So great was his success with the gentiles there, that the worship of Diana was materially weakened; whereupon a tumult ensuing, Paul thought the moment come for his departure from Ephesus. During his abode there he made known to his disciples a thought that had long haunted him: I must needs see Rome: the capital of the gentile world was indeed calling the Apostle of the Gentiles.

The rapid growth of Christianity in the capital of the empire had brought face to face and in a manner more striking than elsewhere, the two heterogeneous elements which formed the Church of that day: the unity of Faith held together in one fold those that had formerly been Jews, and those that had been pagans. Now it so happened, that some of both of these classes, too easily forgetting the gratuity of their common vocation to the faith, began to go so far as to despise their brethren of the opposite class, deeming them less worthy than themselves of that baptism which had made them all equal in Christ. On the one side, certain Jews disdained the gentiles, remembering the polytheism which had sullied their past life with all those vices which come in its train. On the other side, certain gentiles contemned the Jews, as coming from an ungrateful and blinded people, who had so abused the favors lavished upon them by God as to crucify the Messias.

In the year 53, Paul, already aware of these debates, profited of a second journey to Corinth, to write to the Faithful of the Church in Rome that famous Epistle in which he emphatically sets forth how gratuitous is the gift of faith; and maintains how Jew and gentile alike, being quite unworthy of the divine adoption, have been called solely by an act of pure mercy. He likewise shows how Jew and gentile, forgetting the past, have but to embrace one another in the fraternity of one same faith, thus testifying their gratitude to God through whom both of them have been alike prevented by grace. His apostolic dignity, so fully recognized, authorized Paul to interfere in this matter, though touching a Christian center not founded by him.

Whilst awaiting the day when he could behold with his own eyes the queen of all Churches, lately fixed by Peter on the Seven Hills, the Apostle was anxious once again to make a pilgrimage to the City of David. Jewish rage was just at that moment rampant in Jerusalem against him; national pride being more specially piqued, in that he, the former disciple of Gamaliel, the accomplice of Stephen’s murder, should now invite the gentiles to be coupled with the sons of Abraham, under the one same Law of Jesus of Nazareth. The Tribune Lysias was scarce able to snatch him from the hands of these bloodthirsty men, ready to tear him to pieces. The following night Christ appeared to Paul, saying to him: Be constant, for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

It was not, however, till after two years of captivity, that Paul, having appealed to Cæsar, landed in Italy at the beginning of the year 56. Then at last the Apostle of the Gentiles made his entry into Rome: the trappings of a victor surrounded him not; he was but a humble Jewish prisoner led to the place where all appellants to Cæsar were mustered; yet was he that Jew whom Christ himself had conquered on the way to Damascus. No longer Saul, the Benjamite, he now presented himself under the Roman name of Paul; nor was this a robbery on his part, for after Peter, he was to be the second glory of Rome, the second pledge of her immortality. He brought not the primacy with him indeed, as Peter had done, for that had been committed by Christ to one alone; but he came to assert in the very center of the gentile world, the divine delegation which he had received in favor of the nations, just as an affluent flows into the main stream, which mingling its waters with its own, at last empties them unitedly into the ocean. Paul was to have no successor in his extraordinary mission; but the element which he had deposited in the Mistress, the Mother Church, was of such value, that in course of ages the Roman Pontiffs, heirs to Peter’s monarchical power have ever appealed to Paul’s memory as well; pronouncing their mandates in the united names of the “Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.”

Instead of having to await in prison the day whereon his cause was to be heard, Paul was at liberty to choose a lodging place in the city. He was obliged, however, to be accompanied day and night by a soldier to whom, according to the usual custom, he was chained, but only in such a way as to prevent his escape: all his movements being otherwise left perfectly free, he could easily continue to preach the Word of God. Towards the close of the year 57, in virtue of his appeal to Cæsar, the Apostle was at last summoned before the pretorium; and the successful pleading of his cause resulted in his acquittal.

Being now free, Paul revisited the East, confirming on his Evangelical course the Churches he had previously founded. Thus Ephesus and Crete once more enjoyed his presence; in the one he left his disciple Timothy as bishop, and in the other Titus. But Paul had not quitted Rome forever: marvelously illumined as she had been by his preaching, the Roman Church was yet to be gilded by his parting rays and empurpled by his blood. A heavenly warning, as in Peter’s case, bade him also return to Rome where martyrdom was awaiting him. This fact is attested by St. Athanasius: (De fuga sua, xviii) we learn the same also from St. Asterius of Ameseus, who hereupon remarks that the Apostle entered Rome once more, “in order to teach the very masters of the world; to turn them into his disciples; and by their means to wrestle with the whole human race. There, Paul finds Peter engaged in the same work; he at once yokes himself to the same divine chariot with him, and sets about instructing the children of the Law, within the Synagogues, and the Gentiles outside.” (Homil. viii)

At length Rome possesses her two Princes conjointly: the one seated on the eternal chair, holding in his hands the keys of the kingdom of heaven; the other surrounded by the sheaves he has garnered from the fields of the Gentile world. They shall now part no more; even in death, as the Church sings, they shall not be separated. The period of their being together was necessarily short, for they must needs render to their Master the testimony of blood before the roman world should be freed from the odious tyranny under which it was groaning. Their death was to be Nero’s last crime; after that he was to fade from sight, leaving the world horror-stricken at his end, as shameful as it was tragic.

It was in the year 65 that Paul returned to Rome; once more signalizing his presence there by the manifold works of his apostolate. From the time of his first labors there, he had made converts even in the very palace of the Cæsars: being now returned to this former theater of his zeal, he again finds entrance into the imperial abode. A woman who was living in criminal intercourse with Nero, as likewise a cup-bearer of his, were both caught in the apostolic net, for it were hard indeed to resist the power of that mighty word. Nero, enraged at “this foreigner’s” influence in his very household, was bent on Paul’s destruction. Being first of all cast into prison, his zeal cooled not, but he persisted the more in preaching Jesus Christ. The two converts of the imperial palace having abjured, together with paganism, the manner of life they had been leading, this twofold conversion of theirs did but hasten Paul’s martyrdom. He was well aware that it would be so, as can be seen in these lines addressed to Timothy: “I labor even unto bands, as an evil doer; but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure all things for the sake of the elect. For I am even now ready to be sacrificed, like a victim already sprinkled with the lustral water, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of Justice which the Lord, the just Judge, will render to me in that day.” (2 Timothy)

On the Twenty-ninth of June, in the year 67, while Peter, having crossed the Tiber by the Triumphal bridge, was drawing nigh to the cross prepared for him on the Vatican plain, another martyrdom was being consummated on the left bank of the same river. Paul, as he was led along the Ostian Way, was also followed by a group of the Faithful who mingled with the escort of the condemned. His sentence was that he should be beheaded at the Salvian Waters. A two miles’ march brought the soldiers to a path leading eastwards, by which they led their prisoner to the place fixed upon for the martyrdom of this, the Doctor of the Gentiles. Paul fell on his knees, addressing his last prayer to God; then having bandaged his eyes, he awaited the death-stroke. A soldier brandished his sword, and the Apostle’s head, as it was severed from the trunk, made three bounds along the ground; three fountains immediately sprang up on these several spots. Such is the local tradition; and to this day, three fountains are to be seen on the site of his martyrdom, over each of which an altar is raised. . . .

O Paul, thou excellent Teacher, instruct us, regulate our way of living, and do thou carefully bear us up in spirit to heaven: until that which we now have but in part being brought to an end, that which is perfect may be given to us in its plenitude.

O Twin Olive Trees, made one in tenderness of affection, grant that devoted in faith, strong in hope, and above all, filled from the Fount of two-fold charity, we may come to live forever after the death of this flesh.

To the Trinity in Unity, to which there is ever due Supreme dominion, both in time past, and now through everlasting ages, may there be eternal glory, honor, power, and jubilation!

Amen.

To thee, O Paul, we turn this day! Happily fixed as we are on Peter, the Rock that supports the Church, could we possibly forget thee by whose labors our forefathers, the Gentiles, became part of the City of God? Sion, once the well-beloved, rejected the Stone and stumbled against it: tell us then the mystery of this other Jerusalem come down from heaven, the materials whereof were nevertheless drawn up from the abyss! Compacted together in admirable masonry, they proclaim the glory of the skillful Architect who laid them on the Corner-Stone; and precious stones of such surpassing brilliancy are they, as to outshine all the gems of the Daughter of Sion. To whom is this newcomer indebted for all her beauty, for all these her bridal honors? How have the sons of the forsaken one come out from the unclean dens where their mother dwelt, a companion of dragons and of leopards? (Song of Solomon 4:8) It is because the Voice of the Spouse was heard saying: Come, my Bride, come from Libanus; from the top of Amana, from the top of Sanir and Hermon! (Canticle 4:8) Nevertheless, the Spouse in his own Sacred person, while he lived here below, never quitted the ancient Land of Promise, and his mortal accents never once fell on the ear of her who dwelt beyond the confines of Jacob? But, O Paul, didst thou not exclaim: How shall they be called upon Him? how believe Him of whom they have not heard? (Romans 10:14) Yet whosoever knows thy love of the Spouse, has naught to fear, mindful that thou thyself, O holy Apostle, hast proposed the problem and canst solve it.

Lo! this is the answer,—we sang it on the day of Christ’s triumphant Ascension: “When the beauty of the Lord shall arise above the heavens, he shall be mounted on a cloud, and the wing of the wind shall be his swift steed; and, clad in light, he shall dart from pole to pole across the heavens, giving his gifts to the children of men.” (Resp. of Matins Ascen.) Thou thyself, O Paul, art this cloud, this wing of the wind bearing the Bridegroom’s message unto the nations; yea, thou wast expressly chosen from on high to teach the Gentiles, as those pillars of the Church, Peter, James, and John, have attested.(Galatians 2:7-9) How beauteous thy feet, when, having quitted Sion, thou didst appear on our mountains and didst cry out to the Gentiles: Thy God shall reign. (Isaiah 52:7) How sweet thy voice, when it murmured in the ear of the poor forsaken one, the heavenly call: Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline the ear of thy heart. (Psalm 44:11) How tender the pity thou didst evince to her who had long lived a stranger to the Covenant, without promise, without a God in this world! (Ephesians 2:12)

Alas, afar off indeed was she whom it behooved thee to lead to the Lord Jesus and to bring so nigh to him, that he and she should form but one body! Thou didst experience, in this immense labor, both the pains of childbirth, and the cares of a mother giving the breast to her newborn babe; thou hadst to bear the tedious delay of the growth of the Bride, to ward from her every defilement, to inure her gradually to the dazzling light of the Spouse; until, at last, rooted and founded in charity, and having reached unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ, she might indeed be his glory, and be filled by him to all the plenitude of God. But what a toil to bring up this new creation, from the original slime, to the throne of the heavenly Adam, at the Right Hand of the Father! Oftentimes repulsed, betrayed, put in chains, misunderstood in the most delicate sentiments of thine apostolic heart, thou hadst naught for thy salary, save untold anguish and suffering. Yet, fatigue, watchings, hunger, cold, nakedness, abandonment, open violence, perfidious attacks, perils of all kinds, far from abating, did but excite thy zeal; joy superabounded in thee; for these sufferings were the filling up of those which Jesus had endured to purchase that alliance so long ambitioned by Eternal Wisdom. After his example, thou too hadst but one end, whither tended all thy strength and all thy gentleness: along the dusty Roman roads, or tempest-tossed into the depth of the sea; in the city or the desert; borne aloft on ecstatic wing into the third heavens, or bowed beneath the whips of the Jews and the sword of a Nero; everywhere bearing the embassy of Christ, thou didst boldly defy alike life and death, powers of earth and powers of heaven, to stay the might of the Lord, or of his love, whereby thou was upheld in thy vast enterprise. Then, as if aware by anticipation of the amaze that would be excited by these enthusiastic outpourings of thy great soul, thou didst utter this sublime cry: Would to God that you could bear with some little of my folly: but do bear with me, for I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ! (2 Corinthians 11:1-2)

Yesterday, O Paul, thy work was ended. Having given all, thou at length gavest thyself. The sword, by striking off thy sacred head, accomplished Christ’s triumph, even as thou hadst predicted. Peter’s death fixes the throne of the Spouse in its predestined place. But to thee is the Bride, the Gentile world, indebted for that she is now able, as she sits at the right hand of the Spouse, to turn to the rival Synagogue exclaiming: I am black, but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem; therefore hath the King loved me and chosen me to be his queen! (Song of Solomon 1:4, 4:8)

Praise then be to thee, O Apostle, now and forever! Eternity itself will not suffice to exhaust the gratitude of us, the “Nations.” Accomplish thy work in each one of us during all aged; permit not that, by the falling off of any one amongst those called by Our Lord to complete his mystic Body, the Bride be deprived of one single increase on which she might have counted. Uphold and brace against despondency the preachers of the sacred Word, all those who by the pen or by any title whatsoever, are continuing thy work of light. Multiply those valiant apostles who are ever narrowing upon our globe the boundaries of darkness. Thou didst promise to remain with us, to be ever watchful of faith’s progress in souls, and to cause the pure delights of divine union to be ever developing there. Keep thy promise; because of thy going away to Jesus, thy word is none the less plighted to those who, like ourselves, could not know thee here below. For to those who have not seen thy face in the flesh, thou hast left, in one of thine immortal Epistles, the assurance that thou wilt take care that their hearts be comforted, being instructed in charity, and unto all riches of fullness of understanding, unto the knowledge of the mystery of God the Father and of Christ Jesus, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.(Colossians 2:1-3)

During this season of the sacred cycle, the reign of the Holy Spirit who formeth saints, (Romans 8) grant that Christians of good will may be brought to understand how, by their very baptism, they are put in possession of that sublime vocation which is too often imagined to be the happy lot of but a chosen few. Oh! would that they could seize this grand yet very simple idea, which thou hast given of the mystery wherein is contained the absolute and universal principle of Christian Life; (Romans 6) that, having been buried with Jesus under the waters, and thereby incorporated with him, they must necessarily be bound by every right and title to become saints, to aim at union with Jesus in his Life, since they have been granted union with him in his Death. Ye are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God! (Colossians 3:3) these were the words addressed by thee to our forefathers: oh! then, repeat them to us likewise, for thou didst give them as a truth intended for all without distinction! Suffer not, O Doctor of us, Gentiles, that the light grow dim among us, to the great detriment of the Lord and of his Bride. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Commemoration of Saint Paul, June 30.)

In these times of apostasy and betrayal, therefore, which include the madness of the world of Modernity that has rejected the Incarnation of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and mocked His Holy Church with which the lords of conciliarism have made their “official reconciliation,” we need to remember that Saint Paul explained that Holy Mother Church will always be submissive to her Divine Founder just as wives must be submissive to their husbands.

Saint Paul did indeed instruct wives to be submissive to their husbands, who are to surround their wives with love, premised first and foremost upon willing their eternal good while at the same time caring for them with tenderness and affection. This submission of wives their husbands the exact kind of submission of Holy Mother Church to her Divine Founder and Invisible Head, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself, which Bishop Richard Challoner noted in his coimmentary on verse 24 of Chapter 5 of Saint Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians:

[21] Being subject one to another, in the fear of Christ. [22] Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord: [23] Because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. He is the saviour of his body. [24] Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things. [25] Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church, and delivered himself up for it:

[24] Church is subject to Christ: The church then, according to St. Paul, is ever obedient to Christ, and can never fall from him, but remain faithful to him, unspotted and unchanged to the end of the world. (Douay-Rheims Challoner Bible.)

Father George Haydock commented similarly upon the same verses:

Ver. 23. For the husband is the head of the wife. Though St. Paul here speaks of a man, who is a husband, we may rather translate man than husband, being the same sentence and same words as 1 Corinthians xi. 3. where even the Protestant translation has, that the man is head of the woman. --- He (Christ) is the saviour of his mystical body, the Church: though some expound it, that the husband is to save and take care of his wife, who is as it were his body. (Witham)

Ver. 24. As the church is subject to Christ. The Church then, according to St. Paul, is ever obedient to Christ: and can never fall from him, but remain faithful to him, unspotted and unchanged to the end of the world. (Challoner) (Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, Ephesians 5:23-24.) 

How can the clear comments of acknowledged scholars such as Bishop Richard Challoner and Father George Haydock be accepted as true without recognizing that the counterfeit church of conciliarism is not the Catholic Church, that its “popes” have been enemies of Christ the King and His Sacred Deposit of Faith, and that it is irresponsible to pretend that the sort of doctrinal and moral errors, to say nothing of liturgical sacrileges and abominations, can never issue forth from His immaculate spouse, the Catholic Church?

As Saint Paul reminded us, our wrestling is not with mere fleshly creatures but with the devil and his minions themselves:

Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high place. Therefore take unto you the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace:

In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God). By all prayer and supplication praying at all times in the spirit; and in the same watching with all instance and supplication for all the saints. (Ephesians 6: 11-18.)

May Our Lady, the Queen of the Apostles, help us ever to be devoted to her son from the Tribe of Benjamin, Saint Paul the Apostle, and to use his own inspired words to help convince Protestants and Modernists that the Apostle to Gentiles has condemned their false beliefs and is praying for their conversion to the Catholic Church, which never makes any concessions in principle to error or to the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

May we pray Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary to discharge the duties that Saint Paul has given to us to take “the shield of faith, wherewith” we “may be able to extinguish all the fiery dart of the most wicked one” and take unto ourselves the “helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit” that is “the Word of God.”

Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Appendix

Father Francis Weninger, S.J., on Saint Paul the Apostle

St. Paul, the great Apostle and Doctor of the Gentiles, was born a Jew, of the tribe of Benjamin. His native place was Tarsus, a celebrated city in Cilicia. His father sent him to Jerusalem, where he was educated by the famous Gamaliel, not only in the law but in all the ceremonies of the Hebrews. He soon surpassed all his schoolmates in knowledge, and became zealous in maintaining and defending the laws; and consequently, he was one of the most cruel persecutors of Christianity. It was he who kept the garments of those who stoned Stephen. The older he grew, the more deeply rooted became his hatred of the Christians. Not only at Jerusalem, but also in other places, he sought for those confessing Christ and delivered them into the hands of the authorities for imprisonment.

One day, he requested a commission from the High Priest at Jerusalem to the Jews at Damascus, by virtue of which they were to aid him in apprehending all the Christians that were residing there. With this order, he went, full of rage and hatred, to Damascus. When he was near the city, he suddenly beheld a light from heaven which shone around him. Saul, (this was his name before his conversion), fell in affright to the ground and heard a voice saying: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" "Who art thou, Lord?" asked Saul. "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest," said the voice from heaven. Although Saul trembled at these words, he answered: "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" The Lord replied: "Arise and go into the city, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do." Saul's companions heard the voice, but saw no one. Saul arose from the ground, opened his eyes, but saw nothing, having lost his sight. Having been led to Damascus, he remained three days and nights in prayer, tasting neither food nor drink. Meanwhile Ananias, a disciple of the Lord, was informed in a vision of all that had taken place, and, going into the house where Saul was, he instructed him, restored his sight by laying his hands on him, and baptized him.

Soon after receiving holy baptism, Saul, now named Paul, went into the Synagogue, and preaching boldly that Christ was the true and long-promised Messiah, he proved the truth of his words so clearly that no one could gainsay them. All were amazed at the change that had taken place in him, and, not able to refute his doctrines, they consulted together to kill him. The faithful, however, let him down in a basket over the walls of the city, and thus he escaped death. After this, he went to Jerusalem and desired to join the Christians there; but as they knew nothing of his conversion, they were afraid of him and would not receive him among them. Paul finding St. Barnabas, who had been his schoolmate, related to him what had taken place, and was by him brought to the apostles, who rejoiced greatly at his conversion, and gave due thanks and praise to God.

Soon after receiving holy baptism, Saul, now named Paul, went into the Synagogue, and preaching boldly that Christ was the true and long-promised Messiah, he proved the truth of his words so clearly that no one could gainsay them. All were amazed at the change that had taken place in him, and, not able to refute his doctrines, they consulted together to kill him. The faithful, however, let him down in a basket over the walls of the city, and thus he escaped death. After this, he went to Jerusalem and desired to join the Christians there; but as they knew nothing of his conversion, they were afraid of him and would not receive him among them. Paul finding St. Barnabas, who had been his schoolmate, related to him what had taken place, and was by him brought to the apostles, who rejoiced greatly at his conversion, and gave due thanks and praise to God.

From this time, St. Paul preached the Gospel everywhere with great ardor, journeyed through many cities, lands and kingdoms, brought many thousands to Christianity, and sent many apostolic men into different countries to convert the inhabitants. Who can give an account of his cares and labors, the disgrace and derision, the misery and the persecution which he suffered for the true Faith? He himself relates it in his Epistles, particularly in the eleventh chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians. The same is done by St. Luke in the Acts. Among other things, he says that a prophet had told St. Paul, when the latter was about to go from Caesarea to Jerusalem, that they would seize him at that place and deliver him to the heathens. Hence his disciples would not allow him to depart; but neither tears nor prayers could detain him. "I, am ready," said he, "not only to be bound in Jerusalem, but also to die for the name of Jesus."

He proved his words by deeds. When he arrived at Jerusalem, he immediately went into the temple to pray, but hardly had the Jews seen him,when they fell upon him, dragged him out of the temple and would certainly have killed him with their blows, had not the Tribune, Claudius Lysias, hastily appeared with his soldiers and released him from their fury. He, however, took him prisoner and sent him to Caesarea to the Governor Felix, who, although he found him innocent, kept him in prison. Festus, his successor, would have sent him back to Jerusalem that he might be judged there, but Paul appealed to the Emperor and was sent to Rome,where, after two years of imprisonment, he was set at liberty. The Saint then began again his apostolic labors, travelled through Italy and France, ventured even to Spain, preaching the Gospel everywhere and converting a great number of people.

At last, he returned to Rome, and among others, he exhorted some concubines of the godless Emperor Nero, to forsake their wicked life. When he had so far succeeded in converting them that, in their love of chastity, none of them would longer submit to the tyrant's lust, the enraged Nero gave orders to imprison St. Paul as well as St. Peter. Somewhat later, both were condemned to die, Peter upon the Cross, Paul by the sword. St. Chrysostom relates that the blood that flowed from the body of St. Paul when he was beheaded, was not red, but milk-white. It is also said that his head, when severed from his body, sprang up three times from the ground, and that, each time, water gushed forth. To this day, three springs, which are shown at the place where his execution took place, confirm the tradition.

St. Paul was undoubtedly favoured with special graces and virtues. He wrought many and great miracles. By the touch of his handkerchief, the sick were immediately restored and the possessed released. He had many visions both of angels and of Christ, the Lord, Himself. Once, during a tempest on the sea, an angel appeared to him announcing that for his sake, the Almighty would spare the lives of all that were in the ship. At Corinth, our Lord appeared to him and said: "Fear not, but speak: be not silent." At Jerusalem, He visited him again, saying: "Hasten, quickly leave Jerusalem;" and at another time the Saviour said to him: "Be constant; for, as thou hast given testimony of me at Jerusalem, so must thou do at Rome." Besides these comforting visions, the holy Apostle had the grace to be carried up, in an ecstasy, to the third heaven, to see there such great mysteries, that he was incapable of speaking of them.

His heavenly wisdom and eloquence are clearly manifested in his epistles, the reading of which has occasioned many miraculous conversions. They also give evidence of the great virtue of this holy Apostle, especially of his fervent love to the Saviour and towards his neighbor; of the purity of his life; his humility, austere penance and invincible patience. He loved his crucified Redeemer so much, that he could write: "I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me. Christ is my life. I am fastened on the Cross with Christ. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? I am convinced that neither life, nor death, neither height nor depth, nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God which is manifested in our Lord, Jesus Christ." He gloried in nothing save in the Cross of the Saviour. The holy name of Jesus was constantly in his mouth and proceeded constantly from his pen.

He gave equal proofs of his love for his neighbor. The many and laborious voyages which he undertook, the many and great dangers and persecutions which he suffered, the inexpressibly great labor and care which he took upon himself, show how unselfishly he loved his neighbor. His zeal to save souls was insatiable, and his solicitude for the welfare of others, more than fatherly. He loved the newly converted like dear children and carried them all, as he said, in his heart before God. He kept his chastity inviolate, advised others to do the same, and showed, by his deeds, how we must fight against impure temptations; that is, by taking refuge with God in prayer and chastising his body with hunger and thirst, heat and cold, fasting and watching. With all his great deeds and the many graces he had received from the Almighty, he was so humble, that he more than once confessed the wickedness with which he had treated the Christians before his conversion; and though he worked more than all the others, he called himself the least of Apostles. His great love for Christ and his hope of an eternal reward cheered him, as he writes, in all that he had to suffer. On account of these and other virtues, to relate all of which would fill many books, there can be no doubt that St. Paul is raised to great glory in heaven. At the time of his death, he was 68 years old. His holy relics rest beside those of St. Peter at Rome.
 

Practical Considerations
 

A ravenous wolf, a roaring lion, is changed into a meek lamb; a sworn enemy of the Christians, into their protector and teacher; an embittered persecutor of the Church of Christ, into an apostle; a sinner into a Saint; a Saul into a Paul! Surely this was a conversion that the mighty hand of God alone could work: an unquestionable example of the infinite mercy of the Most High. "I who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor and contumelious," said the holy apostle of himself, "but I obtained the mercy of God" (I Tim. i). Truly he obtained mercy, and inexpressibly great was the mercy he received. For at the same time that he was raging against the Christians, endeavoring to imprison them and bring them to Jerusalem; at the time when he merited hell for his wickedness, God opened his eyes, called him to turn from his sinful path, told him how to act, and granted him more than sufficient grace to begin the work of his conversion.

But why did God show such mercy to Paul? The apostle himself replies; "But for this cause have I obtained mercy; that in me first, Christ Jesus might show forth all patience for the information of them that shall believe in him unto life everlasting" (I Tim. i.). God would place an example of His mercy before the eyes of men, and make known that no one is so great a sinner that he may not be converted and receive pardon for his iniquities. And let this, my Reader, be today a lesson for you. But you have still to consider one point more. God showed great mercy to St. Paul and made him the partaker of great graces; but St. Paul co-operated with these graces. If he had not done so, he would not have become a Saint. "But by the grace of God," says he, "I am what I am, and His grace in me hath not been void. I have labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God with me" (Cor. xv.). Learn from this to co-operate with the grace God gives you; otherwise His mercy will be void in you.

As soon as St. Paul recognized the wickedness he had committed in persecuting the Christians, and understood the divine will by a heavenly vision and by the instructions of St. Ananias, he converted himself unhesitatingly to God, and, soon after, commenced to preach fearlessly the same faith he had before so cruelly persecuted. The remaining 34 years of his life he employed zealously in the service of the Almighty and made more than sufficient amends for his past offences. He was not satisfied that he himself had become a Christian, and that he served God, but he endeavored to convert others, as well Jews as heathens, to Christianity, and to lead them to a holy life by verbal and written instructions. How great a work he had taken upon himself, and what dangers and persecutions he had to endure on account of it, may be partly seen in his Epistles.

God has, for a long time, made you sensible of the wickedness of your sins, the greatness of the danger to which you expose yourself, your need of a serious conversion. When will you then commence it? "And thinkest thou," I ask you in the words of St. Paul, "that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and patience, and long-suffering? Knowest thou not that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance? But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up to thyself wrath"(Rom. ii.). If you wish to avoid the terrible wrath of God, do not delay. Repent without further loss of time, and then, according to your station in life, mould your conduct after that of St. Paul. Think that he says to you from heaven, what he wrote to the Philippians: "Be ye followers of me (Philipp. iii.)!"

What you have read of St. Peter and St. Paul, should make you carefully consider the immeasurable goodness of the Almighty towards sinners. Peter had committed sin in denying the Saviour. Paul had become guilty of great iniquity in persecuting the Church of Christ. Both did penance, both were again received into the favor of the Lord. Neither of them was ever reproached with his former crimes. God loved them not less than He loved others who had not offended Him. And what is still more to be admired, He conferred on both more graces than on others. He appeared to Peter on the day of His resurrection, before His other disciples had beheld Him, and gave to him the government of His Church. To Paul also He appeared several times and most miraculously assisted him. He instructed St. Peter, in an ecstasy, to teach and convert the heathens. He chose Paul before others as the teacher of the Gentiles and revealed to him the greatest secrets of heaven.

On both He bestowed, in a much higher degree than on the other apostles, the gift of miracles. Are not all these marks of God's especial goodness towards penitent sinners? Ah! how different is one man to another, when he has to forgive a fault or a wrong! After it, he is seldom so kind towards the offender as he was before; and it is not even to be supposed that he would ever show marks of greater love or kindness. He may even sometimes reproach him with his offences and make him atone for them. Not thus does the infinitely great and merciful God treat us. He loves the penitent sinner and confess on him the greatest favors if he perseveres in the path of virtue. Is it possible that we can offend so good a God over and over again? Should we not repent immediately after having committed sin, in order to participate in the graces of the Lord? (As found at: St. Peter and Paul Sermons: by Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger.)

The Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Thursday, May 19, 2005.