Bible in a Year with Fr Paul

What, then, brothers, ought we to do? Should we grow slack in doing good and give up love? May the Lord never permit this to happen at any rate to us! Rather, should we be energetic in doing “every good deed” [ Tit 3:1 .] with earnestness and eagerness.… The good laborer accepts the bread he has earned with his head held high; the lazy and negligent workman cannot look his employer in the face. We...

Later, when the seer is commanded to behold the wife of the Lamb, he sees the holy city coming down from heaven, and he says concerning her, “The kings of the earth carried their glory into her.” [ Rev 21:24 .] For in the world there are two cities, one that arises from the abyss and the other that comes down from heaven. And so now he compares the same ungodliness, which he had described in the f...

Since then in this world some persons come to the light, and by faith unite themselves to the light and by faith unite themselves with God, but others shun the light and separate themselves from God, the Word of God comes preparing a fit habitation for both. For those indeed who are in the light, that they may derive enjoyment from it and from the good things contained in it; but for those in dark...

He indicates that when he ate the book sweetness would be mixed with bitterness. That is to say, that when he is released from exile, he was to preach the gospel to the nations. This would be a sweet task as regards love, but it would be a bitter work on account of the persecutions that he would endure—The Venerable Bede

With a loud voice [the martyrs] sing of salvation from God, since they recall with great thanksgiving that they have triumphed, not by their own virtue but by his help, in the struggle with the tribulations assailing them—The Venerable Bede

Although it was after us that he was made man for us and became our brother by likeness of body, still he is called and is the firstborn of us. Since all people were lost through the transgression of Adam, Christ’s flesh was saved first of all and was liberated, because it was the Word’s body. Henceforth also we, having become joined together with his body, are saved through it. For in his body th...

This book is very sweet to every healthy Christian heart that savors the bread of God, and it should constantly be in the mind of God’s holy church. But I choose it more particularly because what it specially commends to us is love. The person who possesses the thing which he hears about in this epistle must rejoice when he hears it. His reading will be like oil to a flame.… For others, the epistl...

If they are not seen, how can you be convinced that they exist? Well, where do these things that you see come from, if not from one whom you cannot see? Yes, of course you see something in order to believe something, and from what you can see to believe what you cannot see. Please do not be ungrateful to the one who made you able to see; this is why you are able to believe what you are not yet abl...

Now, how long shall we saw away along the same line on this question [i.e., what is permitted], when we have a long-standing practice which by anticipation has all but settled the question? Even though no scriptural passage prescribes it, it is strengthened by a custom that certainly arose from tradition. How can anything become normal practice if it has not first been handed down to us? But, you...

You see, those old sacrifices of the people of God also represented in a variety of ways this single one that was to come. Christ himself, I mean, was both a sheep, because of his innocence and simplicity of soul, and a goat because of “the likeness of sinful flesh.” [ Rom 8:3 .] And whatever else was foretold “in many and various ways” in the sacrifices of the old covenant refers to this single o...

Those who have chosen to live the glorious and beloved way of life devised by Christ must first be adorned with simple and unblemished faith, and then add virtue to their faith. When this has been done, they must strive to enrich their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and ascend to the most complete understanding of him—St Cyril of Alexandria

Just as the Lord is the true light who has come into the world for judgment, so that at his coming he may give sight to the blind and blind those who see in the wrong way, so he is also a chosen cornerstone, giving honor to those who join themselves to him in faith and revealing himself to them as a reliable foundation, but to those who do not believe he is not precious but a stone of stumbling an...

Paul is speaking here to bishops who have the power of placing presbyters in the individual towns, so that they would hear clearly by what kind of rule correct church order should be maintained.… Originally the churches were governed by a common council of the presbyters. But after one of their number began to think that those whom he had baptized were his and not Christ’s, it was universally decr...

But the wise servants of the Lord, who have really put on the new nature created in the likeness of God, [Cf. Eph 4:24 .] listen to what he says. They apply to themselves the commandment given to Timothy, “Set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” They keep the Easter feast so properly that even unbelievers, seeing their orderliness, must say, “God is t...

There is a distinction between the death of the body and the death of the soul. There is no reproach in the death of the body as such and hence no moral danger since there is no reproach. The body’s death is merely a matter of nature, not of choice. This death had its origin in the transgression of the first human being, and thereafter it has had its subsequent effect on nature. Its release will b...

See the wisdom of our teacher and to what a height he immediately raises those who listen to him. He cut a path through the midst of all the angels, archangels, thrones, dominations, principalities, virtues, all those invisible powers, the cherubim and seraphim and set the thoughts of the faithful right before the very throne of the King. By his teaching he has persuaded those who walk the earth t...

“And they shall be scattered on the merchant ships of foreigners and together plunder the sea.” [Is 11:13 (LXX).] For they, in their wanderings among the nations, had to make use of the passage through the sea, just as though they were flying on it, they made a swift course through the sea so that they might proclaim the gospel to most nations in a short time. Sometimes they went by foot, sometime...

Indeed, up to this time they have heard false reports of our doctrine and are hostile to the cross. If I should then add chains as well, their hatred becomes greater. This is why I removed these, so as to make that more acceptable. For they consider it disgraceful to be chained, because they have not yet tasted the glory that is with us. We must therefore condescend. For once they learn of the tru...

Knowledge therefore comes through faith, and without faith there is no knowledge. How so? It is only through faith that we know the power of his resurrection. For what reasoning could demonstrate the resurrection to us? None, but it is through faith. And if the resurrection of Christ in the flesh is known through faith, how can the nativity of the Word be comprehended by reason? For the resurrecti...

[St Paul] shows that great was his zeal for the worship. His native city, great as it was, he left behind, so far away, and chose to be brought up here for the sake of the law. Look how from the beginning he heeded the law. He mentions these things not only to defend himself before them, but also to show that he was led to preach the gospel not by human intention but by divine power. For educated...

Because they saw that the followers of the new grace were less diligent about observing the rituals of the law and the rites of the temple, they became afraid, as we read in the Gospel, that the Romans would come and take away their place and their people. [ Jhn 11:48 .]—The Venerable Bede

The fact that Paul adds the words “chosen by grace” seems to me to be significant. He could have said simply that there is a remnant saved by grace, but by adding “chosen” he indicates that there is grace both with and without election. For everyone who is saved has doubtless been saved by grace, but those who have been saved by the election of grace seem to me to be more perfect than the others....

Note how this analogy is different from the subject it refers to. Paul says that the husband dies, so that the woman, freed from the law of her husband, can marry whomever she likes. Paul compares the soul to the woman and thinks of the husband as the passions of sin which work in our members to produce the fruits of death, which are the offspring worthy of such a marriage. The law is given not to...

Moses wrote five books, but nowhere did he put his own name to them … nor did Matthew, John, Mark or Luke. But St. Paul everywhere in his epistles puts his own name. [See 1Co 1:1 ; 2Co 1:1 ; Gal 1:1 ; Php 1:1 .] Why? Because the others were writing to people who were present, and it would have been superfluous for them to have announced themselves when they were present. But Paul sent his writings...

Thus also the apostle Paul, after shipwrecks, after scourgings, after many grievous tortures of the flesh and body, says that he was not harassed but was corrected by adversity, in order that while he was the more heavily afflicted he might the more truly be tried. There was given to me, he says, a thorn in my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me lest I be exalted. Concerning this thorn I asked...