Bible in a Year with Fr Paul

“Do not put your hope in deceptive words that say, ‘Here is the temple of the Lord,’ ” that imply you are his temple. They are only trying to assure you that you will never be left by God as though God would decide to preserve his blessed temple and would save his priests even though they are wicked. No! Do not find hope in those who flatter you with these words. If you have not corrected what you...

“For the Lord does not desire to look upon wrongs, for he, the almighty one, observes all those who perform lawless deeds, and he will save me; and do you plead before him, if you can praise him, as it is possible even now.” [ Job 35:13-14 .] Not only did the Lord not countenance wrongs, but he did not even wish to see them, as another prophet said: “You who are of purer eyes than to behold evil a...

It is true that in the holy Scriptures many are called righteous, as Zachariah and Elizabeth, Job, Jehosaphat, Josiah, and many others who are mentioned in the sacred writings. Of this fact I shall, if God gives me grace, give a full explanation in the work that I have promised; in this letter it must suffice to say that they are called righteous, not because they are faultless but because their f...

The prophet Nahum (or, better, God speaking through him) says, “I will destroy the graven and molten thing; I will make it your grave. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that brings peace. O Judah, keep your festivals and pay your vows, for it shall no longer be that they may pass into disuse. It is completed, it is consumed, it is taken away. He is come up that breathes into your face and...

Paul says about those who live in piety and prosperity, “I thank God that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge.” And to those who are impious, the blessed Jeremiah says, “Maybe they are poor. For this reason, they could not hear the word of the Lord.” Do you see that he calls poor those who have distanced themselves from piety? Therefore, God is merciful to those...

He has come as a physician, not as a judge. Therefore, in like manner, as those of old took harlots for wives, even so God too married to himself the nature that had played the harlot. This also prophets from the beginning declare to have taken place with respect to the synagogue. But that spouse was ungrateful toward him who had been a husband to her, while on the contrary, the church, when once...

Moreover, this calling, which works through the opportune circumstances of history, whether this calling is in individuals or in peoples or in humankind itself, comes from a decree both lofty and profound. To this relates the following passage: “In the womb have I sanctified you.”—St Augustine

This, I say, is the universal way for the deliverance of believers, concerning which the faithful Abraham received the divine assurance, “In thy seed shall all nations be blessed.” [ Gen 22:18 .] He, indeed, was by birth a Chaldaean; but, that he might receive these great promises, and that there might be propagated from him a seed “disposed by angels in the hand of a Mediator,” [See Gal 3:19 .] i...

“Rejoice,” therefore, “in the Lord, O you righteous,” not when the interests of your home are flourishing, not when you are in good health of body, not when your fields are filled with all sorts of fruits, but when you have the Lord—such immeasurable Beauty, Goodness, Wisdom. Let the joy that is in him suffice for you.… For the just person, the divine and heavenly joy is lasting, since the Holy Sp...

I know of a fifth baptism also, which is that of tears and takes much more work. It is received by one who washes his bed every night and his couch with tears; [ Psa 6:6 .]whose bruises sting through his wickedness; [ Psa 37:5 .] and who goes about mourning and is of a sad disposition. It is received by one who imitates the repentance of Manasseh [ 2Ch 33:12 .] and the humiliation of the Ninevites...

Love faith. For by his devotion and faith Josiah won great love for himself from his enemies. For he celebrated the Lord’s Passover when he was eighteen years old, as no one had done it before him. As then in zeal he was superior to those who went before him, so do you, my children, show zeal for God. Let zeal for God search you through and devour you, so that each one of you may say, “The zeal of...

The Lord Jesus went into Jerusalem, into the temple. And when he had looked around upon all things, then, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve. [ Mrk 11:11 .]The Lord went into Jerusalem and into the temple. He went in, and, having entered, what does he do? He looks about at everything. In the temple of the Jews he was looking for a place to rest his head and found none....

“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he did what was right in the sight of the Lord” for the thirty-one years in which he reigned. In the eighteenth year from the beginning of his rule, he began to purify Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In fact, he removed the foreign religions introduced by Manasseh and overturned the sanctuaries and altars. In the same eighteenth year...

A sovereign serves God one way as man, another way as king; he serves him as man by living according to faith, he serves him as king by exerting the necessary strength to sanction laws that command goodness and prohibit its opposite. It was thus that Hezekiah served him by destroying the groves and temples of idols and the high places that had been set up contrary to the commandments of God—St Aug...

Israel was called to the knowledge of God through the tutoring of the law and was richly endowed with the things of God. It was delivered [from Egypt] and inherited the Promised Land. Although there were many other peoples living in other parts of the world, all were alien to spiritual matters and heavenly things. They had not tasted the gifts that come from God. They were, as it were, naked and u...

Still, it was when humanity was in this state that the Word—the Son—came to seek and to find that which was lost. Even before he came, he tried to restrain us from such foolishness, crying out, “Don’t be like the horse and the mule which have no understanding and whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle.” [ Psa 32:9 .] And because his own people were careless and acted as the wicked did, Is...

And assuredly no gold or silver vessel was ever so dear to God as is the temple of a virgin’s body. The shadow went before, but now the reality has come. You indeed may speak in all simplicity, and from motives of amiability you may treat with courtesy the truest strangers, but unchaste eyes see nothing aright. They fail to appreciate the beauty of the soul and value only that of the body. Hezekia...

Surely the just Hezekiah did not rejoice that the disaster of the captivity had fallen on his children, but he could not oppose the will of the Lord, and so he received the Lord’s commands with patience like a humble servant. Thus it happens that one could judge that merit and virtue could be evident even in captivity. For Jeremiah was not less happy in captivity, [See Jer 37-38.] nor was Daniel,...

Since the evil spirits have no power, they play as on a stage, changing their shapes and frightening children by the apparition of crowds and by their changed forms. This is why they are to be despised the more for their powerlessness. The true angel sent by the Lord against the Assyrians had no need of crowds or apparitions from without, or loud noises or clappings, but he used his power quietly...

Let every man and woman among us, whether meeting together at church or remaining at home, call upon God with much earnestness, and he will doubtless accede to these petitions. Whence does this appear evident? Because he is exceedingly desirous that we should always take refuge in him and in everything make our requests to him; [he desires that we] do nothing and speak nothing without him. For men...

I suppose that the reason why it is foretold that the Lord would come to Egypt is this: The Egyptians are said to have been the first to practice the errors of polytheism.… And Holy Scripture witnesses that they were the enemies of God’s people from the very beginning, for it is written that their ancient king confessed that he did not know the Lord, when he said, “I do not know the Lord, and I wi...

Moreover, in the days of Hezekiah, there were some of the books selected for use, and others set aside. Whence the Scripture says, “These are the mixed proverbs of Solomon, which the friends of Hezekiah the king copied out.” And from where did they take them but out of the books containing the three thousand parables and the five thousand songs? Out of these, then, the wise friends of Hezekiah too...

As I have already said, Sennacherib is a type of the devil, and this hypothesis is perfectly confirmed by the words that in this passage the Rabshakeh boastfully speaks against God when he makes false promises to the people, trying to take away from [God] the praise of his supreme power and giving assurance of a land of fertile soil and abundant crops in order to persuade them to abandon the regio...

At this point it is also appropriate to tell where the Samaritans originated. I say this because the entire region is called Samaria. From what source, then, did they derive this name? The mountain is called Semer from the man who had taken possession of it, [See 1Ki 16:24 .] as Isaiah also said: “And the head of Samaria, Ephraim.” [ Isa 7:9 .] The inhabitants, however, were called not Samaritans...

Tell me this. Do you not shudder to come into the same place with people possessed, who have so many unclean spirits, who have been reared amid slaughter and bloodshed? Must you share a greeting with them and exchange a bare word? Must you not turn away from them since they are the common disgrace and infection of the whole world? Have they not come to every form of wickedness? Have not all the pr...