St. Paul and the Lectionary
Each week during the Year of St. Paul, we provide reflection questions that will lead us deeper into the writings and example of St. Paul.  You are also invited to visit the Place of Prayer in the west aisle.

September 27-28  26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

  • All of Paul’s letters are about unity in one way or another.  In today’s reading from the letter to the Philippians, he pleads with them to “complete my joy” by being united in heart, love, mind, and thought.  Why is unity so important in the Christian community?  What does St. Paul see as the threats to unity?

  • Paul says, “humbly regard others as more important than yourselves.”  Scripture scholar Vincent Smiles has said of this passage, “being humble has nothing to do with being a doormat.  The humility Paul describes is self-sacrifice for others born out of unity in Christ.”  Have you known people who are truly humble - in Paul’s sense of the word?

September 20-21  25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

  • This week, we turn from Romans to Philippians in our weekly readings from St. Paul.  The struggle between the flesh and the spirit is a constant in St. Paul’s writings, and we hear that struggle again in this passage.  Paul longs to “depart this life and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23), yet he knows that he can help this young Christian community if he remains.  When have you found yourself caught between two good things?  How do you resolve that tension?

  • Paul is writing to the Philippians from prison.  In the midst of his suffering, he can say, “Christ will be magnified in my body.”  He would say it another way in the letter to the Colossians: “in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” (1:24).  Paul firmly believes that suffering has a purpose.  What is your attitude towards suffering?  Do you have a sense that the big sufferings in your life have had a purpose?

September 13-14  Exaltation of the Holy Cross

  • On this Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, we hear a hymn or canticle from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians (2:6-11). The first part of the poem focuses on the humility of Christ, who emptied himself to take on our human flesh. The second part speaks of God’s action, raising Christ from death. At the very center, the turning point of the poem, is the word “cross.” When in your life have you encountered the cross? How did the encounter transform you?
  • St. Paul tells the Philippians, “have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). What do today’s readings reveal about Christ’s “attitude”? If we had that same attitude, what might be different about the way we live our lives?

September 6-7  23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

  • “Love is the fulfillment of the law,” St. Paul says boldly in today’s second reading (Romans 13:8-10). What do you think St. Paul means when he talks about love? What kind of love fulfills the law?
  • In his homily for the opening of the Pauline Year, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized that Paul’s faith in Jesus Christ was not an idea but an encounter: “Paul's faith is being struck by the love of Jesus Christ, a love that overwhelms him to his depths and transforms him. His faith is not a theory, an opinion about God and the world. His faith is the impact of God's love in his heart. Thus, this same faith was love for Jesus Christ.” In your own journey of faith, can you think of times when you met Jesus in this way?

August 30-31  22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

  • Do not conform yourselves to this age,” Paul says in today’s second reading. Where in your life do you find that “this age” we are living in comes into conflict with your faith? How do you resolve this conflict?
  • Paul urges the Romans, “be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” How do you renew your mind? Is your mind engaged in your faith? Do you nurture your faith through spiritual reading and study, or by participating in one of the many ongoing learning opportunities offered at St. James?

August 23-24  21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

  • Today’s wonderful second reading comes near the end of St. Paul’s long discourse on the chosen people, the Israelites. Argument gives way to praise as Paul exclaims in wonder at the wisdom and mystery of God. Have you experienced that same sense of awe at times, in your journey of faith?
  • St. Paul speaks of God as essentially unknowable. But in our Gospel reading today, Peter recognizes Jesus as the Christ—the Son of God. Can you think of a time when, whether in a flash of insight, or slowly over time, you came to a deeper knowledge of who God is?

August 16-17  20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

  • In today’s second reading St. Paul says, “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11: 29). What do you feel are your gifts? What is your calling? Has your understanding of your gifts and your vocation changed over time?
  • Scripture scholar Nicholas King of South Africa writes of this passage: “God gives his gift out of love for us, not out of admiration for our achievements. It follows that any complacent smirking on our part is a huge misunderstanding, not to say perversion, of God’s offer of salvation. We are all on the same footing. Do you find yourself thinking ‘I’m better than those others’? Do you think that Paul would allow that?”

August 9-10  19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

  • In today’s second reading (Romans 8: 35, 37- 39), Paul gives a litany of the many different forces that seek to separate us from God— earthly trials, like pain, persecution, hunger, and war; and other powers as well: death and life, time itself. And with absolute confidence he says that nothing can separate us from Christ. In your own life, what forces do you find trying to separate you from Christ? Do you let them?
  • St. Paul himself experienced all the sufferings he mentions in this reading. He endured incredible physical as well as spiritual trials in his life, and yet he says, “in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.” Can you think of a time when suffering has brought you closer to God?

August 2-3  18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

  • In today’s second reading (Romans 8: 35, 37-39), Paul gives a litany of the many different forces that seek to separate us from God—earthly trials, like pain, persecution, hunger, and war; and other powers as well: death and life, time itself.  And with absolute confidence he says that nothing in heaven or on earth, in the present or in the future, can separate us from Christ.  In your own life, what forces do you find trying to separate you from Christ?  Do you let them?

  • St. Paul himself experienced all the sufferings he mentions in this reading.  He endured incredible physical as well as spiritual trials in his life, and yet he says, “in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.”  Can you think of a time when suffering has brought you closer to God?

July 26-27  The Feast of St. James, Apostle

  • On this Feast of St. James, we hear a reading from St. Paul’s second letter to the Christian community at Corinth (2 Corinthians 4: 7-15).  This reading perfectly captures the experience of our patron, James, who was the first of the Twelve to suffer martyrdom:  “We who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus.”  In our country, we enjoy freedom of religion.  But there are ways in which believers are “afflicted,” “perplexed,” “persecuted,” and “struck down,” to use St. Paul’s words, in our culture.  Have you ever suffered for your faith in Christ?\

  • As St. Paul says, “we have the same spirit of truth” as did James and the Apostles, the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.  Who are your favorite saints?  How have they influenced you?  How have they brought you closer to Christ?

July 19-20  16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

  • In today’s second reading, St. Paul says to the Romans, “we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Romans 8: 26).  Do you feel that you “know how to pray”?  Do you pray most often with words, or without?  Is prayer difficult for you at times?  Have you ever felt what Paul describes—the Spirit coming to the aid of your weakness?
  • At every Mass, following the homily, we pray the General Intercessions, also called the Prayer of the Faithful, in which we bring before God the specific needs of our church, world, and local community, here and now.  St. Paul tells us that the Spirit “searches hearts,” our hearts, and understands what we need and what is God’s will for us. What specific intentions do you bring with you today?

 

Sunday, July 13  15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
 Link to today's readings courtesy the USCCB
  • Last week, we heard about the tension between “flesh” and “spirit.”  This week (Romans 8: 18-23), Paul continues to explore that tension.  Though we have received “the firstfruits of the Spirit,” we do not have the Spirit in its fullness.  We continue to suffer and struggle, but with a new hope.  If you had to explain your hope in Christ, what would you say?
  • St. Paul tells us that not only human beings, but all of creation shares in the “sufferings of the present time,” and awaits the glory that is to come.  How might these words help us to reflect on the present environmental crisis?

Sunday, July 6  14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

  • In today’s second reading from the letter to the Romans (8: 9, 11-13), Paul contrasts flesh and spirit.  What do you think Paul means by each of these terms?  Where do you find that tension between “flesh” and “spirit” in your life?
  • For St. Paul, everything revolves around Christ.  Nicholas King has commented, “it sometimes seems that Paul can hardly write a sentence without mentioning his beloved.”  What does Paul tell us about the power of Christ’s resurrection in today’s reading?


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