Christianity roots are in Judaism. Jesus and all the apostles, including St. Paul, were all Jewish. As good Jews they would make the yearly pilgrimage to the Jerusalem Temple for the Feast of Passover and would attend the weekly service in the synagogues in Nazareth...
In today’s Gospel Jesus makes a promise to his first disciples and to all of us. His promise is to send the gift of the holy Spirit. Right before today’s Gospel Jesus promises that he will never abandon us: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” (John...
In today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles Paul gives the homily (“word of exhortation”) during a Sabbath synagogue service at Antioch in Pisidia. The synagogue service was much like our Liturgy of the Word of Mass. There are prayers and hymns and then...
Shepherds were very common in Jesus’ time and in the area where Jesus went about preaching and teaching. So, it made sense to use them as concrete images for his teaching. In the Old Testament Jewish Kings and other political and religious leaders were describes as...
Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is the story of St. Paul’s call or conversion. We have three accounts of Paul’s conversion in Acts (9:1-18; 22:3-16; 26:2-18) as well as Paul’s own description of his experience on the road to Damascus: “For you...
