The most picturesque part of the story of the Ascension of Jesus as St. Luke tells it in the Acts of the Apostles consists of him being “lifted up and a cloud took him from their sight.” However, the point of Luke telling the story is not about what happened to Jesus but what happened… Read More »

“Apollos, an eloquent speaker, was an authority on the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and, with ardent spirit, spoke and taught accurately about Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John” (Acts 18:24-25). St. Paul also mentions Apollos in his letter to the Corinthians so he must have… Read More »

The canticle of Mary, the Magnificat, is used every evening in the prayer of the Church. Perhaps over-familiarity has dulled the revolutionary nature of Mary’s words: the mighty are cast down and the lowly lifted up, the hungry are filled and the rich sent away empty. You can understand why Liberation Theologians such as Gustavo… Read More »

Paul ended up in Corinth not because of some grand design but because it provided the venue for him to make a living. Corinth was port town so there were always people coming through who needed a place to stay — the perfect place for tent maker. In addition, in non-Olympic years there were athletic… Read More »

The Areopagus is a hill in central Athens. Looking up you see the Acropolis of the city with the most beautiful buildings. Looking down you see the agora, the city center where the philosophers Socrates and Plato used to walk. St. Paul preached there because he believed the gospel is better than all that culture… Read More »

The readings for each day until Pentecost remind us the presence and action of the Holy Spirit. In the gospels Jesus speaks about the gift of the Spirit. The first reading during the entire fifty days of Easter are from the Acts of the Apostles, the so-called Gospel of the Holy Spirit. The two readings… Read More »

The Acts of the Apostles describes the rapid growth of the Jesus movement from a tiny sect within Judaism to a phenomenon impacting the entire Roman world — Jews and Gentiles alike. There is another aspect to that story that deserves attention — how the Jesus movement changed the fabric of society itself. St. Paul… Read More »

In 1979 Karl Rahner, the most important theologian of the twentieth century (in my humble opinion) lectured that we are at a completely new moment in the history of the Church. Rahner noted that there are three epochs in the life of the church. The first and shortest period of church history was that of… Read More »

St. Paul was a guy with vision. You can picture him telling his companions his plans. However, often in the Book of Acts we read that his plans were thwarted. “They had been prevented by the Holy Spirit. “The Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” Thwarted plans were not signs of failure for Paul… Read More »

The early Church was seeking the will of God. They prayed, discussed, debated and eventually came to a decision. Then they promulgated what they had decided. “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us.” We go through a similar process when we seek the will of God. But if you are anything… Read More »