THE TABLET
August 9, 2008

Pauline Year Opportunities

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Two weeks ago, I sent a letter to all the priests of the Diocese of Brooklyn outlining the diocesan celebration for the Pauline Year, which began this year on June 28 and will end on June 29 next year.  This special Pauline Year, designated by Pope Benedict XVI, commemorates the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Saint Paul the Apostle. 

I will begin by encouraging everyone to take the opportunities available for the additional study of the writings of Saint Paul the Apostle.  A book published many years ago by the Confraternity of the Precious Blood, and given renewal by our own Msgr. Austin Bennett, is “My Meditations on Saint Paul” by Father James Sullivan. It is still available from the Confraternity of the Precious Blood, 5300 Fort Hamilton Pkwy., Brooklyn.  Two books recently published are “Praying with Saint Paul: Daily Reflections on the Letters of the Apostle Paul,” edited by Father John Cameron, O.P., and published by Magnificat USA in Yonkers, and “Paul and His World” by Stephen Tomkins, published by the Society of Saint Paul on Staten Island.  Any of these works would be wonderful aids in commemorating this year.

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has also made the gift of the Plenary Indulgence available to those who travel and are holding a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Saint Paul in Rome. The indulgence is also made present in Brooklyn and Queens through my designation as outlined in the letter to the priests: 

a) on any day of the Pauline Year in the following locations: the Cathedral-Basilica of

Saint James, the Church of Saint Paul, Court Street, Brooklyn, the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, South 3rd Street, Brooklyn, the Church of Saint Paul the Apostle, Corona, the Saints Peter and Paul Spirituality Center (located at the Immaculate Conception Center, 7200 Douglaston Parkway, Douglaston, New York and also located at 118 Congress Street, Brooklyn, New York) and the Bishop Molloy Retreat House, Jamaica Estates.

b) in any Catholic church within the territory of the Diocese of Brooklyn, on the following days: Dec. 8, 2008, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception; Jan. 25, 2009, the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, and June 29, 2009, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul and the Solemn Closing of the Jubilee Year.

c) in each Parish of the Diocese on its own Patron Feast Day. Each Parish of the Diocese may select one Patron Feast Day for this Plenary Indulgence to be available in the Parish.  The availability of the Plenary Indulgence applies to all the church worship sites within the Parish for that given day. With the permission of the Diocesan Bishop, a single alternate day may be substituted. I mention this knowing that the patronal feast day for some parishes has already passed or will take place in the near future.

Why is Saint Paul so important?  Perhaps Saint Paul is important to every Christian because he is very much like every Christian.  His epistles reveal his personality, its strengths and weaknesses, and give encouragement to every Christian to be like Christ.  Paul, overcoming his weaknesses, followed Christ in a special way as an Apostle born out of time.  As Pope Benedict XVI has said in his writings and discussions in his book, “The Apostles”:  “From Saint Paul we draw a very important lesson: what counts is to place Jesus Christ at the center of our lives so that our identity is marked essentially by the encounter, by communion with Christ and with his Word.”  What if we spent this Pauline Year in developing our identity with Christ marked by our communion with Him, especially in the Eucharist, but also in the meditation on the Word of God? 

Paul was an extraordinary man charged with the mission of bringing the message of Jesus Christ to a world that had not heard His name, nor was ready to believe His message.  How much like our world today was the world in which Saint Paul lived?  How much do we need the encouragement and the intercession of Saint Paul as we embark on the New Evangelization?  How can we celebrate the Year of Saint Paul?

As I mentioned, we can read his epistles or a book about Saint Paul, we can make pilgrimages to the sites mentioned, we also can pray for the countries through which Saint Paul traveled, especially the areas in which Christians are in need of support. 

Last year on my visit to Iraq on behalf of Catholic Relief Services to view the situation of the Iraqi refugees, I visited Syria for the first time and had the opportunity to visit two of the churches dedicated to Saint Paul in Damascus.  As you might remember, the Conversion of Paul took place on the road to Damascus as he went to persecute Christians; however, his miraculous encounter with Christ changed his life and perhaps the course of Christian history. 

Our encounter with Christ can also change Christian history as we pray for Christians, especially in lands as Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and the Holy Land itself, where Christians struggle to maintain their lives and their Churches.  Also during the Pauline Year we can pray for the unity of Christian Churches which is so important to the future of Christianity.

Included in this issue is a special prayer to Saint Paul for the Pauline Year, which perhaps we can pray each day.  Saint Paul “put out into the deep” in his ministry of evangelization.  We too are charged by Christ to leave what is comfortable in our lives and to identify more closely with Christ.  This is the year when it can happen.  Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians:  “Working together with Him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain.  For He says, ‘At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation.’  Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (II Cor. 6:1-3).

This Jubilee Year dedicated to Saint Paul gives us a wonderful opportunity to deepen our faith and share it with one another.