A Monday with Saint Paul, the Apostle*

 A Monday with Saint Paul, the Apostle*

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

 

Modern campus of St. Paul University QC Metro Manila

One Monday I visited Saint Paul with inquiries I seldom asked before;

Fifteen years I served him, a teacher of his school, keeper of a museum;

Time has changed the world, global is its effect - would St Paul tell me

More of the ways of the world to give life a meaning? So did I assume.

"Tell me where Damascus Road is where you heard God speak;

Tell me how you crossed the Mediterranean in a storm and survive;

Tell me how you carried the Word among unbelievers and Pharisees;

Tell me how you faced death yet kept alive your faith and noble pride.

"Tell me where have the Gentiles you converted and followers gone;

Tell me how you wrote the scriptures that gave the bible a wider view;

Tell me how man can become a saint and a saint to become man;

Tell me how to reach heaven without striving to be a martyr like you."

The sun rose high, sending reflection of gray clouds on giant glass panes;

The pavement is bare, the marble floor a mirage, yet empty as the sea;

High rise the buildings are - towers and spires, proud symbols of power;

In the deep silence, I heard the same words, "Why do you persecute me." ~

Saul on Damascus Road Mural (8ft x 8ft,) painted by the author, the first of six murals that graced the former St Paul museum for 15 years (1995 to 2010). 

*Dedicated to St. Paul on his Conversion, celebrated on January 25, 2014.  Author is a native of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, neighboring municipality of Metro Vigan whose patron saint is St Paul the Apostle. The Conversion of Paul the Apostle, was, according to the New Testament, an event that took place in the life of Paul the Apostle which led him to cease persecuting early Christians and to become a follower of Jesus. It is normally dated by researchers to AD 33–36, which means that the event took place after the crucifixion of Christ.  Paul was not among the original twelve apostles, yet he carried on Christ mission no other apostle or disciple had ever done as much. For which Paul earned this title as "apostle" of Christ, even if they never met in real life. The phrases Pauline conversion,

Damascene conversion and Damascus Christophany, and Road to Damascus allude to this event.

"Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own [will], is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." - Paul the Apostle

LESSON on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday (www.pbs.gov.ph)