Pastor Sullivan's Blog

1)          St. Paul’s conversion seems so spectacular. This is for two reasons. First, when we consider the murderous hatred in Paul’s heart for Christ, his conversion to faith in Christ seems so much more miraculous. Saul had not been ambivalent toward the faith. He sought to destroy it. While St. Stephen was being made into the first martyr of the New Testament Church, St. Luke records that “ the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul .” (Acts 7:58) Saul approved of Stephen’s death. He held everyone’s coats while they fulfilled their bloodlust. Stephen’s death breathed a new life into the hatred the Jews had for Christ and began a persecution of Christians in Jerusalem and the outlying areas. Again, St. Luke records, “ As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison .” ( Acts 8:3 ) Saul seethes with hatred for Christ and His Christian...

1)          “ This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. ” What kind of glory did Jesus manifest by turning one-hundred and eighty gallons of water into choice wine? In the prologue to his gospel, St. John writes, “ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth .” (John 1:14) The glory that Jesus manifests is His glory as the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Only-Begotten Son of God. By changing water into wine Jesus accomplishes with a word what would take a winemaker years of toil and patience to accomplish. He is able to do this because He is the Word of God in human flesh. He is the same Word by which the heavens and earth were created. He is the Word spoken by the Father in the beginning which brought everything that is into existence. It belongs to God alone to c...