A charge to Pious Men

Today's second reading seemed an excellent charge to Pious Men everywhere:

But you, man of God, pursue righteousness,
devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.
Compete well for the faith.
Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called
when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses.
I charge you before God, who gives life to all things,
and before Christ Jesus,
who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate for the noble confession,
to keep the commandment without stain or reproach
until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ
that the blessed and only ruler
will make manifest at the proper time,
the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light,
and whom no human being has seen or can see.
To him be honor and eternal power. Amen.
[1 Tm, 6-11]

Conversion of St. Paul

But the Lord said to him,

"Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name
before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;
for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name."
[Acts 9, 15-16]

Of course I have heard the Pauline epistles at Mass, Sunday after Sunday. It wasn't until reading Anne of Green Gables and other fiction of that era that employ Scripture in the prose that I realized how little of the epistles I knew offhand; it wasn't until the year of St Paul I read the epistles through for the first time. Take some time for that reading today, and share your favorite Pauline quote (or 2!) in the combox.

My picks are:
We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. [Rm 8, 28]

And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart. [Gal 6, 9]

Top Image: Michelangelo, The Conversion of Saul, 1542-45
Bottom Image: Abraham Ortelius, Pilgrimage of St Paul, 1579