Saints: Role Models for Men- Sts. Peter and Paul

Yesterday was the Feast Day of Sts. Peter and Paul. Both are awesome and today I decided to highlight some of the incredible things we learn about these men from Scripture.

St. Peter

Made a Mistake/ Picked Himself Up

St. Peter seemed to kind of be the guy who spoke before he acted often during Jesus's ministry. He seemed to think he had the answer and knew what to do, and then through Jesus learned that he was wrong. However, during the Passion of Jesus Christ, we see Peter stumble the greatest. Even though Jesus warned him of the three denials before the cock crows, Peter seems to forget it as he quickly denies knowing who Jesus is three times. Big mistake!

St. Peter, however, becomes the Church's first Pope and one of the first martyrs. How? He admits that he was wrong, and works to set thing right. After Jesus' resurrection, Peter replies to Jesus three times "Lord, you know I love you". He takes on the role of leadership once Jesus ascends into Heaven and leads the early Christians through the beginnings of their evangelization and persecution.

Boss Speaker

During Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles, they began speaking in various languages and preaching to the Jews. Many were confused, and others thought the Apostles were drunk. St. Peter replied with the first century equivalent of "Dude, it's only 9am!" before launching into an epic speech explaining why it was that the Apostles could speak in tongues and he taught the crowds about the truth of Jesus. At the end, St. Peter asked the people to be baptized in the name of Jesus, and 3000! people were added to the number of Christians that day.

Not to mention, during this time period, Peter and the Apostles were brought before the Pharisees. When the Pharisees would accuse them of crimes and blasphemies and attempt to have the Apostles dig themselves into a hole, Peter always came back with the best response to keep from falling into the Pharisees' traps.

Man of Faith

So one night the Apostles were sailing across the Sea of Galilee and a storm disturbs their boat. They see Jesus walking on the water, at first thinking that it was just a ghost or vision. Peter called out and Jesus invited him out onto the water. Because of his love for Jesus and his faith, Peter stepped out of that boat and walked on top of that rough sea water to join Jesus.

Granted, Peter eventually began to fall and Jesus had to rescue him and rebuke him for his little faith, but just think how amazing it is that, because of his love for Jesus and his desire to follow him, Peter was able to walk on top of the sea even for a short time.

St. Paul

Change of Heart

St. Paul was a strict and dedicated Jewish man before his conversion. He was so dedicated, that when Christianity first came into being, St. Paul (also named Saul) would capture and persecute any Christian person he could find. Just think about that. The man who wrote many of the letters found in the New Testament started out by imprisoning Christian people. However, after a miraculous encounter with Jesus, St. Paul converted and became one of the greatest evangelizers the Church has ever known.

Deep Conviction

St. Paul's characteristic dedication transferred well into his life as a Christian. Often times, when preaching about Jesus in various towns and synagogues, Paul would cause such trouble that mobs of people would gather to beat and stone him. There is one story in Acts that explains that Paul was injured so bad from one stoning that people thought he was dead and dragged him outside the city wells. However, Paul woke up, got to his feet, and walked right back into the city to continue evangelizing to the people like a boss.

Reaching Out

The early Christian movement before Paul was focused on the conversion of the Jewish people. However, it was St. Paul who began to reach out to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish, pagan members of society. At first, this caused a stir within the Christian community, however, St. Peter had a vision and agreed that it was the right thing to do to reach out to the Gentiles. It was St. Paul who was the primary evangelizer to the Gentiles and without him, it might have been some time before Christianity became its own entity that differed from Judaism.

The Community of St. Paul, MO.

When my parents first told me, at the end of last summer, that they were moving to St. Paul, I looked at them curiously and asked, "Minnesota?". Turns out, there's a St. Paul in Missouri, which is a small community in the northern part of O'Fallon, a city of St. Charles county so it's still pretty close to the other homes that I grew up in.

I really enjoy walking around this area, even if it's the kind of neighborhood that doesn't have a lot of sidewalks, but I can enjoy walking through the grass instead. It's been so great getting to know this place during my short time thus far. I want to share with y'all some of the great things about my new home area, especially with those of you who do not live close by.

The city shares its name with the local Catholic Church, which is pretty much the hub of the community and luckily a short walk from my family's home. While the church may not be very large, the pews get pretty full for every Mass and there is a perpetual adoration chapel in the building so that folks have a close place to quietly pray. When driving around St. Paul, you can see the steeple from far off distance.

It looks even cooler at night with the light shining on it.

The Knights of Columbus have their hall just down the road from the church and it hosts many activities.

Though the chief activity here is Bingo, naturally.

There are soccer fields, baseball fields, and picnic grounds all right around the church as well, giving the local youth places to play and giving family members of all ages a place to enjoy spending time outside together. Surprisingly the church and its community is big enough to have its own school, which always makes for interesting Daily Mass whenever the kids file in.

One of the highlights of my walks or drives around St. Paul is that I spot many statues of  the Blessed Virgin Mary outside of the homes around here. It's pretty inspiring seeing so many images of Mary, along with other statues of angels and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I think it helps to connect the community here by gathering them together not just as a neighborhood where people live but also as a faith-based community.

The close-by church and church-oriented community are not the only features of St. Paul's.

Cady-corner from my house is the local tavern, the Dog Prairie Tavern, known for their fish fridays and sand volleyball.

What "The Dog" looks like when business is slow on Mondays

There's also a small automotive repair shop across from the tavern, which is pretty reassuring having a car shop so close to the house. The city hall is almost more like a room in the same building as the local fire department, though thankfully we rarely see or hear fire trucks coming in and out of the place.

We also have what I like to call a local "Boo Radley house". It's an old, small brick house that's been abandoned, with a decrepit barn in the backyard, a fenced front porch, and a sign saying "No Trespassing", all of which makes it both creepy and cool to walk by every time.

It's just about a five minute drive down some small rural roads to the closest gas station and library. In my opinion, the only thing missing from the community is a grocery store and perhaps a fast food restaurant or two, although it really does not take long to get to either type of establishment.

Hopefully this post has given you some idea about the size of the community. It's not too big, but that's part of the charm. It's much quieter out here than in most other parts of the county. These are all things that I have found to appreciate in my new community.