Letter 1102: The spiritual life is a journey with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
On the Apostle: "He is a vessel of election unto me." "This is a vessel of election" — that is, a chosen vessel — Christ says of Paul, when he entrusted the apostolic proclamation to him. For he would not have handed over the Church, for which he had shed his precious blood, to a man of merely moderate abilities, one who did not have virtue and industry equal to and commensurate with so great a grace. Nor would he have given him this testimony and commission if he had not seen his readiness and eagerness matching the magnitude of the task itself. For the remaining apostles were able to meet the need through their proximity to the Lord and the instruction they received from him directly; but Paul, who came later and had not accompanied Christ during his earthly ministry, needed to display a zeal so extraordinary that it would compensate for what he lacked in firsthand experience. And this is exactly what happened: his fervent spirit, his tireless labors, his willingness to suffer every hardship for the Gospel — all these proved that the One who chose him was not mistaken. For God, who sees the secrets of the heart, perceived in Paul a soul capable of bearing the weight of the entire Gentile mission, and therefore entrusted him with the most extensive and difficult field of preaching.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
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SEU LITTERARUM PFI.AGII to PAPAM INNOCENTIUM, after MORTEM his, but CIM EUM DEFUNCTUM NESCIRET, SCRIPTARUM FRAGMENTA.