pathways, June 09
A relevance of St Paul today is that he models for the modern Church what it is to have known Jesus by faith alone, says scripture scholar Michele Connolly RSJ, one of the three speakers at the June 30 e-conference to mark the end of the Year of Paul.
Sr Michele
(centre), a scripture scholar for about 25 years, lecturer and deputy president of the Catholic Institute of Sydney, will join fellow scholar Brendan Byrne SJ, and media specialist Richard Leonard SJ as presenters for the
historic conference,
Paul - The Man, the Mission and Message for Today: igniting his purpose and passion.
Paul is a man, who having met Christ crucified and raised, was possessed by the Sprit. He believed that he had been gifted with the task of making this enormous treasure known to the world, according to Sr Michele
"One of the great relevances of Paul is that he models for us very early in the Christian community what it is to know Jesus by faith rather than having known him in the flesh.
"The other thing that Paul does is than he puts words on that experience in the very first generations of people coming to know Jesus ... (and who were) living in many ways the same challenges that we ourselves experience in our own time."
From her years of teaching the gospel of Mark, she found that the gospel was an extremely powerful text.
"I felt I needed to understand it so that I could teach it in a way that used that power well."
Even so, she admits to an affinity with Paul.
"I enjoy Paul.
"I knew nothing about Paul when I was doing my first degree. I was a little bit frighted of Paul because he had a reputation for being difficult and people used long, polysyllabic words to talk about his concepts and I thought he was all concepts.
"The writings of some outstanding scholars (of whom Brendan Byrne SJ is one) helped me to understand the authentic, human, religious experience that Paul had in encounter with Christ crucified and raised.
"And so I was able to see that Paul was talking about an authentic religious experience ... he is very exciting because he taps into that, in what it seems to me, a very real way."
Sr Michele says that the message of Paul is: For freedom, Christ has set us free. Walk in freedom then. Do not become slaves of the flesh.
During the e-conference, Sr Michele will discuss Paul: Apostle of God's limitless love and later speak about how to hear a Pauline letter today.
Fr Byrne will begin the conference with Who was Paul? How does his encounter with Christ speak to us today? and later he will look at Paul's sense of God: grace, spirit and hope.
Fr Leonard will speak on communicating the Good News today.
In the final session the three speakers will offer reflections and answer questions emailed from around Australia.
The e-conference will be web-cast live to host sites across the nation, and will be interspersed with opportunities for local gatherings to discuss the sessions with the guidance of a trained facilitator.
The conference is scheduled for 10.30am-4pm Eastern Standard Time; 10am-3.30pm Central Standard Time and from 8.30am-2pm Western Standard Time but it will remain on the website for some time.
Sr Michele believes that the Year of Paul which ends on June 29 has made him more accessible to many people and has helped shift the focus of Catholic scripture reading from the gospels.
"People have heard about Paul and have been amazed that Paul is so much more alive, real, grounded and exciting - and just animated by the spirit of God.
"It looks to me as though people have thought: Paul could be someone I could read and get something from.
"How that plays out in the future, I don't know, but I think certainly an appetite has been whetted."
Site registrations for the e-conference have opened. To register your parish or church group to take part in the Year of St Paul National E-Conference on
Tuesday, June 30, simply follow the link to Year of St Paul on
the Broken Bay Institute homepage.
For more information on the e-conference, email
Virginia Ryan at the Broken Bay Institute, or phone 02 9847 0556.
A list of all e-conference host sites will be available on the Broken Bay Institute website. It should be available from the middle of June. All interested people are encouraged to contact their nearest host centre for local arrangements.
photo: Michele Connolly RSJ (centre) is pictured with Tasmania's congregational leaders, Majella Kelly PBVM (left) and Jill Dance SSJ, recently, when Sr Michele was in Tasmania at the invitation of CRITAS to give several talks on Paul. It was while in Hobart that she spoke with pathways editor Penny Edman.
A WEEKEND REFLECTION to close the Year of Paul
presented by Verna Holyhead SGS
June 19-21
Mount Saint Benedict Centre
449D Pennant Hills Road, Pennant Hills
A CLOSING MASS for the end of the Year of St Paul
St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Sunday, June 28, at 10.30 am.
The principal celebrant: Cardinal George Pell.
The event will be hosted by members of the Pauline Family -
the Society of St Paul, the Daughters of St Paul,
the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master and
the Sisters of Jesus Good Shepherd (Pastorelle).
RSVP for catering purposes to
02 9394 3406 or 0421 811 863
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