St. Paul Catholic Church

Families in Christ Jesus Community
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Catholic Vs. Protestant Bibles

Question: Why are Catholic and Protestant Bibles different?
Answer: Since the earliest days of the Church, Christians used a Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. This collection of the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures included 46 books. At the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, the Protestant reformers began to create their own translations of the Bible (into local languages) and some began to question why the Jewish Scriptures would have included texts that were written in Greek, because, they assumed, the only valid Jewish Scriptures would have been written in He- brew. And so, they decided to remove seven books from the Old Testament: Baruch, Sirach, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Tobit, Judith and Wisdom (as well as portions of the Books of Daniel and Esther). This means that the Protestant Old Testament only includes 39 books, while Catholic Bibles continue to include those original 46 books. Both Catholic and Protestant Bibles include 27 books and letters in the New Testament. ©LPi

Sanctity of Life

• Pregnant and in need? Help is available at www.OptionLine.org or 1-800-712-HELP.
• Homeless and pregnant? Call Good Counsel Homes at 1-800-723-8331 or www.goodcounselhomes.org.
• Hurting from abortion? Visit www.AbortionForgiveness.com
• If you are pregnant, worried and need help. You are not alone. We can help! Call THE GABRIEL PROJECT HOTLINE: 800-910-0191

Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

— Father John Muir

Once I gave my three-year-old niece a certain toy for Christ- mas. When she opened it, she was happy. Shortly thereafter her five-year old sister opened another present from me: the same toy, along with some play jewelry. The three-year-old cried out: “That’s not fair! Why’d she get the jewelry, too?!”

Let’s face it: there’s something about God’s grace in our religion which bugs us. We love to look at others’ blessings and cry out: “That’s not fair!” Catholicism is not fair in the sense that it is a religion founded on God’s grace which is unmerited favor. God pours his mercy, love, and divine life upon us not because we’re good but because He is infinitely good.

If you think the “not fair” quality of grace is easy to accept, consider how typically angry we get when we hear the parable of the workers who get paid way more than they deserve. The hypergenerous landowner says to the indignant hard workers, “Are you envious because I am generous?” Well, yes, they are, and so are we! Therefore, we have to reckon with this painful truth in order to move into the divine sphere of gifts, which is the world of Christ and his Church. Then we are able to move beyond a tit-for-tat world and into one where gifts are poured forth on those who don’t deserve it namely, upon us. ©LPi

The Invitation to the Vineyard—By Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman
I have been working since I was 17, and in that time, I’ve encountered my fair share of bosses who don’t like being, well, fair.

There was the retail gig that paid me less than the offi- cial minimum wage because I was a minor and scheduled me for long shifts because it meant cheaper labor. There was the restaurant manager who tried to convince me to leave seventh period early so I could waitress on a busy dinner shift (totally illegal, by the way). There was the unpaid internship with the editor who had no sense of work/life balance.

Our resumes are all full of these experiences  it’s capitalism, after all. It conditions us to look out for ourselves, because we know no one else will. And it breeds an attitude of suspicion that often blooms into jealousy when we encounter the reckless mercy of God.

Most of us work hard for what we have in this life, and so we make the mistake of thinking we deserve the good things that come our way. That’s all right and good when we’re talking about a just wage. But sometimes we get our lines blurred and we begin to think we deserve, or have done something to earn, the salvation offered by Christ.

I am not the laborer who has borne the heat of long hours in the sun. I am the straggler, the lost one, the idler at the marketplace as the day draws to a close.

“As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9 ©LPi