When we read the Letters of St. Paul, or even from yesterday’s homily, we might get the impression of a man of overwhelming zeal and extraordinary presence much like Pope John Paul in his early days or perhaps even Billy Graham. But such was not always the case.

A few weeks ago we heard Paul speak of his skolops, that’s not the shell fish, it was translated as thorn in the flesh; whether it was a physical, spiritual, or emotional disorder it aggravated Paul to pray three times for deliverance. But the Lord said: No, my grace is sufficient for you.

Paul in humility accepted that grace as we hear today in this encounter at Philipi. A young girl was possessed of some clairvoyant spirit and brought a substantial profit for herself and her "handlers" by fortunetelling.

For several days, the spirit within her moved her to stalk Paul and ridicule his preaching. His human emotions understandably disturbed, he ordered the spirit to depart, which it did, leaving the girl and her masters without further source of income

Angered, and unwilling to tolerate this meddling by Paul, the men trumped up charges against him, had him beaten and thrown into prison. Enduring this humiliation he eventually escaped prison and returned to Thessalonica.

From this experience Paul learned how necessary to depend on God an not himself. With that realization he found courage to continue preach in the face of any opposition. He realized that the word he was called to preach was not his own, but God’s.

Perhaps you feel that you could never be as heroic or as holy as the saints throughout the ages. But they were ordinary men and women, who lived in Ordinary Time like us, They were human in every way that we are, the only difference perhaps is they learned how to hear and to depend on God instead of self. They learned to recognize that any talent they possessed or labor of love, which they performed was a gift from God.