INTRODUCTION TO THE 2024 LENT PROJECT

EXPLORING THE HEART OF ST. PAUL: 
LENTEN MEDITATIONS FROM THE LETTERS OF THE APOSTLE

Lent is a grace-filled season of the year when we determine to offer more of our time in prayer, fasting, and giving to the One who gave his all for us. Some look at the forty days of Lent as part of their annual tithe back to God. It’s not that we don’t live for Christ all year, but Lent is a good occasion to do that yearly deep soul cleansing—it’s a time of heartfelt self-examination and introspection, interior repentance, and renewed dedication to “take up one’s cross” and with revitalized vigor follow in the footsteps of the Lord. 

This year our Lenten meditations explore the heart of St. Paul, the “last apostle,” whose dramatic conversion changed the course of human history. It has been said that the Apostle Paul’s influence was profound wherever he preached the gospel from the land of Israel and throughout Asia Minor, Greece, Sicily, and Rome. Paul wrote more New Testament books than any other contributor. Depending on who you ask, the general consensus is that Paul wrote at least seven books on his own, and he either wrote or contributed to six more. The book of Hebrews (which we include in these devotionals) is up for grabs, but throughout the bulk of church history, it was attributed to St. Paul or to one of his close associates. There’s good reason to believe that Paul wrote fourteen of the twenty-seven New Testament volumes.

Paul’s epistles have had a major influence on the development of Christian theology and the formation of an inclusive, worldwide Christianity as we know it today. He powerfully reiterated the teachings of Jesus, contextualizing them for his various readers. As a faithful follower of Christ, Paul, like other biblical authors, “received” and then “passed on” the faith as it was delivered to him. His teachings have played a significant role in the development of Western civilization. British historian and author Tom Holland, in his book Dominion, suggests that the theology and life of St. Paul is similar to “a depth charge dropped beneath the turbulent sea of the Greco-Roman culture. The explosion was not felt immediately; but the ripple effects utterly transformed the Western world over the course of the next eleven centuries.” Paul’s long shadow has not only influenced every Christian who has lived since the apostle, but has extended to those who have been recipients of the ideas surrounding democracy, human flourishing, and personal freedom. It is a deep joy to offer our readers “Exploring the Life of St. Paul: Lenten Meditations from the Letters of the Apostle.”