Throughout this year, I’m sharing reflections on powerful Scripture passages over at Aleteia. But I’m also hoping that you’ll be memorizing them along with me, and a few paragraphs on what they mean isn’t going to help with that. Cue multiple intelligences training! I don’t just read things and remember, I use songs and images to help. In fact, almost every passage of Scripture that I have memorized has a tune that I sing in my head while I recite it aloud. And derivative as they might be, they work! So I’m sharing those with you, images to set as your phone’s wallpaper and mp3s of verses that will get stuck in your head for days. Enjoy!
In honor of St. Paul’s feast day, I thought I’d share some of my favorite Pauline verses. Paul’s one of my best friends–we basically have the same life, after all–so it only makes sense to give him a little feast day love.
He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” I would rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, with insults, with hardships, persecutions, and constraints for the sake of Christ, for when I am weak then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
More or less a list of the Scriptures I’ve got memorized, though I didn’t list most of the apologetics type ones.
Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7)
Who confers distinction on you? What do you possess that you have not received? And if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it? (1 Corinthians 4:7)
No trial has come to you but what is human. God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength, but with the trial he will also provide a way out so that you may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
I have great confidence in you. I have great pride in you. I am filled with encouragement. I am overflowing with joy all the more because of our afflictions. (2 Corinthians 7:4)
I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:12-13)
I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourself to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:12-17)
We hold these treasures in earthen vessels that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way but not constrained, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying about int he body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:7-11)
Therefore we are not discouraged, rather though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen, for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer. (Romans 12:12)
We know that all things work for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, so that he might be the firstborn of many brothers. and those he predestined, he also called, and those he called he also justified, and those he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? he who did not spare his own son, but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him? Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us–who will condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, also was raised who also sits at the right of the throne of God who indeed intercedes for us. What will separate us and the love of Christ? Will anguish, distress, persecution or famine, nakedness, peril, or the sword? As it is written, for your sake, we are being slain all the day. We are looked upon as seep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to come between us and the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:28-39)
But whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider as a loss because of Christ. More than this: I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things, and I consider them so much rubbish that I may may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:7-8)
Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But to those who are called, Jew and Greek alike, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. (1 Corinthians 1:22-25)
If I preach the Gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed upon me, and woe to me if I do not preach it. (1 Corinthians 9:16)
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God and that you are not your own? For you were purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
But God showed us his love: that while we were still in sin, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
For this reason I kneel before the Father,15from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)
For to me, life is Christ and death is gain. (Philippians 1:21)
For to you has been granted for the sake of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him. (Philippians 1:29)
What about you? What are your favorites from Saint Paul?
