This week’s reading from the First Letter to Timothy celebrates Saint Paul’s remarkable transformation from “a man of violence” to a servant of Jesus Christ. Paul admits, more than once in the New Testament, that he had tried to destroy the new faith with the utmost brutality. But - in a moment of blinding light and a call from Jesus - he changed completely and devoted his life to spreading the Gospel. We can take great encouragement from this. If he could become a faithful servant of Christ, then so can all of us, whatever our inner struggles, faults, and past and current failures! We just need, like him, to recognise our frailty and open ourselves to the “grace of our Lord” overflowing “with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”

Rev Richard