Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Gift of Faithful Pastors — This week gives us opportunity to meditate upon three minor festivals that commemorate the gift of pastors. St. Timothy, Pastor and Confessor, became a catechumen of Paul on Paul’s second missionary journey. His Jewish mother and grandmother are credited with teaching him the Scriptures from childhood. Timothy continued with Paul and became a fellow minister of the Gospel who would train other men to be pastors.  The Conversion of St. Paul commemorates the grace of God that calls obstinate, self-righteous sinners to repentance and faith. Saul of Tarsus met the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, Syria. He had letters in hand from the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem to arrest those who called on the name of the Lord Jesus. This embittered Pharisee and persecutor of the Church became, by the grace of God, a faithful apostle of the Gospel he once tried to destroy. St. Titus, Pastor and Confessor, was a Greek convert to the Christian faith from Antioch, Syria. Titus assisted Paul in the distribution of funds collected to assist the poor, suffering Church of Judea. Like Timothy, Titus was an envoy of the Apostle Paul to many of the churches throughout Asia and Greece. He assisted in the training of pastors in those cities and would end his life as the bishop of Crete. CP230122