St. Paul and Ancient History in Ephesus

In Turkey, we also visited the ruins of Ephesus. Ephesus is an ancient city; many of the ruins we saw were from the first century A.D. Turkey itself is the seat of ancient civilizations, where the Euphrates and Tigres Rivers originate, the land of Mesopotamia.

Our tour guide, John. Photo by Peggy Arizzi.

Our friendly and knowledgable tour guide John told us that Turkey has more ancient ruins than Greece and Italy combined. Turkey, a country of 80 million people, is a secular nation that is 97 percent Muslim. Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 by Ataturk who gave women the right to vote and run for office.

Paul was in Ephesus, a major city, for three years, a time described in Acts 19. Like other places he went, Paul's time in Ephesus was a combination of successes and hardships. He converted many people to Christianity but also angered blacksmiths and other craftsmen with his denunciations of idol worship.

We didn't see many places directly associated with Paul in Ephesus, but the ruins there are some of the most well preserved.

Besides spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ in Ephesus, Paul also wrote the first letter to the Corinthians here with its beautiful passage on love.

Above an ancient board game similar to backgammon.

The Library of Celsius, the third largest in the ancient world. Female statues representing Wisdom, Knowledge, Virtue, and Fortune that once stood at the library are now in the Ephesus Museum in Vienna (!)

I do love libraries.

The Monument of Memmius.

One website describes the above as an early example of graffiti, advertising a house of prostitution. The foot points the direction and the heart with all the holes indicates that there are women who will give you love, but that you won't be the only one.

I found the above latrines so fascinating, possibly because it is very easy to envision people using them! There was little privacy in the Roman world.

Acts of the Apostles 19:23-41 describes a riot in this theater as a result of Paul's preaching.

Paul wrote a beautiful letter to the Ephesians. Providentially, the daily Mass readings on our pilgrimage have been from this epistle. 

In Acts 20, Paul speaks of his time in Ephesus. He quotes Jesus in verse 35, a quote that doesn't appear in any of the gospels. "In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort we must help the weak, and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

Lots of stray cats and dogs in Turkey and Greece.

We also stopped at a Turkish rug factory.

Pulling up the gangplank to our cruise ship.

Leaving the port town of Kusadasi in Turkey. Onto to Patmos!

Home of Our Blessed Mother Mary at Ephesus

The second stop on our cruise wasn't an island but rather the country of Turkey, where we were bound for Ephesus. Lovely scenery along the coast.

One of our main purposes in coming to Turkey was to visit the home of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Tradition says that St. John brought Mary to Ephesus after Jesus ascended to heaven. Above is a building on the site of the original home.

I read a book about the house, Mary's House in Ephesus by Rev. Carl G. Schulte. The book describes how a French Daughter of Charity Sister, Marie de Mandat-Grancey, found the location of Mary's house based on the visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich.

We were able to pass through the house but were not permitted to take photos. The Muslims revere Mary also and she is mentioned more times in the Koran than she is in the Bible.

One of the things that I didn't think about until recently is how Mary would have received Jesus, her Son, in the Eucharist. In the last weeks of his life, my brother Father James King, wrote a column about Mary that touches upon this. The column, which was published in the Diocese of Peoria newspaper, the Catholic Post, is below.

Column on Mary by Father James King

If we are practicing the Catholic faith, nearly all of us receive Holy Communion regularly. But
how can we receive our Lord more fruitfully so that the Sacrament leads us to truly be more like
Christ. Especially in this month of October, it is hard to think of a better way to become like
Jesus then by turning to His Mother and our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Once we as Catholics have received the sacrament of Baptism, there is truly nothing more
important that we can do in this life than to receive the sacrament of our Lord’s Body and Blood
in Holy Communion.

“The more you let Mary act in your Communion, the more Jesus will be glorified."
                                                                                                                     St. Louis de Montefort.

The Church Herself teaches us to turn to Our Lady for help after receiving Jesus in Holy
Communion. In the book containing the prayers for the Mass called the Roman Missal, there is
an appendix that contains prayers that can be said by a priest after Mass. Many of these prayers
are also suitable for lay people. The prayer to Our Lady reads as follows:

O Mary, Virgin and Mother most holy,
behold, I have received your most dear Son,
whom you conceived in your immaculate womb,
brought forth, nursed and embraced most tenderly.
Behold him at whose sight
you used to rejoice and be filled with all delight;
him whom, humble and lovingly,
once again I present
and offer him to you
to be clasped in your arms,
to be loved by your heart,
and to be offered up to the Most Holy Trinity
as the supreme worship of adoration,
for your own honor and glory
and for my needs and for those of the whole world.
I ask you therefore, most loving Mother:
entreat for me the forgiveness of all my sins
and, in abundant measure, the grace
of serving him in the future more faithfully,
and at the last, final grace,
so that with you I may praise him
for all the ages of ages.
Amen

The Church encourages us to spend time after Mass in thanksgiving for receiving our Lord in the
Blessed Sacrament. This thanksgiving can be made in church or at home if we are unable to stay
after Mass. The prayers asking Our Lady’s help can also be prayed when we return to our seat
after receiving Holy Communion.

There are other ways of asking for Our Lady’s help. We can ask her to thank Jesus for us for
having received Him in Holy Communion.

As grateful as you may be to Jesus, she is far more grateful than we are that Jesus has given
Himself to us for receiving Holy Communion.

We can also pray a prayer like the following: “Oh Lord, I thank you for feeding me with your
Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in union with the thanksgiving that the Blessed Virgin Mary,
your mother offered to you when she received you in Holy Communion." Then take a moment to
try and imagine the thanksgiving that the Blessed Virgin offered to her Son when she received
Him in Holy Communion. Imitate her thanksgiving and enter into it.

There is much more that could be said but I hope these few thoughts will provide some food for
thought and prayer.