St. Paul is not commemorated, as the other Apostles are, by his death or martyrdom, but by his conversion; because, as it was wonderful in itself, so it was highly beneficial to the Church of CHRIST. By his indefatigable labors he contributed very much to the propagation of the Gospel throughout the world; and while other Apostles has their particular provinces, he had the care of all the Churches.

The Epistle relates to the conversion of St. Paul; and the Gospel exhibits the eminent reward of those who, like this Apostle, shall steadily adhere to the Saviour, and labor in his service.

[Excerpt from John Henry Hobart, A Companion for the Book of Common Prayer, Containing an Explanation of the Service, 83. 1859.]

As the design of the Church, in all her proper services, from Christmas to Epiphany, appears to be to set forth the humanity of the Saviour, and to manifest him in the flesh; so, during the Sundays after the Epiphany her design appears to be to display his divinity, by recounting to us in the Gospels, some of his first miracles and manifestations of divine power. The design of the Epistles is to excite us to imitate CHRIST as far as we can, and to manifest ourselves to be his disciples, by a constant practice of all Christian virtues.

[Excerpt from John Henry Hobart, A Companion for the Book of Common Prayer, Containing an Explanation of the Service, 82. 1859.]

In his A Companion for the Book of Common Prayer, Containing an Explanation of the Service (1859), Bishop John Henry Hobart, the third bishop of New York, included an outline of the church year. He addressed each season and holy day of the church calendar as outlined in the Book of Common Prayer. His brief commentaries on the calendar are useful for understanding the seasonal feasts and fasts, and for understanding the background of the appointed readings from the lectionary.

This book has long been out of print, though it can be procured from sellers of used books. In order to provide brief notes of educational and devotional instruction, the Society will be publishing here on its website Bishop Hobart’s commentary on the church year. Each item will be published on the day beginning the season or on the respective holy day, covering the entire church year. We hope these snippets of information will be enlightening for Anglicans and non-Anglicans alike.

Bishop Hobart’s commentary includes a few footnotes. Where we have found them to be important for the understanding of his particular remarks, we have included them; when we have found them to address marginal matters not explicitly necessary for understanding his comments, we have omitted them.

As we are only now publishing the series, we begin with the Sundays after the Epiphany and will continue until we have finished next year on the feast of Epiphany.