‘My life is already being poured away like a libation.’ That line contains the secret of Paul’s whole personality. The word he uses for 'libation' is the one from which we get our word ‘spend’. Paul discovered somewhere along the line that spending yourself is what life is all about. He learned that when you give you always gain. All this is beautifully expressed somehow in the way Paul met his martyrdom. It was at a place just outside Rome which is called Tre Fontane – 3 Fountains. Here, so legend has it, where Paul was beheaded, his head bounced three times. And in the places where it hit the ground there sprung up 3 fountains. It’s a perfect picture of the fruitfulness of sacrifice. Of how wherever and whenever we spend ourselves something new always springs up, something more always springs forth. It’s an accurate image of how sacrificial love always makes history. As it did in Paul’s life and death. As it did in the life and death of his Lord.
 
Canon John Udris, Cathedral Dean