The Liberating Road Of Conversion

Do you feel closer to God now than you did at the beginning of Lent? If not, there’s still time during this Holy Week. There is still time to allow His grace to draw you closer to Him.

Why should this be done? Well, as Saint John Paul II said in his 1982 Message for Lent:

If there is still some distance between God and ourselves, that can only be due to us and to the obstacles we place in the way of this coming close: the sin which is in our heart, the injustices that we commit, the hatred and divisions that we foster, everything that still prevents us from loving God with all our heart and our strength. The time of Lent is the special time for purification and penance, so as to allow our Savior to make us his neighbor and save us by his love.

The Church celebrates the Resurrection in six days, and in order to feel the joy of Easter we must realize how much we need a Savior. We must realize how empty we are without the risen Christ. In order to share in the overwhelming happiness experienced by the Apostles, we must undergo a conversion that leads our hearts to the Messiah!

“Penance, conversion: this is the road to follow; not a sad one, but a liberating one suggested by the Lenten period,” John Paul II wrote. Let us experience the freedom of conversion this Holy Week, as we travel with Christ from Calvary to the Resurrection.

St. John Paul II, Pray for Us!

The Possibility of Peace

Jesus I trust in You! … Spes contra spem! With God nothing is impossible! What is especially possible is conversion, which can change hatred into love and war into peace. And so our prayer becomes all the more insistent and trusting: Jesus, I trust in you!

-Blessed John Paul II, 1994

The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

Destined to evangelize the Gentiles 'to turn them from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God that they may obtain the forgiveness of their sins' (Acts 26:18), Saul is called by Christ, above all, to work a radical conversion upon himself. Saul thus begins his laborious road of conversion that will last as long as he lives, beginning with unusual humility with that ‘what must I do, Lord?’ and docilely letting himself be led by the hand to Ananias, through whose prophetic ministry it will be given to him to know God's plan.

-Blessed John Paul II, Jan. 25,1983

On this Feast of your Conversion, St. Paul, pray for Christians throughout the world, that we may be constantly converted to an ever-stronger bond of unity in Our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Holy Spirit leads us through personal conversions and dark nights

Pope Benedict XVI has had some inspiring things to say about a variety of topics this past week.

Last Thursday, the pontiff addressed a group of bishops from Italy, reminding them that personal holiness is the first step in re-converting Europe. This interior conversion builds the foundation for living the New Evangelization. He said:

The fundamental condition in order to be able to speak about God is to speak with God, increasingly to become men of God, nourished by an intense life of prayer and molded by his grace.

An intimate relationship with God is vital if we are to fight evil in this world, and so are “dark nights.” Earlier last week, Pope Benedict addressed those times in his life when things were not all joyful and wonderful, and he thanked God for the good that came out of them.

The Holy Spirit gives us these conversions and “dark nights,” and it is His love that gets us through. The Spirit also gives the Church unity, which is ever more important in this age of the New Evangelization. On Pentecost, Pope Benedict said:

…unity can only exist as a gift of God’s Spirit who will give us a new heart and a new language, a new ability to communicate.

Come Holy Spirit, then. Unite this Church in Christ’s love, and give us what we need to spread the Gospel throughout the world.