Lord, let us regain our sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit...

Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

Acts 9: 1-22

 
Saul of Tarsus was one of the most unlikely candidates for conversion.  Not only had he a short time earlier stood by approvingly while Stephen, one of the first Deacons of the Church, was stoned to death, but Saul had also spent the last few months hunting down followers of Jesus, and imprisoning them, or putting them to death. We can only imagine the horror and the pain in the community of early Christians incited by ‘Saul of Tarsus’. But God’s healing power knows no bounds. Anyone, even a zealot like Saul can be turned back - ‘converted’ - to the truth and love of Father God. Anyone can ‘regain their sight’ and be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. So it was that Jesus disrupted Saul’s life of carnage and literally knocked him off his high horse. The result of conversion for Saul, was that he became Saint Paul, the energetic and prolific witness to the saving power of Christ Jesus for the rest of his life. While dodging death countless times, he travelled extensively in the Middle East spreading the Good News of God’s mercy, until he was finally captured and successfully imprisoned.  During his eight years in prison in Rome before being beheaded, he wrote nine significant Biblical letters to the churches  that for two thousand years have inspired millions. No matter how long we avert our eyes from God in ways great or small, we like Paul can be converted and return to our purpose in life, to live more fully into the presence and the will of God. Who knows what abundance of fruit my life could produce if I were to become fully engaged, like Saint Paul in living into the Good News of the mercy of God. Lord let me - let us - regain our sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
 
Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation! (St, Mark 16:15)
 
Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.
St. Catherine of Siena.
 
 
Father,
May everything we do
Begin with your inspiration,
And continue with your saving help.
Let our work always find it origin in you
And through you reach completion.
Concluding prayer. Week 1, Morning Prayer, Liturgy of the Hours.
 
 
Soli ad gloriam Dei
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