Every heart an altar...

And so we know and rely

on the love God has for us.  ~ I John 4:16 

 

"How much I love You, O my Jesus. I wish to love You with my whole heart; yet I do not love You enough. My lack of devotion and my sloth make me anxious. I have one desire, that of being near You in the Blessed Sacrament. You are the sweet bridegroom of my soul.  My Jesus, my love, my all, gladly would I endure hunger, thirst, heat, and cold to remain always with You in the Blessed Sacrament. Would that in Your Eucharistic presence I might unceasingly weep over my sins. Take entire possession of me. To You I consecrate all the powers of my soul and body, my whole being. Would that I could infuse into all hearts a burning love for You. What great glory would be given to You here on earth, if every heart were an altar on which every human will were laid in perfect conformity with Your Will to be consumed by the fire of Your love."  ~ St John Neumann

    FEAST* of the CONVERSION of ST PAUL

January 25

*This feast is at the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an international Christian ecumenical observance that began in 1908, which is an octave (eight-day observance) spanning from January 18 (observed as the Confession of Peter) to January 25.

 

 The Conversion of Saul -- Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

"Being converted is simply meeting yourself for the purpose of going to the very end of your being.  Conversion means a willingness to see the truth of things and conform one's conduct to it" (A. Serillanges). In the Voice and the Light that Saul encounters on the road, he sees the truth of things and willingly conforms himself to Jesus Christ. "That dear preacher Paul ... was a wolf, but he became a lamb, a gracious vessel of love - and the fire with which Christ filled his vessel he carried through the whole world" (St Catherine of Siena).  "It is clear that Paul wholly fled from himself and cast out all his own will, and that his will was active only in relation to Christ.  Since with Christ there was nothing undesirable or repugnant to his will, it follows that his was a wondrous pleasure which was always present and with which he always lived (Nicholas Cabasilas).

Excerpt from: Magnificat, Vol 14, No 11, January 2013 (pg 335-6).

Click here: Conversion of St. Paul - YouTube

St Paul, pray for our continued conversion!