Skip to content

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Saint Paul...a continued example of radical conversion!

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes

By Hugh McNichol
Op/Ed
Catholic Online

Most Catholics never have quite the conversion experience that was experienced by Saint Paul. However the call to conversion is heard clearly and loudly through our faith in Christ Jesus every single day. Recently, I had a conversation with someone who asked me if I had accepted Jesus as my personal Savior! Well, anytime someone poses that question to me it rubs against my personal and communal faith that was gifted to me by my sacramental Baptism, and the gift of Eucharistic nourishment. Furthermore, such as question often implies that faith in Jesus Christ is solely a personal acceptance and function of one's individual faith. As a Catholic believer, I wholeheartedly accept and believe in Jesus Christ and accept Him as my personal Savior. As an intrinsic part of that belief, I also believe in the divine institution of the Catholic Church as revealed to all of us through the Word of God, the Sacraments and the teachings of the Apostles. Most emphatically my religious faith is deeply intertwined with the mystery of Jesus Incarnation, His crucifixion and most especially the glory of His resurrection.

Perhaps Saint Paul best encapsulates the radical transformation on all levels of his ontological being that faith in Jesus Christ brings about! His revelational moment offered Saint Paul the sacred moment of kairos that resulted in his unconditional recognition of the Gospel message. In our own lives as Catholic believers, our moments of conversion are not as dramatically revealed in such powerful actions such as being catapulted from the saddle of a horse, but they are no less transforming and sacred.

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Saint Paul's conversion shows all of us in Catholicism that our experience of faith is indeed a moment of deep catharsis, a time when our proclamation of faith is the seminal moment of our religious rebirth. For most believers, we experienced this moment as infants through Baptism, in the conferral of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation and in the ever sustaining Eucharist which is the center and focus of our lives as worshiping Catholics. It never at any time dawns on me to answer the question posed by inquisitive newly minted Christian followers in a manner that indicates any type of conversion or salvation outside of the Sacraments and the Catholic Church. My fiduciary faith in Jesus Christ is rooted in the sacramental life and the ongoing ministry of the Catholic Church. Every day is an ongoing participation in the Paschal Mystery of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. Every day is a conversion towards God and faith in the eschatological mystery of participation in His eternal life.

Perhaps the real message of Saint Paul's radical conversion is simply that: radical. He completely turned away from a life that was besieged by secularism and human consumption and embraced the message of faith and love offered by Jesus on the road to Damascus. Well, every day all Catholics are reaffirming their radical profession of faith in Christ Jesus and His Church through countless examples of "transforming" activities that are realized in the actions of each Catholic believer and through the ministry of reconciliation and renewal that is offered everyday in both our individual and sacramental oblations to and for the future of the Universal Church.

As a faithful Catholic, it especially pains me to hear, watch and observe Catholic actions and activities that take careful aim at the universal harmony which the ministry of the Church offers to the entire compilation of all of mankind. That is why the Pauline example of conversion is so resonant in our modern world and Church...the call to unconditional faith and ministry to Jesus Christ is continuously proclaimed in the temporal and sacramental life of our Catholic Church. Most especially, and in some respects this author advocates, to the point of theological nausea the specific call Jesus makes to the whole world for conversion through the apostolic ministry of our Holy Father, Benedict XVI.

Benedict like Saint Paul proclaims clearly and loudly the need for adversio from things and movements that are contrary to Catholic moral and social teachings, not just because secularization offers a diminished realization of human spiritual potential, but because secularization lacks a fundamental appreciation and expectation of what it means to be converting to a deeper understanding of God and indeed all of humanity.

The Catholic Church through Benedict challenges all humanity to undergo a spiritual and temporal conversion just like Saint Paul and to reaffirm faith in Jesus Christ not just as a personal Savior, but as the key and integral factor that leads towards the salvation of the entire world. Today as we celebrate the proclamation of unconditional faith by Saint Paul in Jesus Christ...lets all profess as Catholics our same unconditional desire towards constant conversion to Christ Jesus!

Contact

TriNet Technologies Consultants Inc
http://verbumcarofactumest.blogspot.com DE, US
Hugh McNichol - Author, 302 6339348

Email

hugh.mcnichol@trinettc.com

Keywords

conversion

More Catholic PRWire

Showing 1 - 50 of 4,716

A Recession Antidote
Randy Hain

Monaco & The Vatican: Monaco's Grace Kelly Exhibit to Rome--A Review of Monegasque-Holy See Diplomatic History
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.

The Why of Jesus' Death: A Pauline Perspective
Jerom Paul

A Royal Betrayal: Catholic Monaco Liberalizes Abortion
Dna. Maria St.Catherine De Grace Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.

Embrace every moment as sacred time
Mary Regina Morrell

My Dad
JoMarie Grinkiewicz

Letting go is simple wisdom with divine potential
Mary Regina Morrell

Father Lombardi's Address on Catholic Media
Catholic Online

Pope's Words to Pontifical Latin American College
Catholic Online

Prelate: Genetics Needs a Conscience
Catholic Online

State Aid for Catholic Schools: Help or Hindrance?
Catholic Online

Scorsese Planning Movie on Japanese Martyrs
Catholic Online

2 Nuns Kidnapped in Kenya Set Free
Catholic Online

Holy See-Israel Negotiation Moves Forward
Catholic Online

Franchising to Evangelize
Catholic Online

Catholics Decry Anti-Christianity in Israel
Catholic Online

Pope and Gordon Brown Meet About Development Aid
Catholic Online

Pontiff Backs Latin America's Continental Mission
Catholic Online

Cardinal Warns Against Anti-Catholic Education
Catholic Online

Full Circle
Robert Gieb

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Three words to a deeper faith
Paul Sposite

Relections for Lent 2009
chris anthony

Wisdom lies beyond the surface of life
Mary Regina Morrell

World Food Program Director on Lent
Catholic Online

Moral Clarity
DAN SHEA

Pope's Lenten Message for 2009
Catholic Online

A Prayer for Monaco: Remembering the Faith Legacy of Prince Rainier III & Princess Grace and Contemplating the Moral Challenges of Prince Albert II
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe

Keeping a Lid on Permissiveness
Sally Connolly

Glimpse of Me
Sarah Reinhard

The 3 stages of life
Michele Szekely

Sex and the Married Woman
Cheryl Dickow

A Catholic Woman Returns to the Church
Cheryl Dickow

Modernity & Morality
Dan Shea

Just a Minute
Sarah Reinhard

Catholic identity ... triumphant reemergence!
Hugh McNichol

Edging God Out
Paul Sposite

Burying a St. Joseph Statue
Cheryl Dickow

George Bush Speaks on Papal Visit
Catholic Online

Sometimes moving forward means moving the canoe
Mary Regina Morrell

Action Changes Things: Teaching our Kids about Community Service
Lisa Hendey

Easter... A Way of Life
Paul Spoisite

Papal initiative...peace and harmony!
Hugh McNichol

Proclaim the mysteries of the Resurrection!
Hugh McNichol

Jerusalem Patriarch's Easter Message
Catholic Online

Good Friday Sermon of Father Cantalamessa
Catholic Online

Papal Address at the End of the Way of the Cross
Catholic Online

Cardinal Zen's Meditations for Via Crucis
Catholic Online

Interview With Vatican Aide on Jewish-Catholic Relations
Catholic Online

Pope Benedict XVI On the Easter Triduum
Catholic Online

Holy Saturday...anticipation!
Hugh McNichol

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Prayer of the Day logo
Saint of the Day logo

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.