Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul – January 25


T. from the Haifa kehilla wrote about the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, which falls each year on January 25.

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"On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" (Acts 9:3-4). This verse from the New Testament is well-known to all of us – it begins the story of the conversion of Saul, the future apostle. Addressing the biography of this great person, we see a really heroic life, consecrated to our Lord Jesus Christ and full of unusual events. In our modern times such a life might become a film scenario – a charismatic person, miracles, voyages, persecutions, escapes... The conversion of St. Paul might seem to be a feast like any other among the many commemorative days in the Church’s liturgical calendar. But in reality, it is a unique event that changed the history of Christianity, of the Church, of all humanity. Without St. Paul significant parts of the New Testament, the inspiring Letters, would not have been written, and many Early Christian communities would not have been founded.

We call out to you, Saint Apostle! Strengthen our faith with the flame of your loving heart and help us to follow you in our way to the Lord. How? -

- May we too hear the voice of Christ, trembling with excitement, ready to say to him: "Lord, what will you have me to do?" (Acts 9:6).

- May we lose our eyesight focused on earthly goods so that being filled with the Holy Spirit, we regain our sight and see the life with a very different perspective.

- Following you, may we say: “I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead" (Phil 3:8-11).

For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. (Rom 11:36).

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