One Minute Reflection – 25 January – Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, Reading: Acts 22:3-16, Psalm 117:1-2, Mark 16:15-18
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.” … Mark 16:15
REFLECTION – “Paul’s encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus literally revolutionised his life (…) Thus, it is important to realise what a deep effect Jesus Christ can have on a person’s life, hence, also on our own lives (…) how does a human being’s encounter with Christ occur? And of what does the relationship that stems from it consist? (…) Paul helps us to understand the absolutely basic and irreplaceable value of faith. This is what he wrote in his Letter to the Romans: “We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law” (3:28). This is what he also wrote in his Letter to the Galatians: “[M]an is not justified by works of the law but only through faith in Jesus Christ” (2:16) (…) “Being justified” means being made righteous, that is, being accepted by God’s merciful justice to enter into communion with Him and, consequently, to be able to establish a far more genuine relationship with all our brethren and this takes place on the basis of the complete forgiveness of our sins. Well, Paul states with absolute clarity that this condition of life does not depend on our possible good works but on the pure grace of God – “[We] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24).
With these words St Paul expressed the fundamental content of his conversion, the new direction his life took as a result of his encounter with the Risen Christ. Before his conversion, Paul had not been a man distant from God and from his Law. On the contrary, he had been observant, with an observance, faithful to the point of fanaticism. In the light of the encounter with Christ, however, he understood that with this, he had sought to build up himself and his own justice and that with all this justice, he had lived for himself. He realised that a new approach in his life was absolutely essential. And we find this new approach expressed in his words: “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).
Paul, therefore, no longer lives for himself, for his own justice. He lives for Christ and with Christ.” … Pope Benedict XVI – General audience of 08/11/06
PRAYER – Today Lord, we celebrate the conversion of St Paul, Your chosen vessel for carrying Your name to the whole world. Help us to make our way towards You by following in his footsteps and by being Your disciples before the men and women of our day. Grant that by the prayers of St Paul, we too may say, “Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20) Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, in union with the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen.
AnaStpaul 
Thank you for these, Ana. I’m sorry I haven’t been around much lately, I’m trying to get my findings in print-book form, and I need to go into a tunnel vision and haven’t been looking at the reader.
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I have missed you but am so happy you are making progress with the book David. I sent you a new follower – she was wildly impressed by your work.
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Thank you, Ana ! I would like to see you put your works in print form, as well. This digital world is very fragile, and I do not think the info within this medium will last forever as is claimed. I also worry about how easy it is to censor and hide info from the viewing public with this medium and it’s algorithms.
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Oh how I wish that were possible David – for me, I mean but I doubt it ever would be.
I agree about the online digital world and in fact, I am horrified by a lot of it.
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Yes, horrified to be sure. They have dismantled the old analogue world to a point where we HAVE to use this medium, and, to be sure, there are positives and conveniences here, but, the very engineering, architecture of the digital world tells of bad tidings. It certainly is a great platform for evil to flourish and influence people. I can see firsthand how this digial world, where the outright lies get highlighted side-by-side with truth, has the effect of degrading truth, even making truths seem as a lie, by merely being present alongside truth. This fact is why I am having trouble getting people to look at what I present. The public is so used to seeing the lies, that everything becomes suspect. This situation we are in, where truth is smeared and put in question, seems to be a direct prophesy-fulfilled of the end-times. On your book: it seems to me it is already written in your blogs, and you just have to print it onto to paper. But, I understand, it is a lot of work and time . Thanks for your correspondence and your writtings that do shine with goodness in this medium.
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I have recently discovered so many more of the immense lies that the public eat for breakfast – lies that have encompassed the entire world!
I am so happy to find another who understands that the control of the people is fed in this way.
It frightens me and I agree wholeheartedly that the end times are now.
Being in SA David – we don’t have access to anything – hence the finance problems I have trying to run this site at all let alone print anything – sadly.
But I bless your kind words – all I live for is the truth and goodness of our faith in Christ our Lord.
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Amen, Ana ! Help is on it’s way, though !
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It is?
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Jesus’s return.
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I thought you meant that wonderful, longed for moment!
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