Tag: conversion
St. Benedict for Beginners – ‘The Way of Obedience’
‘It is by the way of obedience that we go to God.’ Benedictine monks and nuns take three vows. They promise to pursue obedience, stability, and conversion of life. Obedience is a hard word in a society that values personal freedom above anything else. But Benedict realizes that unless we submit to something greater than… Read More ›
Mercy, Conversion and Social Issues
To many people, mercy and conversion may seem like poor tools for solving social problems. Some are tempted to accept ideologies that use force to carry out their programs and impose their vision. Such means sometimes produce what appear to be successes. But these successes are not real. Force and manipulation have nothing to do… Read More ›
Father Taras Kraychuk: From drug dealer to Ukrainian Catholic monk
LAC STE. ANNE, Alberta (CNS) — For years, the alcohol, the drugs, the parties consumed Taras Kraychuk. Then, literally, he saw the light. He’s now Father Taras (Terry) Kraychuk, serving as a hieromonk — pastor-monk — in the Ukrainian Catholic Church and living the monastic life near Derwent, Alberta. For 12 years, Father Kraychuk has… Read More ›
Pope says personal conversion is first step of New Evangelization
Vatican City, May 24, 2012 / 03:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI told the bishops of Italy today that personal holiness is an indispensable first step to reconverting their country and the Western world to Christianity. “The fundamental condition in order to be able to speak about God is to speak with God, increasingly… Read More ›
The Goal is Holiness
It is a turning from darkness to light, from fear to love; it is an expansion of the limitless horizons of the person as he or she lives into God. Newman’s famous poem speaks volumes: Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom Lead Thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from… Read More ›
Conversion is never ending
For (St. John) Newman, conversion, as he understands it, is not a momentary event, that is, a once-in-a-lifetime, Paul-on- the-road-to-Damascus revelation. It is rather a way of life, and it affects us throughout our lives. Any attempt on the believer’s part to delineate a solitary event of conversion was contrived. Indeed, it contradicted the known… Read More ›
The difference between hypocrisy and failure
There is a difference between hypocrisy and failure. To say we are sinners can be something positive. For it means we have freedom, we can choose. Responsibility is a given and it gives a doorway out of a destructive situation. It also means that we have a propensity towards behavior that is self centered and… Read More ›
Conversion is a necessity because of the nature of the God we worship
Christians worship and pattern their lives on the example of Jesus Christ.Christianity is not a religion of the book or of ideas and ideals. Rather, it is a religion based upon a relationship with a person. Moreover, this person is not merely an interesting or inspiring historical figure. He is living, active, working and intimately… Read More ›
Opening ourselves to the energy that comes from God
There is a profound harmony between the external demands of Christianity and the internal dynamism of the human heart. Christian discipleship asks no more and no less of us than that we become what God intends us to be, that we fulfill the potentiality inherent in our individual nature, that we cease acting a role… Read More ›
On Civil War’s 150th anniversary, historian reflects on religion’s role
Tuscaloosa, Ala., Dec 9, 2011 / 06:09 am (CNA).- Religion had a “pervasive” role in American life at the time of the United States’ Civil War, one historian says, explaining his “fascinating” discoveries about the roles Catholics played. “One of the things that surprised me was that there were certain dominant ideas, regardless of particular… Read More ›