16 Days to Profession

My silence over the last several weeks was necessary, owing to the fact that I found no words. But the lessons continued.

I found quotes from both Francis and Clare in which they each speak of their "conversion". They were both Catholic at the time they embraced their vocation. How is it then that they needed to be converted...?

As we began our Franciscan journey, I was pretty well set. I thought I knew about all there was to know about being Catholic. But in these days I have experienced conversion--a deeply felt response to all the teachings of my life, and a recognition of how much more I need to learn. Becoming Franciscan is all about conversion, not from Catholic to some other faith, but from quiet waiting to life, life in abundance.

Joyce Meyers teaches that this life is approached via obedience, so obedience is a main feature of conversion. You might say we are converted to a life of obedience. And all of this preparation has been packing and saying goodbye.

We pack only what is worth taking. We learn to say goodbye to everything else. And that is what's been happening, what's kept me occupied, what's taken my voice. In some ways, conversion is as personal as the most intimate relationship. To discuss it diminishes the joy. And I think I've come to understand why Mary "treasured all these things in her heart"... She was being converted.

I know now that this is how God works, not in sweeping world-action, but one heart at a time. Because the conversion of a single heart truly is the awakening of a whole world.

Pax y Bene

Tom McNamara