Keep on converting!
The message Our Lady gave us in Medjugorje on Saturday 25 February 2023 is a great encouragement of keep converting to God. She told us:
“Dear children! Convert and put on penitential garments and in personal, deep prayer; and in humility, seek peace from the Most High. In this time of grace, satan wants to seduce you; but you, little children, keep looking at my Son and follow Him towards Calvary in renunciation and fasting. I am with you because the Most High permits me to love you and lead you towards the joy of the heart, in faith which grows for all those who love God above all. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
There are many elements which greatly inspire us to keep trailing on the holy road of continual conversion. Our Lady tells us to convert and put on penitential garments. In other words, She reminds us of what Jesus invites us to do in the Gospel of St Mark: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel (Mk 1:15). In the Bible there is a whole litany on the word Repent! And what does repent mean? The Greek term for repentance is metanoia. This implies a change of mind, a reorientation, a fundamental transformation of outlook, of our vision of the world and of ourselves, thus a new way of loving others and God.
St Paul tells us to put on Christ (Gal 3:27). In simple words we are to let God’s Spirit lead our lives. And how do we know that? Within the same letter the Apostle of the Gentiles gives us a short list of what he calls the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22) as contrasted with the works of the flesh (Gal 5:19). He says: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law (Gal 5:22-23) whereas the works of the flesh are … : fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like (Gal 5:19-21). On the latter St Paul warns us: I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5: 21).
Frequent confession, the Eucharist, the reading of the Bible and good spiritual books, fasting from food and drink, the avoidance of sin, charitable acts towards our neighbour, prayer particularly the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Breviary, daily examination of conscience and our continual prayer and striving for holiness in humility help us a great deal to attain that grace of conversion which will slowly lead us toward the joy of the heart in faith.
Mary, keep leading us on in our journey of continual conversion in renuncing sin and satan and saying Yes to Jesus, Your Son and Our Elder Brother. Amen.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
