It’s the III Sunday after Epiphany, 2nd Class, with the color of Green. In this episode: the meditation: “The Confident Prayer of the Leper”, today’s news from the Church: “Cardinal Fernández: The Destructive Potential of an Incompetent Person?”, and today’s thought from the Archbishop.
Have feedback or questions about the DD or our other shows? [email protected]
Sources Used Today:
- “The Confident Prayer of the Leper” – From Epiphany to Lent
- https://angeluspress.org/products/epiphany-to-lent
“Cardinal Fernández: The Destructive Potential of an Incompetent Person?” (FSSPX.news)- https://fsspx.news/en/news/cardinal-fernandez-destructive-potential-incompetent-person-56724
The Spiritual Life – Archbishop Lefebvre (Angelus Press)- https://angeluspress.org/products/spiritual-life-archbishop
The Conversion of Saint Paul is one of the most dramatic turning points in the history of the Church, not because of spectacle alone, but because of what it reveals about grace. Celebrated on January 25, the feast does not honor Paul’s martyrdom or his missionary achievements, but the moment when God intervened decisively in a life moving in the wrong direction. Saul of Tarsus was not searching for Christ. He was opposing Him with conviction. Educated, zealous, and convinced he was defending God’s honor, Saul actively persecuted the early Christians, consenting to imprisonment and death in the name of religious purity.
On the road to Damascus, everything collapsed. A light brighter than the sun struck him to the ground, and a voice addressed him personally: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” The question was not an accusation alone, but a revelation. In harming the Church, Saul was harming Christ Himself. Blinded and helpless, he was led into the city he had intended to enter as an enemy. There, in darkness and silence, the foundations of his identity were dismantled. When Ananias laid hands on him, Saul regained his sight and was baptized. The persecutor became a disciple, not gradually, but completely.
The Church has always understood this event as more than a personal conversion. It is a revelation of how God works. Paul was not persuaded by argument or softened by example. He was interrupted. Grace broke into his certainty and reordered his zeal. His intellect was not erased, but purified. His strength was not destroyed, but redirected. From that moment on, Paul’s life became a continual dying and rising with Christ, marked by suffering, travel, rejection, and unshakable joy.
Historically, the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul developed early in Rome, where devotion to the Apostle of the Gentiles was already strong. By the sixth century, January 25 was firmly established as a distinct celebration, separate from the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. The date likely commemorated the dedication of a church in Rome associated with Paul’s conversion and served to highlight that the Church honors not only holy deaths, but holy beginnings.
Over time, the feast took on broader significance. It became a day of prayer for the conversion of sinners and for the unity of the Church. Paul’s conversion showed that God can overcome even the deepest divisions. In the modern era, the Church began associating this feast with prayer for Christian unity, recognizing that the same grace that turned Saul into Paul can still reconcile what seems irreparably divided.
Culturally, the day was observed with special readings from the Acts of the Apostles and sermons emphasizing repentance and hope. Missionaries saw it as a reminder that no heart is beyond God’s reach. Converts found in Paul a patron who understood both resistance and surrender.
The Conversion of Saint Paul proclaims a timeless truth. God does not wait for perfect openness. He creates it. No past is too heavy, no zeal too misdirected, and no sinner too distant for grace to intervene.
Saint Paul, apostle transformed by grace, pray for us.
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