The third conversion?
“Is it good to be always repenting?”
Those of us who study the spiritual life know Garrigou-Lagrange discusses the second conversion in the Three Ages of the Interior Life, but I have never heard anyone discuss a third conversion. Amy Welborn has a most interesting post on Pope Benedict’s allocutions from the Wednesday audiences. She takes off from Sandro Magister’s commentary and finishes with her own very good reflections, yet what captivated my heart were the Holy Father’s comments on Augustine.
“But there is a last step to Augustine’s journey, a third conversion, that brought him every day of his life to ask God for pardon. Initially, he thought that once he was baptized, in the life of communion with Christ, in the sacraments, in the Eucharistic celebration, he would attain the life proposed in the Sermon on the Mount: the perfection donated by Baptism and reconfirmed in the Eucharist. During the last part of his life he understood that what he had concluded at the beginning about the Sermon on the Mount – that is, now that we are Christians, we live this ideal permanently – was mistaken. Only Christ himself truly and completely accomplishes the Sermon on the Mount. We always need to be washed by Christ, who washes our feet, and be renewed by him. We need permanent conversion. Until the end we need this humility that recognizes that we are sinners journeying along, until the Lord gives us his hand definitively and introduces us into eternal life. It was in this final attitude of humility, lived day after day, that Augustine died.”
“Seeing our own wretchedness in the light of God becomes praise to God and thanksgiving, for God loves and accepts us, transforms us and raises us to himself.”
To ask God every day for pardon.
“A brother asked a hermit, ‘Is it good to be always repenting?’ The abba answered, ‘We have seen Joshua the son of Nun; it was when he was lying prostrate on his face that God appeared to him’ (cf. Josh. 5:14)” - Sayings of the Desert Fathers
March 11th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
If you’re scrupulous, it can be wearying.
March 11th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I think it is deeper than what would be associated with being scrupulous, it is more like a state of annhilation I think. As when Therese said she goes to God empty handed.
March 11th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
And there is Saint Bernard bearing the image of the Suffering Face of Jesus.
March 11th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
What I meant was if you’re scrupulous, it’s easy to fall into despair.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Franciscans speak of “daily conversion.” It’s present in all kinds of forms.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:58 am
We Benedictines make a vow of “conversion of manners” — to live always in compunction and readiness to change one’s life in response to the Word of God. And Holy Father Benedict says in Chapter 4 of the Rule: “Never to despair of the mercy of God.” The two go together. Permanent conversion and total reliance on the mercy of God.