Conversion of a Saint

How can the conversion of St. Augustine not be the choice bit of the day? It’s amazing to see how God was at work and how this one conversion had such long lasting ramifications.  -- drs

Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Ephesians 5:14

A perverse will produces lust. Lust yielded to becomes a habit. A habit not resisted becomes a necessity. These were like links of a chain hanging one upon the other, and they bound me hand and foot.  I had two wills: one old, and one new; one carnal, one spiritual.  Their conflict wasted my soul. I was like a sleepy man unable to get up.

 

My introspection dredged up all the misery of my soul and piled it up in full view of my heart. A tremendous emotional storm arose and there was a deluge of tears.

And then I heard a voice of a boy or a girl from the nearby house saying, “Take up and read!” Holding back my tears, I got up, interpreting the child’s words as a command from God to open the Bible and read the first passage I should see.  I snatched it up, opened it, and silently read the first thing I saw.  “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissention and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Romans 13:13-14).

I had no desire, no need to read further. In the instant that sentence ended, it was as if a peaceful light shone in my heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished.   – Augustine: Confessions

A Personal Response

You give us great variety in our religious experiences, Lord God, but this saint’s account inspires me. If you can work in him, you can work in me. Change me. Make me your own.

Near to the Heart of God   May 12