Devotional Thought for our seemingly shattered days:
. ²³  Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. ²⁴  Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. Ephesians 4:23-24 (NLT)

237      Never lose heart, for Our Lord is always ready to give you the necessary grace for the new conversion you need, for that ascent in the supernatural field.

We approach that time of year, that is either full of excitement (and perhaps greed and envy) or is full of despair and grief.

Either way, these holidays can break our hearts, as what should be a time of grace, where love and peace are so clearly shown, are instead a place where we lose heart. 

It is so easy to do, to allow what is going on to crush our hearts. As some of it should….for grief is a very valid, very painful emotion.

Even as we grieve, either for the loss of a good friend, or the state of the world, we need to have a goal that gives us hope, a goal that would be the light of the tunnel, that would leave us in the experience of peace.  

The apostle Paul describes it as the renewal, as the Holy Spirit transforms our thoughts and attitudes, to find the righteousness and holiness that comes only through God’s work, as He draws us into His presence.   

St Josemaria describes it as a conversion of the heart.  As someone with a genetic heart challenge, this concept has slightly different meaning.  Whether it is a seemingly simple problem like A-fib, or something more deadly like V-Tac,  conversion is a process where the heart rhythm is shocked from its irregularity, from its broken pattern, into a normal and healthy pattern. 

In the medical field, this is often done with a defibrillator, as the body is given a powerful electrical shock which overrides the heart rhythm, which will cause it to start again, normal and strong.

The word of God and the Sacraments do this spiritually, as our encounter with God overwhelms our broken rhythm of life. They overwhelm the rhythm, they stop us in the midst of our out of balance life and remind us of God’s presence, His love, His mercy,  That He is here, and if our life is in rhythm with Him, we become more and more aware of His presence.

Living life in rhythm with God won’t stop the tears, living life in rhythm with God won’t immediately fix all wrong in our lives and in the world, But it will awaken us to see the work God is doing, that we are set apart to Him, that we are forgiven, that He is healing our brokenness. Living out of rhythm with God blinds us to this grace. blinds us as well to His comforting presence, which so many of us need right now.  But as

So I pray for you, whatever it is that has you out of rhythm, whether it is you own sin, or the weight of the sin of the world, whatever the brokenness, whatever the grief, that God would”convert: you, giving you the gift of transforming the rhythm of your life, and simultaneously, draw you into the glorious peace that occurs when we know we are in His presence.  (and please pray the same for me)

AMEN!

Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge (Kindle Locations 1006-1008). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.