Liturgy Lesson for Sexagesima: the Conversion of St. Paul

January 27, 2008

According to Acts, St Paul’s conversion took place as he was traveling the road to Damascus, meeting the resurrected Jesus personally, and in power, actually losing his sight—which was only restored by the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands for healing at the hands of Ananias, a Christian Jew in Damascus—who had struggled to overcome his own flesh to follow the Holy Spirit’s prompting to pray for Paul, a young Pharisee sent to Damascus to direct the persecution of Jewish Christians there. In this Pre-Lenten season, three weeks before Lent, early Church fathers intended for us to transition from the gaiety and celebration of our Lord’s nativity to the quieter, more focused Spirit-led time of examen and fasting in Lent. Marked by Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima—seventy, sixty, and fifty days before Easter—like St. Paul’s blindness and subsequent healing, this time yields excellent opportunity for us to review our spiritual lives in our Lord—what we are and what He is calling us to be in His Body, the Church. Do we really see—and have control, as we think we do, or are we still blind, at least partly—needing the Lord’s healing touch in our bodies, souls and spirits? Good questions as prepare ourselves for our own Gethsemane—walking with Jesus in the wilderness of Lenten devotions and growth.

Posted by Father Chip | Filed Under Liturgy Lessons