{"id":1021,"date":"2009-01-25T14:26:16","date_gmt":"2009-01-25T14:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2009\/01\/quicksand.html"},"modified":"2009-01-25T14:26:16","modified_gmt":"2009-01-25T14:26:16","slug":"quicksand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2009\/01\/quicksand.html","title":{"rendered":"Quicksand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, we celebrate the Conversion of St. Paul. At the Angelus, the Pope said:<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul’s conversion matured in the encounter with the Risen Christ; it was this encounter that radically changed his existence. That which Jesus asks in the Gospel today happened to him on the road to Damascus: Saul converted because, thanks to the divine light, “he believed in the Gospel.” His conversion and ours consists in this: in believing in Jesus dead and risen and in opening up to the illumination of his divine grace. In that moment Saul understood that his salvation did not depend on good works done according to the law, but on the fact that Jesus died even for him — the persecutor – and he was, and is, risen. This truth, which through baptism illuminates the existence of every Christian, turns our way of life completely upside down.
\nConverting means, for each one of us also, believing that Jesus “gave himself up for me,” dying on the cross (cf. Galatians 2:20) and, risen, lives with me and in me. Entrusting myself to the power of his forgiveness, letting myself be led by the hand by him, I can get out of the quicksand of pride and sin, of lies and sadness, of selfishness and every false certainty, to know and live the richness of his love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Pope<\/a>
Pope Benedict XVI flanked by youths from Catholic groups looks at a white dove freed during the Angelus prayer from his apartment window overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2009. (AP Photo\/Alessandra Tarantino)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nA news account here.<\/a> Vespers at St.-Paul-Outside-the Walls on Sunday evening (already passed). Homily should be available soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, we celebrate the Conversion of St. Paul. At the Angelus, the Pope said: Paul’s conversion matured in the encounter with the Risen Christ; it was this encounter that radically changed his existence. That which Jesus asks in the Gospel today happened to him on the road to Damascus: Saul converted because, thanks to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nQuicksand - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2009\/01\/quicksand.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Quicksand - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today, we celebrate the Conversion of St. Paul. 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She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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