• Current Advent Study: Behold: A Guided Advent Journal For Prayer and Meditation 

• Bible in a Year Podcast

• Catechism in a Year Podcast

• Catechism of the Catholic Church

• Hallow Prayer App 

• Word on Fire: Homilies of Bishop Robert Barron 

• Restore the Glory Podcast

• Abiding Together Podcast

The Christian life is a call to ever deepening conversion of heart. “According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays,” and it is the heart that is the “dwelling-place where I am, where I live... It is the place of encounter.” (CCC 2562 - 2563)

From our first conversion in Baptism, to what the Catechism calls our “second conversion... an uninterrupted task,” we are invited into a life of constant growth in God: 

Christ’s call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians. This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church who, “clasping sinners to her bosom, [is] at once holy and always in need of purification, [and] follows constantly the path of penance and renewal.” This endeavor of conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a “contrite heart,” drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first. (CCC 1428)

With God’s help, we are, according to St. Paul, called to “live the truth in love,” and “grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body [the Church], joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body’s growth and builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16) 

Growing into Christ is a lifelong task in which we are growing in greater intimacy with Christ. We become like him because it is Him living his life in and through us as we consent to let Him lead. Again, St. Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:19-20). The old man, the old Adam — the ego — dies and is raised with Christ. “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17; see also Romans 5) 

Yet, this is a lifelong task in which we cooperate with the Spirit of God, drawing from the grace of God, so to participate in the glory of God. “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) As St. Peter wrote, “His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power. Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:3-4) But how?

“The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the font from which all her power flows.” (CCC 1074) We see the basic shape of the liturgy of the Mass already in Christ’s mysterious walk on the road to Emmaus — the Word and Sacrament. In Luke 24 the disciples recount how their hearts had been burning within them when Christ opened the Scriptures to them. Yet, they still hadn’t recognized him until he broke the bread. 

And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:30-32)

Christ gave to the Church, his mystical body, his Heart so that our hearts would be inflamed with love in and for Him. St. Therese of Lisieux wrote,

If the Church was a body composed of different members, it couldn’t lack the noblest of all; it must have a Heart, and a Heart BURNING WITH LOVE. And I realized that this love alone was the true motive force which enabled the other members of the Church to act... LOVE, IN FACT, IS THE VOCATION WHICH INCLUDES ALL OTHERS; IT’S A UNIVERSE OF ITS OWN, COMPRISING ALL TIME AND SPACE — IT’S ETERNAL! (see CCC 826)

Christ invites us to be hidden in His very Heart from which flows all the graces of divine life and love (see John 19:34; John 1:18; Colossians 3:3). It is the sacraments that flow from Christ to us, and empower us to share in his divine nature as we receive all things from his Heart of Divine Mercy (see 1 Corinthians 10:14-17; see CCC 1118-1119).

Thus, the Catechism teaches us that the liturgy is thus, “the privileged place for catechizing the People of God,” and that, “Catechesis is intrinsically linked with the whole liturgical and sacramental activity, for it is in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist, that Christ Jesus works in fullness for the transformation of men.” (CCC 1074)

It is also the Sacred Scriptures, the Word of God written, that bear witness to Christ the Living Word (John 5:39). It is in meditation on them that the Holy Spirit speaks heart to heart with us (CCC 112, 116-118).

The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual understanding of the Word of God to those who read or hear it, according to the dispositions of their hearts. By means of the words, actions, and symbols that form the structure of a celebration, the Spirit puts both the faithful and the ministers into a living relationship with Christ, the Word and Image of the Father, so that they can live out the meaning of what they hear, contemplate, and do in the celebration. (CCC 1101)

The “celebration” is the Mass, in which “the Holy Spirit is teacher of the faith of the People of God and artisan of ‘God’s masterpieces,’ the sacraments of the New Covenant. The desire and work of the Spirit in the heart of the Church is that we may live from the life of the risen Christ. When the Spirit encounters in us the response of faith which he has aroused in us, he brings about genuine cooperation. Through it, the liturgy becomes the common work of the Holy Spirit and the Church.” (CCC 1091) 

What does a “response of faith” look like that it can be said that we are “genuinely cooperating” with the Holy Spirit? We cultivate a life of conversion. 

We attend Mass. We seek the Lord’s mercy and grace in the sacrament of Confession. We commune with him in the Eucharist. We read and ruminate on the Scriptures. We seek out the means of spiritual growth in study, prayer, and meditation. 

Under resources, you will also find ways to continue to cultivate the life of conversion for you and your family. If you have any questions or want to find ways to grow in your faith, do not hesitate to reach out to us. 

In Christ,

Matthew Farrelly 

Evangelization & Formation Coordinator

Evangelization and formation should also be integrated: that, like the Church in Acts 2 which had “all things in common,” Christians devoted themselves to the Apostles’ Teaching, the Breaking of Bread, and the Prayers. Each Christian is a member of the One Body of Jesus, the Church, and these all work together in union, harmony, and integrity. We ought to also ask how all dimensions of the Church’s life — scriptural teaching and study, sacraments, music, ministries, and personal apostolates — can work together to embody our “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” to the world (Ephesians 4). This touches on the vital truth that continually cultivating our faith will only enrich and enliven our own God-given identity and vocation in our parishes and places of work and recreation. As Bishop Hying has said, it is “in our words; in our own joy” that we are invited to speak the words of Christ and his Church.