Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles TODAY'S GOSPEL (Mk. 16: 15-18) Jesus directs the Eleven on the focus of their mission before he ascends to Heaven. His central message constitutes the role of faith and baptism in human salvation-- whosoever believes and is baptized will be saved . And that doing the opposite will bring man to damnation-- whoever does not believe will be condemned . Inherent in the act of faith is the act of total surrender to the love of God and to His will. Without this act of surrender there will be no faith as Jesus defined it. This total faith transforms the human heart totally into a soul consumed by God's love in the same way that a "partial faith" (if such is by definition possible) will not allow God's love to trasform the human soul because the reservation against faith becomes a stumbling block of that transformation. That stumbling block lets the seed of fear grow and fester the heart of man so ...
My deepest vocation is to be a witness of the glimpses of God I have been allowed to catch. HENRI JOHN M NOUWEN [Thanks to my friend Albert Aballe for providing this quote]