Conversion, To Convert
See also: Apostolate, Zeal, Pagans, Gentiles (Goyim).
The movement of returning to God, called conversion and repentance, involves a pain and an aversion to the committed sins, and the firm resolve to no longer sin in the future. Conversion thus touches the past and the future; it is nourished by hope in divine mercy (Catechism of the Church §1490).
In "The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me"
Conversion of the world
- The conversion of the Jews at the end of times.[1]
- But eight parts of the world out of ten will not want to understand.[2]
- (Mary) What is certain is that lepers who did not convert beforehand, not even before the miracles of Jesus, will no longer convert, never again. A sign and symbol of all those who, over the centuries, will not convert to the Christ and will be, by their free will, struck by the leprosy of sin.[3]
To convert
- (About Jesus): Whoever approached him and touched him, unless he was a demon, left him with the anxious desire to be holy.[4]
- The first teachings on the Kingdom and on the mission of the Christ reported by Andrew and John.[5]
- It will not be by how you speak, but by how you love that you will convert Hearts.[6]
- In conversions, one must have steadfastness. What fails in one year succeeds in two or more. You must insist on speaking to them about God, even if they resemble the rocks that shelter them.[7]
- Could God not convert us without our will? Certainly. But then the will of man would always be required to persist in the conversion obtained miraculously.[8]
Paths of conversion
- Real and superficial conversion.[9]
- The life of the sinner who becomes holy is the longest, most heroic, most glorious battle.[10]
- The three conditions of the conversion process, and the three corresponding attitudes of the apostle. Conversions missed by false zeal. The conversion path of Mary Magdalene.[11]
- You could not come to the Truth without the goodness of God. The Lord allows the one who, still without repentance, seeks Him, to find Him. For repentance generally comes when man, consciously or with some conscience of what his soul wants, knows God.[12]
- If it is painful to pass from Good to Evil, it is also disconcerting to pass from Evil to Good. In the first case, one is tortured by the conscience that reproves you. In the second, one is torn as one must be who finds himself brought into an absolutely unknown foreign country. (John of Endor)[13]
- The paths of faith: Simon of Jonah said that faith and humility are needed to recognize Him. Simon the Zealot said that Faith and Hope are the means to have the Son of God. James, brother of the Lord, speaks of the power of Strength to keep what one has found. Andrew shows the entire necessity of uniting to Faith a holy thirst for Justice. Matthew, formerly a sinner, indicates another path for reaching God: to strip oneself of the senses out of the spirit of imitation. I, (James of Zebedee) as for me, say therefore to you: "Be chaste to be able to recognize Him".[14]
- The goodness of the Eternal, the True Lord God, is such that He certainly does not make you go back over the path already taken, to bring you back to the crossroads where you, wandering, left the right path for the wrong one. It is so great that from the moment you say: "I want to belong to the Truth," meaning God because God is Truth, God, by an entirely spiritual miracle, pours into you the Wisdom by which from ignorant you become possessors of supernatural Science, like those who have possessed it for years.[15]
- The greatest sinners when they convert surpass us in righteousness. Why is that? Because, in them, contrition is proportionate to their sin. Immense. For that, it breaks them under the weight of suffering and humility.[16]
- When a sinner converts, why insist on judging him, to seem to regret that he has regained spiritual health?[17]
- You did not know how to uproot the old trees from your heart to replace them with young trees; and the old ones, developed by the Light, from which you approached, became even stronger. Your error is that of many people, present and to come, those who, despite the help of God, do not transform themselves because they do not respond with a heroic will to the help of God.[18]
In fundamental Christian texts
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church
- The movement of returning to God, called conversion and repentance, involves a pain and an aversion to the committed sins, and the firm resolve to no longer sin in the future. Conversion thus touches the past and the future; it is nourished by hope in divine mercy. (CCC 1490)