IWKnights Corner for March 10, 2024

Did you know this about the IW Knights of Columbus? 

“FROM THE DESK of the SUPREME KNIGHT: When we hear the word “conversion,” we often think of a person leaving behind other beliefs and practices to embrace the Catholic faith. But conversion is actually a call for each one of us. For most of us, it’s a call to the renewal and deepening of the Catholic faith we inherited from our parents. It means actively seeking a closer personal relationship with Jesus Christ and opening ourselves to the grace of the sacraments in a way that affects our daily lives. And it’s a lifelong process.

The question for most of us is this: Are we truly open to conversion, to the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit to broaden us and help us see things we didn’t see before? To be open in this way requires that we guard against a certain self-satisfaction with our current relationship with God. Such complacency can lead to a superficial faith — one in which our spiritual practices become routine and even lifeless. Spiritual complacency and pride can lull us into a feeling of “been there, done that” and empty the Gospel of its life-changing power for us. While professing to be a believer and identifying as a Catholic, we may, in reality, live as if God doesn’t exist or at least doesn’t have an active role in our lives.

The good news is that God is always trying to reach us, to reveal a deeper understanding of ourselves and his life within us. He is closer to us than we are to ourselves, as St. Augustine wrote in his Confessions (3.6.11). What does this mean? It means that God is not outside of us, a remote being unconnected to the day-to-day struggles of our lives. Rather, through the mystery of his Incarnation, he shows us that he is with us and for us — in all the details of our daily experiences.

If we seek God with humility and repentance, he will remove the obstacles and sins that block our vision. He will give us new ways to see our lives and our mission. He will open new vistas of understanding and action. And he will infuse every aspect of our lives with a wonder and a peace that only he can provide. This encounter with a personal God is at the heart of every authentic conversion. And it can change everything.

If we seek God with humility and repentance, he will remove the obstacles and sins that block our vision. He will give us new ways to see our lives and our mission.

Our new Cor initiative provides an avenue for ongoing conversion. It gives men the opportunity to come together for prayer and faith formation, and to do so in the context of spiritual friendship. Friendship is crucial because conversion is never a solitary process. For Catholics, self-sufficiency is a myth, especially in the spiritual life. It’s not how we understand the world or the Church.

To be truly Catholic means to be connected to God and to one another. Pope Benedict XVI once observed, ‘Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say, do and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for better and for worse’ (Spe Salvi, 48).

Authentic conversion is among God’s greatest gifts — and to pray for it requires courage because God may break into our lives in surprising and unexpected ways. As we begin the new year, let’s dare to pray for conversion for ourselves and those we love. Let’s be open to the ways he may be connecting us to himself and to one another. And since this personal God knows us better than we know ourselves, let’s also be open to the true happiness that is our destiny — if we only surrender to his will in all things. Vivat Jesus!”

The link to this article can be found in the Friday Flocknotes, IWKnights9981.com/bulletin, facebook.com/IWknights9981 or twitter.com/IWknights.