From Saul to Paul - Transformation

The
Conversion
of
Saint
Paul






When I was Saul, and walked among the blazing rocks,
My road was quiet as a trap.
I feared what Word would split high noon with light;
And lock my sight, and drive me mad:

And thus I saw the Voice that struck me dead!

Tie up my life and wind me in my sheets of fear
And lay my reason in a three days' sepulchre,
'Till Jesus shows me Easter in a dream!

When I was Saul, and sat among the cloaks,
My eyes were stones. I saw no sight of heaven
Open to take the spirit of the twisting Stephen.
When I was Saul, and sat among the rocks,
I locked my eyes, my mind I made a tomb,
Sealed with what boulders rolled across my reason!

O Jesus, show me Easter in a dream!
O Cross Damascus, where poor Ananias in some other room,
(Who knows my locks, to let me out!)
Waits for Your word to take his keys, and come!


-- Fr. Louis (Thomas) Merton; written on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, January 25, 1942, at Gethsemani Abbey, Trappist, Kentucky. Published in Entering the Silence, p. 6.


In peace,
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Pastor
The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek
http://www.oursaviorhoneycreek.org/
http://oursaviorhoneycreek.blogspot.com/
912-267-0333