{"id":23,"date":"2010-05-01T15:31:50","date_gmt":"2010-05-01T13:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=23"},"modified":"2012-03-01T20:19:17","modified_gmt":"2012-03-01T18:19:17","slug":"there-is-nothing-instant-about-conversion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=23","title":{"rendered":"THERE IS NOTHING INSTANT ABOUT CONVERSION"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If we take Good Friday 1807 as a highpoint in Eugene\u2019s conversion journey and search for a direction in his life, then this is the first text after that event that shows that he believes himself called to \u201ca more perfect state.\u201d It shows that there is nothing instantaneous about conversion. Once we see the direction, it is still a struggle to stay with it. Eugene is 25 when he writes to his friend Emmanuel Gaultier de Claubry on December 23, 1807:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cAnd now, shall I speak of myself? Yes, but only to ask for your prayers, to give you the charge expressly to persevere in asking God to accomplish in my regard the adorable designs whose outcome I impede by my infidelities; that he might knock, prune, reduce me to desiring only what He wills, that He might overturn all the obstacles standing in the way of my arriving at a more perfect state to which I strongly believe I am called.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">May he give me the grace of recognizing ever more clearly the vanities of this miserable earth, so that I see only those heavenly goods that the moth cannot corrupt. In a word may he make me worthy of the communion of saints and have me assume the place among them that he seems to have destined me for, but which it seems to me I am still far from deserving.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">(Oblate Writings XIV n.22)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If we take Good Friday 1807 as a highpoint in Eugene\u2019s conversion journey and search for a direction in his life, then this is the first text after that event that shows that he believes himself called to \u201ca more &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=23\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[7,8],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters","tag-conversion","tag-vocation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}