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A fool I was doing my very first pilgrimage on my own, wearing open toed sandals walking the plains of Assisi in a little town called Porziuncola all the way to top of the hill of Assisi where the Basilica … Continue reading
It was the year 1998, staying at a friend’s place in North Vancouver, I was in bed, waking up to the breaking of dawn. I closed my eyes, said my morning prayer, and suddenly a violent wind surrounds me. Thinking that I left the window open, the mighty wind will disturb everything in the room. I wanted to get up to close it but my body cannot move, and I fell into deep peace.
This is the detail of what happened to me written in this post.
In 2010, I found this article taken from the journal of Jacques Fesch, a young Frenchman who was sentenced to death in 1957 murdering a police officer. He had a profound experience in his prison cells that lead to his conversion to faith.
Jacques Fesch Journal
When Fesch had his conversion, I wasn’t born yet, but to see that our experience is similar is uncanny. What is it that we were both given this sanctifying grace that is available to anyone, believer or not, saint or sinners, young or old.
From a Catholic perspective, I can only relate to this experience from this verse:
“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak. [Acts 2:2-4]”
It is a moving experience.
The unbelievable thing about conversion is that the new person that we are become transformed that we joyfully forget the way we were before.
Look at it at this point of view of Shakespeare’s play As You Like It. Oliver, the would-be murderer that conspires to kill his brother Orlando, undergoes a powerful conversion. He confessed, “I do not shame to tell you what I was, since my conversion so sweetly tastes, being the thing that I am.”
I am always fascinated what other people’s belief system and doubly fascinated when they turned 360 degrees and changed their belief system. What gives?
Reading some extraordinary stories of conversion mostly in Christian’s perspective, they are saying the experience moves them that they acted in obedience toward a reality which paves the way and does not originate from them.
To become a “new creature” is a wonderful thing during this conversion process and that they joyfully forget the way they were before. It is a tremendous grace to receive such a gift to be transformed even from a living a life of despicable act.
“I was in bed, eyes open, really suffering for the first time in my life… It was then that a cry burst from my breast, an appeal for help. My God! … and instantly, like a violent wind which passes over without anyone knowing where it comes from, the spirit of the Lord seized me by the throat. I had an impression of infinite power and kindness and, from that moment onward, I believed with an unshakeable conviction that has never left me.” This was written in a prison cell by Jacques Fesch, a French man who received death penalty for killing a police officer in 1957.
With a tinge of envy, I suppose I want to experience this without having to commit a capital crime.
Currently, I know of a person that gave up prestige, a good paying job and driving a sports car by serving the poor, the marginalized, the homeless, the addicts and prostitutes all for the glory of her God. I don’t know her story, and it does not matter. She is a vision of happiness.
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