April 15

“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” — Acts 9:6 BSB

Paul’s conversion is a remarkable story. He was once the most intense persecutor of Christians.

As he headed to Damascus, he was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples.” Yet, the image of Stephen’s death stayed with him and ultimately brought him to Christ.

“Saint, did I say? With your remembered faces,
Dear men and women, whom I sought and slew.
Ah! When we mingle in the heavenly places,
How will I weep to Stephen and to you!
“Oh for the strain that rang to our reviling
Still, when the bruised limbs sank upon the sod!
Oh for the eyes that looked their last in smiling,
Last on this world here, but their first on God!”
It’s that kind of passion that the Church needs today.