The conversion of St. Paul was obviously a big deal in the early Church. St. Luke tells the story three different times in the book of Acts to impress on us how big a deal it was. However, the way Luke tells the story doesn’t help us understand how conversion usually works. Most times conversion is not a sudden u-turn in our thinking or acting but a gradual step by step process of surrendering bits of ourselves to live more for God. Interestingly, when St. Paul himself tells the story of his conversion he points out that even with the dramatic moment of divine intervention on the road to Damascus he spent three years of spiritual formation in preparing to live the Christian life.
