God's Continual Call To Conversion:

Benedictus Books and Gifts recommends ‘Conversion’ for the new year

A review of "Conversion: Spiritual Insights into an Essential Encounter with God" by Father Donald Haggerty

Review by Father Steve Roberts, MD, STL

The call to continual conversion plays a major role in a Christian’s life. Catholics looking to deepen their faith through reading in the new year might consider this recommendation on behalf of Benedictus Books and Gifts, where this and many other volumes can be purchased.

The notion of a “second conversion” was first explicitly mentioned by the 17th-century French Jesuit Father Louis Lallemant. Father Donald Haggerty explores the term in his book “Conversion: Spiritual Insights into an Essential Encounter with God.” He writes:

“Despite what may be years of faithfulness in vocation, a deeper offering still awaits the soul. A life may be committed and devout and externally dutiful, but it still awaits a deeper realization of an entire offering of itself as an utterly personal act before God.”

It is only after this “second conversion” that “a person now belongs to God, and the Lord is free to use a life in whatever manner he desires.” Such are some of the spiritual pearls contained in Father Haggerty’s reflections on conversion, prayer and the spiritual life.

Father Donald Haggerty is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York and rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. This book is one of four he has written on the spiritual life and prayer. The others in the series are “The Contemplative Hunger,” “Contemplative Provocations” and “Contemplative Paradoxes.” With his short reflections on prayer, the spiritual life and the dynamic process of being drawn into a more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, it is obvious that Father Haggerty is well-acquainted with the richness of our spiritual tradition.

As such, “Conversion,” along with his other books, are meant not just to be read, but to be savored and prayed. Many of his reflections, at least for me, are so insightful that they can be used for multiple days of prayer and reflection.

In praying with it, I realized how easy it can be to plateau and even regress in my relationship with Christ. It struck me that, because God is infinite and his love is infinite, God is always inviting us deeper and deeper into relationship. So if I respond with “yes” to God’s continual invitation, it requires not just a “second conversion,” but a third and fourth and so on. God always invites us into more intimacy and mission.

Father Haggerty has divided his book into chapters such as “The Understanding of Sin,” “The Mercy of God,” “Seeking the Will of God,” “Love of the Eucharist” and “Passion for God,” among others. Each chapter supports God’s call to us for a continual conversion that is achieved through an essential encounter with God in prayer. The chapters entitled “The Witness of Simplicity” and “A New Vision of the Poor” are not only a strong witness to the Gospel and what naturally occurs as one draws closer to Christ, but also are formed from Father Haggerty’s many years as spiritual director for the Missionaries of Charity.

In the introduction, Father Haggerty points out the radical conversions of Peter, Andrew, James and John when they encountered Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Their conversion, however, was not complete. Their proximity to Jesus and their growing intimacy with him over the next three years would lead them to a “second conversion,” to where, in the end, they allowed God to use them in any way God desired. Haggerty writes that “every person who goes far in a love of God and for souls will experience a similar pattern.”


Benedictus Books and Gifts has served as an authentic Catholic resource store since 1996. It’s located at 408 Southland Drive in Lexington and can be contacted at benedictusky@gmail.com or at (859) 368-0584. For more information, visit: benedictusky.com