Conversion Immersion

Remember last year, after I was gone for awhile and the garden became an overgrown mess? We found Jimmy Hoffa.

I think this year I might just unearth the Holy Grail. Jimmy Hoffa has been using it somewhere under the morning glory.

This year, the morning glory became so intense that after it grew all over the back trellis which makes up our 'privacy fence', it actually became so heavy that it knocked the trellis down and cracked it in half. The whole thing must go.

Meanwhile, no sunbathing for us!

As if.

While I send Sister Nicholas out to look for a machete (she won't have to look far, this is LA), here is today's reader question:

Sister, can you recommend a novena to say for a specific person's conversion?

What do you mean by "conversion"? Do you mean convert to Catholicism? Or the conversion of sin.

There are dozens and dozens of novenas for the conversion of sin. St. Francis of Assisi is always a good pick. You don't even need to crack out a novena, the Rosary is all over the conversion of sin. Our Lady of Fatima, Medjugorje, Our Lady of LaSalette...all about the conversion of sin.

I'm guessing you mean the conversion of someone to Catholicism. You'd also don't need to crack out a novena for this intention. You can get the Green Scapluar, which is used for two things: sick people and conversion.

Here's how it works. You get your hands on a Green Scapular and you give it to the person you are trying to convert. Tell your friend to say the prayer on the Scapular and it will call bim to the Church. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

But here's the great part. If the person won't say the prayer on there, you just stick the Green Scapular in her purse or his backpack while he or she is not looking and YOU say the prayer on there and it will still call them to the Church anyhow. It's like stealth Catholicism!

Of course, a novena could be quicker, depending on how you go about it. A novena is a nine day, or nine week, or nine month prayer, depending on how you work it. You could go for nine days, or every Friday for a nine weeks, or First Fridays for nine months.

How good is your memory? You don't want to lose track. Nine days is your best bet if you are a little dotty.

Just about any saint will do for your novena. St. Cecelia has a specific conversion
novena. But you could go with, say, St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes, if your friend is pathetically hopeless, or St. Dismas if your pal is downright criminal.

You remember St. Dismas. He's the thief on the other cross at Calgary, usually only known as 'the Good Thief'. Someone made up a lovely back story for Dismas, along with his name, which is also totally made up. It seems that back when the Holy Family was fleeing Herod because of the stupid move of the 'wise' men who tipped him off that there was a new king around, robbers set upon them on the way to Egypt. One of the robbers talked the other robbers into letting the family pass unscathed. This, of course, was Dismas.

Lovely story.

Totally made up.

Still..there was a thief on the cross at Calvary, whatever his name was and whatever the rest of his life was like, who is most definitely in heaven (since Jesus actually said to him, "Today you shall be with Me in heaven.") which makes him a saint, which means you can ask him to pray for the conversion of whoever it is you want to help.

My point is that you could go with a saint that might be a good patron for your friend, as any saint would be thrilled to help out with a conversion.

I'd go with a two pronged attack, Green Scapular and novena. You might just get your friend to convert and pick up some stragglers that didn't even know they were thinking about it.