# Open my heart, Lord
*2008-01-16*

> Bill Young shares a story of conversion and leads a prayer of the Novena to the Holy Trinity.

## A touch of faith

I recently saw a video podcast from Renewal Ministries called 'The Choices We Face.' In it, Ralph Martin featured his pastor from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Father Jeff, who shared the story of how he entered the Catholic Church. Father Jeff was born to Baptist missionaries and grew up in the Baptist faith through college. However, during a school journey through the Middle East, he spent four days in Rome.

## An encounter with the Pope

While in Rome in 1993, during the papacy of Pope John Paul II, Father Jeff attended a Wednesday morning papal audience. He arrived early and was sitting up front. As Pope John Paul II walked through the aisles, he touched Father Jeff's hand. In that moment, he felt a connection that opened his heart to the Lord. A year later, he became Catholic, and ten years after that, he became a priest.

## The importance of an open heart

It is amazing that such a profound change can happen through a single touch. But the key to that experience was that his heart was open to the Lord. As we move into today's prayer, the Novena to the Holy Trinity, I hope all of us can have our hearts open to the Lord in the same way.

## Novena to the Holy Trinity

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. O God, come to my aid; O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Eternal Father, I thank you for having created me in your love. I beseech you to save me in your infinite mercy, by the merits of Jesus Christ. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Eternal Son, I thank you for having redeemed me with your most precious blood. I beseech you to save me by your infinite merits. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Eternal Holy Spirit, I thank you for having adopted me by your divine grace. I beseech you to let me grow in holiness through your infinite love. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

*Amazing things can happen when we keep our hearts open to the Lord.*