So important is the conversion of St Paul, that it is recorded three times in the Acts of the Apostles, in vivid language.

Saint Luke tells us how Saul fell to the ground on his way to Damascus, “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord”.

According to Sister Wendy Beckett, a famous ubiquitous nun and art critic, nobody could have better appreciated this all-consuming anger, than Caravaggio, who was probably the most violent painter in history.

His amazing painting of Paul’s Damascus road experience, hangs in the church of Santa Maria Del Populo in Rome.

To visit Rome and not to see this painting is a sin!  It reveals the hostile and almost fanatical Saul, flung from his “high horse”, pulled down from his security and eminence, to the dust.

This was the central event of Paul’s life, his “conversion”, something that completely changed him; a conversion that the poor, angry and violent Caravaggio was never to know.

God pulls down all of us from our “high horse”, in one way or another, and we may come crashing to the ground, and bite the dust.  The difference between Paul and us is that he never re-mounted.  Many of us climb up into the saddle again and again, as Caravaggio did.

Monday of this week, 25th January, is the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul.  May it give us the hope of conversion too, on whatever road we may proudly be riding along.

We continue to hold the people of Haiti in our hearts and in our prayer at this time of continued suffering and crisis.  As they try to recover from their terrible trauma, may they have the strength and courage to face the future. We remember the countless number of men, women and children who have lost their lives in this appalling disaster.

Last Sunday’s special collection for the Relief Fund came to £2,123.

If you wish you can still donate online https://www.donate.bt.com/dec_form_haiti.html?p_form_id=CAFD01