This feast commemorates the conversion of Saul of Tarsus while he was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians. He was blinded by a light and thrown to the ground, hearing the words, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:5; 22:8; 26:14). As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote: “the Risen One spoke to Paul, called him to the apostolate and made him a true apostle, a witness of the Resurrection, with the specific task of proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles, to the Graeco-Roman world.” – CTS New Daily Missal 2012, p 2518)