More on Conversion

An integral component in conversion is that it is something that is an interior process, taking place within the human heart.

The Catechism has this to say:

It is important for every person to be sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience. This requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as life often distracts us from any reflection, self-examination or introspection.
-CCC, 1779

This truth is something that is unfortunately all but lost in the world of the 21st century. Cell-phones, traffic jams, and the ever-present television set all are quite effective in distracting us from quiet time alone to listen to the voice of Christ. The fact is, we need silence to really experience the introspection necessary to progress in conversion. There's a reason there is a long tradition in Christianity, beginning with the example of Christ himself, of retreating to the desert to pray. Even if we can't escape in quite the same way, we still should be carving out a little piece of time each day to be silent, pray, and to examine our conscience. Vatican II taught us what we can expect to find when we truly and finally enter into our own heart:

Now, man is not wrong when he regards himself as superior to bodily concernts, and as more than a speck of nature or a nameless constituent of the city of man. For by his interior qualities he outstrips the whole sum of mere things. He finds reinforcement in this profound insight whenever he enters into his own heart. God, who probes the heart, awaits him there.
-Gaudium et Spes