Sloth
taken from an article by Joel Kibler

Proverbs gives us one of Scripture's best descriptions of sloth:

I passed by the field of a sluggard by the vineyard of a man without sense; and lo, it was overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles; and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instructions A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a robber. (Prv. 24:30-34)

What is the life of a slothful man like? A slothful man awakens reluctantly and goes to work sad. At home he can scarcely bring himself to notice his children and goes about chores half-heartedly. He starts to pray but nods off after 10 minutes. "I give up," he says. "Who cares?" Stretching out on the couch with a beer he turns on the television or dozes off.
He is 'without sense.' Bored by mental effort, he fritters away time daydreaming or yawning over trivial reading such as sports, comics and cheap novels or trashy television. He throws himself into pleasurable activity but fails to do the important things...."The stone wall is broken down." He stops being vigilant about his Christian life and lets down his defense against the world, the flesh and the devil...
Sloth is not idleness, but the loss of the will to do good...They are missing something crucial to life - love. Those who struggle with this vice need to repent and get on track with the Lord, especially through daily prayer, fasting and a close scrutiny of their character.

Envy
by Pat Rath

Envy is repulsive because it is sorrow at the good of another; it is a preference for self over anyone or anything; it turns into hatred of another. Envy has led to horrible crimes. Joseph's brothers sold him out of envy; out of envy the Pharisees delivered Jesus to death. Envy desires the death or ruin of the other person; it does not simply want what the other has, it wants to get rid of the rival. Envy is the compost for detraction, slander and gossip. Envy lacks gratitude, rejoices in the misfortune that comes upon those whom we should love; it introduces discord, makes us sly, rebellious, disloyal, and destroys community.

To combat it, I try to look with goodness, with love and with admiration at others. I pray for them to receive whatever good the Lord wills for them. I give thanks to God for the blessings they have already received. I practice being mannerly and gracious around them. Since envy destroys unity and undermines our trust and love for one another, we must fight it by finding ways of being one. We must defend fiercely the reputations of others, we must be loyal and merciful and practice the fear of the Lord.

To fight sin, we must practice virtue. To fight envy, which desires the death and ruin of another, we must desire good, eternal life for the one we envy. And we must beg God in his mercy to free our hearts from that envy and make us whole again.

Seven days

With only 1 week before Holy Week, we thought it might be helpful to reflect on the 7 deadly sins. Each day will focus on a different sin. These sins are called deadly because they have the power to kill the life of the soul and often behind the seemingly mundane aspects of our behavior.

Pride
by Jill Boughton

Pride is preferring my way to your way or even God's way. In pride, I cling to my self-image at the expense of honesty, repentance, dependance and growth. That self image may be inflated, unreasonable (eg supermom) or self deprecating; all are equally rooted in pride.

Pride says, "It's beneath me to do that task." It also says, "I could never do that. It's too difficult." "I just don't have those gifts."

Pride soemtimes says, "Sure, I can take on one more thing. I'll never admit to being exhausted, over-committed or anything but indispensable."

Goaded by pride, I try to control external circumstances and other people. When they do not comply, I become irritated and judgmental. Sooner or later, my self-will is crossed by divine intervention. Instead of crying, "Praise you, Lord." I seek to comprehend God's entire purpose, even bend it to my own. This is such a serious task, I seldom laugh.

As a proud person, I am self-suficient, unable to admit any need for God or others I am often aware of my own faults but inevitably feel I can correct them with more insight and more effort. I cannot admit my helplessness or experience the joy of casting myself on God's mercy, receiving forgiveness and new life from him.

Listen to Him

Grace: To be still and listen for His voice
Scriptures: Ps. 6; 1 Kgs 19: 11-14; Rm 13:11-14; Ez 34: 11-16

"We think that in prayer we speak to God, and we are not wrong to think so. But the heart of prayer is that God speaks to us. It is not God whose mind is changed by our prayer, but we ourselves, if we would but cease to speak, and would instead wait upon God, and listen to him. It is the prayer of silent expectation, whereby we who love God wait upon him...

...Augustine himself had experience of this. All of his intellectual searching and labor had brought him finally to the truth about God and creation, but he still was caught in sin's shackles, and could not make what he saw in his mind to be the rule for his heart. He wept in frustration and despair, when all at once a voice as of a child came to him, calling out Tolle, lege, 'Take and read.' Then he took up the letters of St. Paul, that had been lying on the table nearby, and opened them, and read the verse (Rm 13: 13-14) that changed his life for ever, not because he had thought it through and determined to follow it, but because God had at one blow knocked the shackles off him and set him free.

So God wishes to do for us all. The moment may be soon. Be still. Wait. Listen."

--taken from Prayer, as Dazzling as the Sun, by Anthony Esolen (in Magnificat, p. 10-12)

"'I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you.' (2 Kgs 20:5) The Lord gathers up the tears of humanity and transforms them into the waters of life by the alchemy of the cross, where suffering and death are changed into joy and life by the self-gift of love." -- from Magnificat, p. 85

Not my will, Lord.

Grace: To conform my will to Yours
Scriptures: Phil 2:4-8; Mt 28:16-20; Ex 19:5-9; Ps 119:17-24

"St. John of the Cross has said, 'God wants from us the least degree of obedience and submission, rather than all the works we desire to offer Him'. Why? Because obedience makes us surrender our own will to adhere to God's will...

One of the greatest obstacles to full conformity of our will to God's is our attachment to our own desires and inclinations. Obedience, because it asks us to be governed by the will of another, is the best way of accustoming ourselves to renounce our own will, of detaching us from it, and of making us cling to the divine will...This is the great value of obedience: to unite man's life with the will of God: to give man in every circumstance, the opportunity to govern himself, not according to his weak, fragile will, which is so subject to error, blindness and human limitations, but according to the will of God." --taken from Divine Intimacy, p. 355.

"The prince of disobedience is the Devil and you beat him by being obedient, not by your personality, or charism." Fr. Giancarlo Gramolazzo, quoted in The Rite, p. 73.

The joy of the Cross

Grace: To find joy in the Cross of Christ
SS: Rom 8:28; John 12:24-26; Luke 13:22-30; Luke 9:23-27

Suffering and tribulation are inevitably and eventually the lot of everyone on this earth. But suffering of itself alone neither transforms nor purifies. It may even be the cause of rebellion and hatred. Some Christians abandon Our Lord when they meet the Cross, because they seek a purely human happiness, free from pain and accompanied by material wealth.

God asks us to lose our fear of pain and tribulation and unite ourselves to him, as He waits for us on the Cross. Our soul will then be more purfied, our love stronger. And we will realize that joy is inseparable from the Cross. Not only that, but we will also understand we can never be happy if we are not united with Christ on Cross, and that we will never know how to love if we do not at the same time love sacrifice...If we humbly have recourse to God, He will make us see that everything, even events and circumstances apparently least likely to do so, work together for the good of those who love him. Suffering, when seen in its true light, when it serves as a means of loving more, produces great peace and deep joy. That is why God often blesses us with the Cross.

That is how we must travel along the way of self giving: the Cross on our shoulders, a smile on our lips and light in our hearts.
--taken from In Conversation with God by Francis Fernandez, pgs 159 & 160.

Idolatry

"Few of us are guilty of out-and-out idolatry. Many of us are guilty of allowing our decisions to be governed by many powers other than the one true God: desire for approval, addiction to work or other escapes from reality, greed for gain, need for control. So powerful can these dictators become that we no longer recognize the voice of God, who speaks a different language than they do."
--from Magnificat, April 2011, p. 25-6.