Befriending my inner self

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 24 October 2025
Friday in Twenty-Ninth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I
Romans 7:18-25 <*((((>< + ><))))*> Luke 12:54-59
Photo by hiwa talaei on Pexels.com
Lord Jesus Christ,
today I join St. Paul
in his cry,
“Miserable one
that I am!"
for deep in my heart
I am your slave
O Lord,
of righteousness,
of what is good
but what I do
and follow is sin
like your warning
in the gospel,
"the spirit is willing
but the flesh is weak".

So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand. For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members (Romans 7:21-23).

Not only every day
but so many times each day
I experience this inner clash
within me, sometimes good prevails
and there are times sin prevails.

How I wish I could sit 
with St. Paul to discuss this
as I imagine his own agony
in fighting sin and evil desires
within; how reassuring
and inspiring to learn
how everyone goes through
this internal warfare.

Like St. Paul,
may I have the courage
to recognize and embrace,
accept and own this internal
strife between good and evil;
reconcile me, dear Jesus
in you who dwells within me;
let me recognize and 
read your signs of presence,
of salvation,
of integration
within me and through
my community so that
in the end, 
like St. Paul I may 
declare, "It is no longer
I who live, but Christ
who lives in me" 
(Galatians 2:20).
Amen.

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