Twenty-Ninth Wednesday of Ordinary Time

Sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires. And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace.

Every day we are tempted to obey our desires over what we know is right. Some days we have the willpower to resist. Other days we fall into temptation and sin. Thankfully, although we fall, we are also given a way to rise up again. Through the life, death, passion, and resurrection of Jesus, we were all given a chance at eternal life and use our bodies as weapons for righteousness. We have only to choose to obey God’s Will above our own and allow Him to lead us where we need to be. We might not follow in Jesus’ footsteps perfectly, but as long as we are contrite for our sins and genuinely wish to amend our lives, then God will find us and lead us back to the right path.

What desires do we obey before God? How can we put God before these wants? What can we do to sharpen our consciences and transform ourselves into weapons of righteousness?

O Lord, we present our bodies to you. Do with them what you will.

Amen.

Twenty-First Friday of Ordinary Time

Brothers and sisters, we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, as you received from us how you should conduct yourselves to please God—and as you are conducting yourselves—you do so even more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

In order to follow Jesus, we need to control ourselves. We need to have not only a well-informed conscience, but also the willpower to do good and avoid evil. We can have all the wisdom in the world, but if we don’t have the strength of character to choose what is right over what is wrong, then what good is our knowledge? Self-discipline is something we must work at constantly, strengthening it like a spiritual muscle. We cannot let ourselves become lax or we lose ground and weaken in our resolve and become more and more vulnerable to temptation and sin. The best way to build up our willpower is to recognize how living in accord with God’s commandments increases our ability to love not only God and others, but ourselves. This is because when we have control over ourselves in body, mind, and spirit, we love with our whole being.

Do we have control over ourselves? How can we become more disciplined in body, mind, and spirit? What can we do to build up our willpower in all things?

O Lord, we want only to conduct ourselves in a way pleasing to you.

Amen.