Reflection
Today’s letter from St. Paul to the Galatians offers us a practical guide for a respectable examination of conscience. He lays out fifteen pitfalls of human nature, alongside nine beautiful fruits of the Spirit that help us and our communities thrive.
Taking these twenty-four gentle points to heart gives us a wonderful opportunity to reflect, share our journey with a wise confessor, and receive the comforting gift of God’s forgiveness and healing grace.
Saint Paul delivers more than a list. He asks us to engage with the Spirit for help to change our lives. Paul reassures us that following the Spirit gives us strength to master our passions and selfish desires. When we look at our human weaknesses, we know how easy it is to stumble. Without the Spirit holding us close, dealing with our hardest habits can feel overwhelming, sometimes as painful and out of control as a severe addiction. But with the Spirit, we can build an even stronger habit of looking around and asking unrelentingly,
“How can we possibly stay on the path that Jesus set out for us?”
And the Spirit’s greatest gift that we can lean on is love. True love is a daily, caring commitment—it takes real work to put others first, to care for our neighbors so deeply that we protect them from any harm, and to live in true harmony. Aiming even higher, when we pour that love upward toward God, who loves us beyond measure, our heavy burdens lift, and letting go of old habits becomes a journey we don’t have to walk alone.
