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opening song
opening song
“Who Will Rescue Me from This Body of Death?”
We end this week of reflection on sin by reading a passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans. St. Paul candidly expresses his own inner conflict, which we all can relate to. Note how he ends with thanksgiving. Your week should end in the same spirit of thanksgiving.
The Grace I Seek
I pray for the following graces: growing awareness of the hidden, sinful tendencies that influence my decisions and actions; heartfelt sorrow for my sins; and sincere gratitude for God’s mercy and faithfulness to me.
Read
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[1] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law;
23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature[2] a slave to the law of sin.
REFLECTION: A PRAYER BY KARL RAHNER SJ
I should like to speak with you, my God,
and yet what else can I speak of but you?
Indeed, could anything at all exist
which had not been present with you from all eternity,
which didn’t have its true home
and most intimate explanation in your mind and heart?
Isn’t everything I ever say
really a statement about you?
On the other hand,
if I try, shyly and hesitantly,
to speak to you about yourself
you will still be hearing about me.
For what could I say about you
except that you are my God,
The God of my beginning and end,
God of my joy and my need,
God of my life?
closing song
closing song
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