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
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.
