Prayers & Reflections for December 21

The Armor of God
Reflections and Prayers for Wartime

Chapter IV
Reflections on Prayer

Mortification does not mean that we "give up" something; it means that we make an exchange.

We do not "give up" our worldly pleasures, we exchange them for peace of soul.

Hence those who speak of sacrifice as the negation of life, seem never to understand that all love involves a choice: Adam chose between a fruit and a garden, as we have to choose between the world and Christ.

In our choice, we get something back in exchange: misery if we choose sin, peace if we choose Christ. "Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul" (Matt. 16:26).

[Continued tomorrow]
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From:
The Armor of God
Reflections and Prayers for Wartime
by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen
(C) 1943, P.J. Kenedy & Sons