Are my God-given instincts ‘untamed’?

Do I fall into habitual, familiar ‘dead’ practices?

Am I willing to let God, my gentle Father, discipline me?

In the Program of recovery, as well as our life of faith, we are encouraged to make many lifestyle changes. We work with a trusted accountability partner/sponsor to do a thorough honest and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. This is Step Four of the Twelve Step Program of recovery, as well as the prerequisite for a good, holy Confession. The first of these inventories should reach back as far as we can remember. The reason for this new daily exercise is that we be shown our habitual patterns of thought, word, and action. Most likely, these have been the guiding force of our lives since childhood. These patterns are ingrained in our neurological functioning, yet we have been given the Great Hope that only God can renew and restore our thought-life as we take the necessary daily action to cooperate with His grace for much needed change.

“Without a searching and fearless moral inventory, most of us have found that the faith which really works in daily living is still out of reach.” (12 & 12 of A.A. p.43) This is a favorite reminder of the necessity for a particular examination of conscious. The particular exam takes the most prominent weakness/sin and helps us to keep our focus on the solution for that sin; which is the virtue opposing the sin. We work our way through our list and back again. We will begin to see that God is removing, little by little, these obsessions at their roots. It is essential that we stay on the ‘narrow path’ since Jesus tells us that “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) We will lose our “spiritual fitness”, not by Gods doing, but by our own neglect.

“What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. “How Can I best serve Thee—Thy will, not mine, be done.”” (Big Book of A.A. p.85) (Scripture Passage is found in Luke 22:42)

Our inventories are founded on the The Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Lively Virtues, as follows:

Pride/Humility

Envy/Admiration

Anger/Forgiveness

Sloth/Zeal

Covetousness/Kindness

Gluttony/Asceticism

Lust/Chastity

The Ten Commandments also lend very helpful insight. For more information check out the Catechism of the Catholic Church p. 496-611.

Pride, being the first of the Seven Deadly sins, leads to self-sufficiency. In this state of denial we are practicing the idol worship of ‘self’. Ouch! This can be a hard truth to swallow, yet humble acceptance of this leads to the freedom that we have been searching for in vain. We are very careful not to fall into negative ruminations about what we have done. If this happens we quickly surrender ourselves to God and take a moment to reflect on his awesome mercy. We may have to do this multiple times a day in the beginning, when necessary. In this practice we are allowing God to ‘Be’ who He is; faithful and trustworthy.

“The greater the sinner, the greater right he has to My mercy.” (Jesus to Saint Faustina.) We stay in this privileged space, humbly embracing the truth that we absolutely qualify for the mercy of Jesus.

Pride and self-sufficiency may appear to ground us in our attempt to control our lives and those around us. This is a trick from the enemy. Fear is what truly results from living in pride and self-sufficiency. Fear of not getting what I want. Fear of losing something that I have. Fear of losing someone that I love. The enemy can lure us into having fear around just about anything. In this state of mind we can no longer cope! Our quality of life is greatly diminished! We are in a self-imposed captivity, what is referred to as ‘bondage of self’.

Healing and deliverance priests tell us that fear is a significant entry point. A good, holy confession with a good holy priest will eradicate this fear. We will have to stay actively engaged in our daily spiritual maintenance as a reminder that “It is Finished!” (John 19:30) “Jesus, nailed on the cross, dies to atone for all the sins and vileness of man.” (Navarre Bible Commentary) Jesus removes our obsession to live in fear. He reminds us to simply focus on what we want; peace, hope and freedom in Christ; not on what we don’t want! Jesus gives us the grace to stop peering into fear. To stop focusing on what the enemy is trying to do. We keep our eyes on Jesus. Jesus has already healed us, now it’s our privileged duty to walk in our healing with Him.

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