A while back, my pastor, Father Jack, mentioned in a homily that a good examination of conscience is to meditate on the twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit (charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity) and consider in what areas of our lives we bear the opposite of that fruit. If we are living the Christ life, then we should be bearing fruit that becomes gradually more abundant. In our first steps in the spiritual life, these fruits will be small, but as we continue our journey, they should grow and mature. But sometimes our growth is slowed by some attachment to sin – an “anti-fruit” if you will, and we may not even realize it.
Meditating on the Fruits of the Spirit can help us grow in self-knowledge so that we can identify areas of our life that we need to work on, to bring to God in prayer, and bring to Confession for healing. In the following series of 12 blog entries, I will write about each fruit and its corresponding “anti-fruit”, in hopes that it will be food for thought in your own meditations.
