According to my confessor and spiritual director, we all have habitual sins. Each of us has an area of weakness, and that’s where our personal tempters and/or the devil attack first. In fact, when we’ve talked about my habitual sin, he used the word “addiction.”
I don’t know about you, but thinking of sin as an addiction took some getting used to. I mean, when I think of addiction, I think of drugs or Chips Ahoy.
A few years ago, I had a particularly tough time with my habitual sin of choice. It was embarrassing to keep going to confession with it, but my confessor is truly gifted and I did feel healed and forgiven.
And then I went and sinned again.
In the midst of the months, though, I realized something. In the darkest time of my fight with this sin, I had stopped praying the daily rosary.
I had a really good reason, mind you. I didn’t just give it up for Oreo binging; I was immersed in a family novena that took all my effort. I was concentrating and giving it all I had.
Oh, and I was exhausted from pregnancy.
Realizing that this habitual sin of mine was creeping in and taking over even as I was dealing with other matters and NOT praying my daily rosary seemed significant, though. It felt a lot like a two-by-four to the head, honestly.
Maybe, for me, the rosary just isn’t optional.
The sin became a habit I had to break…and break and break and BREAK. I picture the rosary, established as a habit in my routine, as putting a protective layering over me, rebuffing the tempters and things that could lead me back into the dark waters of sin.
How does the rosary help you, especially as you consider sin in your life?
Sarah Reinhard is a Catholic wife, mom and author whose nose is probably in a book if she’s not scraping something off of her shoes. Her latest book is A Catholic Mother’s Companion to Pregnancy: Walking with Mary from Conception to Baptism. Check out all of her books at http://sarahreinhard.com/writing/my-books/.
Visit Sarah’s website: http://sarahreinhard.com/
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