Sarah Christmyer's Blog

“Martha, Martha…”

I always want to jump to Martha’s defense when I read Jesus’ response to her complaint. Her sister has left her to do all the work, and the Lord seems to dismiss her worry. “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried,” he says. “There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her” (Luke 10:41-42).

“Christ with Martha and Mary” by Mikhail Nesterov (1911)

 

“Just like a man,” it’s easy to think. “Does he think the food will serve itself?” The answer, of course, is that Jesus isn’t commenting on the dinner but on how frazzled Martha is. If Mary’s forgotten to serve in her focus on Jesus, Martha’s forgotten Jesus in her zeal to serve. The “better part” is needed if the other thing is ever going to get done without anxiety.

I’ve written before on this passage, several times—always zeroing in on Martha. But there is much we can learn from Mary, too, if we want to get in on that “better part.” We only get one verse about her, but it’s rich with detail:

“Mary sat…

When Mary left the serving behind, she didn’t look back. Her posture tells all. She’s not standing by the door in case she has to leave, she is sitting down. Mary has committed herself, body and soul, to stay a while with Jesus.

…beside the Lord

Mary’s not in the doorway in case Martha calls, but neither is she sitting on a soft couch by her friends. She’s next to the Lord. When she sits by him, he fills her whole horizon. There are no distractions.

…at his feet

From the floor at Jesus’ feet, Mary looks up. She’s not there to give her opinion, she has no agenda, she’s there to learn. Mary has placed herself humbly before her Lord. She gives him the undivided attention of the student.

…listening to him speak.”

Mary is all ears.

Just one chapter before this, God spoke from a cloud: “This is my chosen Son; listen to him” (Lk 9:35, italics mine). How can we listen, truly, when we are distracted with duties and worry? Mary has “chosen the better part” by giving Jesus her undivided attention and listening to what he has to say. She hasn’t divorced her body and mind, convinced that she can attend to two things at once. By being “all in,” she is able to hear.

We, too, can be Mary

We who are more Martha than Mary find it second-nature to multi-task. How often have I prayed “on the fly” – on the way to work; while I stir the soup; as I make the beds? “Lord, forgive me” is my prayer – “I don’t have time today!” I happen to think it’s a great thing to practice connecting with God in the midst of everything I do. But when I do that only, at the expense of time devoted to him alone, I lose out.

Meditating on this verse today, I’m taken back to my childhood. I see myself at 10 years old, running into the living room before anyone else can get there and claiming a seat on the floor in front of my grandfather’s chair. I want to hang on every word he’s going to say, to drink it all in and never forget. I want to hear “jungle stories” from his years as a missionary: true stories of God’s love and deliverance from wild animals and war, from illness and heartbreak. The stories from his life are as gripping as the Old Testament accounts of David and Goliath, Elijah, Esther, and Daniel. They carry the weight of truth, like the parables that Jesus told. And why not? God is the same today as he ever was!

That 10-year-old me was listening like Mary. May I never lose the ability to listen to my Lord like that! I want to sit beside him, at his feet, listening to him speak. May I never fail to carve out part of my day just for that “better part” alone with him.

© 2017 Sarah Christmyer; updated with minor edits 2025.

Read more about listening to Jesus in his word:

Build a Bible Reading Habit  (How to meet God and hear from him in the Bible)A New Year’s resolution you can keep (Why and how to read the Bible on your own)Three Steps to Daily Bible Reading (Practical tips plus a personal reading plan to download)Eating Right for Your Soul (The value of memorizing Scripture)

 

The post MARY & MARTHA: FINDING THAT “BETTER PART” appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

My great-grandma Jennie’s life is packed inside a single word: “Hallelujah!” She typed that on a thousand tiny strips of paper and tucked them into cracks and books and under dishes as she prayed. She died many years years ago—but even now, finding one of those Hallelujahs brings her back in an instant. Who was Jennie, you ask? Look at this little paper. Everywhere she went, she spread the praise of God.

One of Grandma Jennie’s “Hallelujahs,” waiting to bless someone.

 

Dorcas was known for her charity

Early in the book of Acts, a woman is recalled by not one thing, but four. She is “a disciple.” She is “named Tabitha, which means Dorcas or Gazelle.” She is “full of good works and acts of charity.” And at her death, poor widows weep and hold out clothes she made as proofs of who she was.

St. Peter brings Dorcas back to life. But all these personal details make the scene in Acts 9:36-43 more than proof of Christ working through the apostle. It is a snapshot of an early Christian that reveals charity to be the mark of a disciple.

Let’s take a closer look at Dorcas, and thus at charity.

Charity is a fruit of the Spirit 

The woman’s name is Dorcas. Or is it Tabitha? Luke, the author of Acts, takes pains to use both her Greek name and its Aramaic counterpart.  Our translations add the English so we will get the point:  both names mean “Gazelle.” To Luke’s audience, the word was synonymous with beauty and grace.

Photo from Pixabay, CCO Creative Commons.

 

If I say to you “my name is Sarah. That means Princess” — you might launch into a discussion of whether it fits me. But I doubt you’d miss my intention in saying it! Luke doesn’t expand on the name Dorcas because it’s unusual but because he wants his audience to be clear. She is a woman who, like a gazelle, is full of beauty and grace.

Oops — I mean full of good works and acts of charity, which is what Luke says next. But perhaps that amounts to the same thing. Grace comes from the Holy Spirit. It works unseen within us but its working has such power that given room, it spills out in our words and actions. These behaviors are what St. Paul calls the “fruit” of the Spirit, the beautiful attributes of the Christian life. And first among them is charity.

Charity is the hallmark of the disciple

Even before calling her out for her beauty, Luke identifies Dorcas as a disciple. Here in the early days of the church is a woman who follows Jesus. She is someone who has sat at his feet, whether physically or metaphorically, learning from him and then putting his words into practice.

The Church is brand new. What distinguishes Jesus’ disciples from all other people?

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35).

The lovely Dorcas is an early poster child for discipleship.

St. Tabitha

 

Charity is shown forth in action

Charity, or love, can be a feeling. But the beauty and goodness in Dorcas lies in her charitable acts. The original Greek emphasizes that: “This woman was full of good work and mercy that she did,” it reads. Dorcas didn’t just think about doing good, she went about doing good, as Jesus did (see Acts 10:38). In fact, because of Jesus’ life within her, she is “full of” charitable acts. She continues in them. They are born inside her out of love and compassion for others, one after another until they fill her up, push out all else, and spill out in action. Charity fills her, defines her, and pours out for others. Dorcas’ love is action; it is something that she does.

Charity has an impact on others

No wonder they weep. The widows —beneficiaries of those charitable acts — crowd into the place where she is laid and stand by Peter. Dorcas may be gone, but look! They tug at his arm, show proof of her goodness stitched into the cloaks they wear, their dresses, the clothing on their children’s backs. This was a good woman, they seem to say. Bring her back! Their plea is implied in the outstretched garments.

It may be that in this scene, Luke intends us to see mainly Peter, carrying on the work of Christ. But surely he is showing Dorcas in the same light: she is the arms of Jesus to the widows, caring for them in their need, living out his love. She loves him by loving them.

Charity begins in the ordinary things of life

Jesus gave charity its ultimate expression when he died for us. But charity begins and flowers in tiny ways as well: in the flash of Dorcas’s sewing needle; in the giving of water to a thirsty child. As St. Teresa of Calcutta famously said, “We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”

Charity is what we’re made for

Charity begins when we accept God’s love and let it work within us, growing until we are “full of good work and acts of charity” — which we then do.  In fact, we are made for that purpose. As Pope Benedict XVI once said, “it is not enough for God that we simply accept his gratuitous love. Not only does he love us, but he wants to … transform us in such a profound way as to bring us to say with Saint Paul: ‘it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.’ (see Galatians 2:20)”

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

What does charity look like in your life?

The other day I came across a marker by a grave. Under the person’s name was simply written, “Man of God.” What will be said about you, when you’re gone? When the Lord comes to raise you into his presence, as Peter came to raise Dorcas: what tokens will the mourners hold out to represent your life?

 

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)

 

“Sarah makes the women of the Bible come alive for us today” —Edward Sri

Eve, Sarah, Rahab, Esther, Judith … each woman of the Old Testament faced something that we face today, and learned from it. Their stories are surprisingly relatable. Together they witness to God’s unfailing love even as they help us grow in faith.

Learn more and download a free chapter here.

 

 

 

 

 

© 2017 Sarah Christmyer. Repost from 4-22-18.

The post HOW WILL YOU BE REMEMBERED? – Dorcas’ Life of Charity appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

Six heart-shaped rocks line the shore at Tabgha on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee.  They may have been pulled from an ancient quarry, remnants of old synagogues which traditionally had two heart-shaped columns at the rear corners.  Sometime in the fifth to ninth century AD, they were placed in a colonnade commemorating the Apostles and called the Twelve Thrones.

Depending on the height of the Sea when you visit, the “thrones” might be under water or they might be high and dry.

Photo credit: HolyLandPhotos.org

Photo Credit: HolyLandPhotos.org

Sometimes, I’ve heard, the tide laps audibly against them like a heart-beat.  “Do you love me … do you love me … do you love me?” You can almost hear Jesus asking Peter the question as they sat there on the shore.  Three times he asked, and three of those heart-shaped rocks bear Peter’s reply, a smaller heart encased in the larger: “You know that I love you.”

 

What is love?

Scholars point out something vital that is missing in our English translation of John 21:15-17:  Jesus and Peter use different words for “love.”  Twice, Jesus asks if Peter if he loves him using the Greek word agape:  total, unconditional, to-the-end love.  “Yes, Lord, you know I phileo you,” he replies.  Phileo is brotherly love.  (This exchange reminds me of something girls used to say when a young man used the “L word” prematurely.  “I love you in Christ,” she would answer.  That was the kiss of death, as far as any kind of romantic commitment went!)  There is love and there is love, and Jesus wanted all of Peter’s heart.  It would take that kind of love, where he was going, if he was to die for the Lord.

“Peter, do you love me?” Statue at Tabgha, Israel. Photo by Sarah Christmyer.

Peter’s previous denial of Christ (Lk 22:54-62) must have weighed on his own heart like a millstone.  He couldn’t bring himself to promise total, faithful love.  He was too aware of how easy it was to fail.  The Lord’s own love goes unspoken, but it can be felt in his persistence.  Gently, quietly, he blows on the embers of love that lay buried beneath the rejection.  It’s not too late, Peter.  Do you love me / will you go the distance with me now? Will you agape me to the end?

The third time, Jesus aims his question at the level of Peter’s heart: “Do you phileo me?”  No wonder Peter was grieved (see vs. 17).  Not only had Jesus asked a third time, he had lowered his expectation. “You know everything,” Peter answered.  You know I denied you.  You know that I only phileo you. How miserable he must have been!  “Feed my sheep,” Jesus said.  You’re going to get there.  In the end, you will glorify me in your own death (vs 19).  Don’t let your regret get in the way of doing what I’ve called you to do!

In this picture, I stand on the shore of the Sea of Galilee looking at the Twelve Thrones.  Peter, chief among the apostles, was “Rock” when he spoke what God revealed to him, that Jesus was the Messiah (Mt 16:16).  A few verses later, thinking on his own and rebuking Jesus for saying he would suffer and die, Peter the Rock has become a “stumbling block” (vs. 23).  Christ built his Church on a man of good intentions who was fallible, weak as we so often are.  Why? It is God’s power, not our strength, that carries the day.  God’s power, not ours, that accomplishes his will.  God’s power, not ours, that defeats evil and enables us to love. Peter – fallible in his own power, infallible in God’s – helps us understand.

Take God’s love to heart

“Jesus, do I agape you?” I wonder. “I know I phileo you.  YOU know I phileo you.  You long for agape, but how often I’ve failed!  I’ve ignored you, denied you before neighbors, failed to stand up for your name.”

“Don’t get lost in regrets,” I hear you reply.  “Feed my sheep. Do what I’ve given you to do.  Move forward, one step at a time, relying on me.”

I see the tiny heart enclosed in the bigger one as not just Peter’s, but my own heart enveloped by the greater heart of Jesus.  “If people shut you out – just draw a bigger circle of love around them,” my Grandma used to say.  Like Jesus surrounded Peter’s insufficient love with his own, and in the end made the “stumbling block” a Rock for the Church.

You might also like:

The Power of Love to Heal—John 21:15-19The Power of a Psalm—God’s Love Upholds MeLove–Always There for the Giving

 

© 2015 Sarah Christmyer. All rights reserved.

The post HOW DO I LOVE THEE? A Lesson from Tabgha appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

This concludes a series of reflections on the seven deadly sins, with related scripture for meditation. Begin the series here .

As I stood in line for confession, folding and unfolding the little slip of paper I had written my sins on, asking the Lord to tell me if I had forgotten anything – the words of the Confiteor came to me:

“…in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault….”

“Things I had failed to do” were not on my list.  In fact, things I had failed to do were not part of my examination of conscience at all.

Next time, maybe I’ll use the seven deadly sins as my standard, because right at the end comes one that we often neglect:  the sin of sloth or acedia.  A sin that, if we let it, has the potential to pack our lives with sins of omission.

 

Week 7: Psalm 143 — “From the sin of sloth, O Lord, deliver me…”  

When you give room to sloth, you may find that lethargy, sadness, and indifference cloud your soul like a fog.  Sloth is spiritual apathy: a wet blanket on the heart.  St. Thomas Aquinas called it “an oppressive sorrow which so weighs upon a man’s mind that he wants to do nothing.”

Sloth comes when you stop hungering and thirsting for righteousness.  It’s the refusal of charity: deliberately not doing those things you know you should do.  Peter Kreeft called it “laziness in heavenly tasks.”  With sloth, good works – the fruits of our faith – are still-born.

Sloth can masquerade as depression, and it’s easy to treat it like a disease to be medicated – but sloth is a sin that can be forgiven, healed, and washed away.

If you feel yourself sliding into sloth:  run to God in prayer!  Ask him to stir your spirit into life, to give you the grace to do the things you know you should.  Then act! Do something good you know you should do, but haven’t.

EXAMINE YOUR HEART

Here are a few verses you might want to look up and ponder as you examine your conscience with regard to sloth.  Then take any need you find in your own heart to God for healing as you pray with Psalm 143.  (Anyone who’s struggled with sloth will recognize the feelings described in the first half.  And this psalm provides a time-tested antidote, too! (Read my meditation on it here).

Proverbs 21:25-26Proverbs 24:30-34Hebrews 6:11-12Romans 12:9-13 (especially vs. 11)

“From the sin of sloth, O Lord, deliver me…”

A SUGGESTION FOR GOOD FRIDAY

The Penitential Psalms, which I’ve recommended praying during Lent for the intentions of these seven capital sins, are traditionally prayed during Lent. I have found it to be a specially meaningful practice to pray all of them together on Good Friday. This download explains how to do that, either with or without intentions related to these particular sins.

God bless you as you pray with his word!

+ + + + + + +Read my post on praying with the Penitential Psalms for Lent here.Read my reflection on Psalm 143 here.+ + + + + + +

 

CONTINUE TO FIND GRACE IN THE PSALMS 

I wrote these prayer journals as a guide to praying deeply with Scripture over time. Each chapter leads the reader through praying with a single psalm several times over the course of a week, going deeper each time so as to etch God’s word on the soul and helping the ear of the heart to hear a personal word spoken through the psalm. Create in Me a Clean Heart is based on the Penitential Psalms. Lord, Make Haste to Help Me features seven psalms to pray in time of need. May they be a blessing to you as you ponder the Word!

 

© 2014, 2025 Sarah Christmyer

The post THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: Reflecting on the sin of Sloth appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

This continues a series of reflections on the seven deadly sins, with related scripture for meditation. Begin the series here.

They called it the MEATBALL DEATH STAR:  5 pounds of ground beef wrapped around a mixture of cheese tortellinis, sautéed sweet peppers and onions; a fluffy cloud of garlic mashed potatoes; a woven cloak of bacon, spaghetti sauce and grated cheese.  Six teenagers gathered at my house and cooked the thing for a Saturday afternoon snack.

The astonishing thing to me was the speed with which they ate, and the fact that none of it was left!

Week 6: Psalm 130 — “From the sin of GLUTTONY, O Lord, deliver me…”

Ahh, gluttony….  Is it really a deadly sin?

Maybe it’s easier to see gluttony as evil when there’s not enough to go around.  But feasting has become an American pastime, only matched by our obsession with dieting – and where would one be without the other?  Abundance has become less a cause for thanksgiving as a challenge to consume as much as possible.

Whereas the sin of greed strives to possess, gluttony consumes. It can be defined as the habitual, inordinate consumption of food or other worldly goods. Focusing on food, St. Thomas Aquinas listed five different ways to be gluttonous, a list which could form the basis of an examination of conscience:

Eating food that is too extravagant, exotic, or expensiveEating too much foodEating food that is too elaborately prepared – making sure you eat the best of everythingEating too soon, or at an inappropriate time – what our parents called “eating between meals” or “ruining your supper”Eating too eagerly (“demolishing” that Death Star, for example!)

 

Last I checked, all of these things except for maybe #2 are considered normal behavior if not virtues today. And gluttony is not just about food. The CCC calls it a “perverse attachment” to anything we treat with an inordinate desire for consumption. Constantly binge-watching tv shows, maybe. Or addiction to social media or news. Clothing. Tchotchkes – even religious ones.

You really can have too much of a good thing.

What is the problem with gluttony?  Left unchecked, gluttony fills you up — and spoils your appetite for God.

I leave you with St. Paul’s words to the Philippians (emphasis mine):

“Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so live as you have an example in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil 3:17-21).

Examine your heart

This week we are offering up our temptation to gluttony, as we pray with the 6th penitential psalm, Psalm 130.  The passage from Philippians above is a good one to meditate on before prayer, or you might want to reflect on one or more of these as you prepare your heart:

Proverbs 23:20–21; 25:16Romans 13:141 Corinthians 3:16–17; 6:12, 19–20; and 10:31

 

“From the sin of gluttony, O Lord, deliver me…”

+ + + + + + +

Read my post on praying with the Penitential Psalms for Lent here.

Download instructions here: Praying-the-Penitential-Psalms-download.pdfRead my reflection on Psalm 130 here.Up next: Week 7, Psalm 143 — “From the sin of Sloth, O Lord, deliver me…”+ + + + + + +FIND GRACE IN THE PSALMS AS YOU CONTINUE YOUR LENTEN JOURNEY

I encourage you to reflect on the Penitential Psalms many times during Lent. Maybe as you sit before the Lord in adoration, before you go to confession, or in your daily prayers. And may your heart open wide to the graces Christ has for you!

© 2014 Sarah Christmyer. Updated 2025.

The post THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: Reflecting on the sin of Gluttony appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

This continues a series of reflections on the seven deadly sins, with related scripture for meditation. Begin the series here.

Week 5: Psalm 102 — “From the sin of LUST, O Lord, deliver me…”

I’m not sure how it happened, but somewhere along the line, our constitutional right to “the pursuit of happiness” has come to mean, “if it feels good, do it!” and too bad for anyone else who gets hurt in the process.

 

Lust is everybody’s favorite deadly sin.  The fact that it’s called “deadly” makes it more delicious, somehow. Technically, lust is a disordered desire for sexual pleasure, either because it’s out of control or because it is self-centered and objectifies the other person. But to the world, attempts at self-control are seen as unnatural, prudish, even dangerous to self and to others.

How far we have fallen.

Contrary to popular belief, Christianity rejoices in sexual pleasure, delights in it even.  It is wrapped up in the first gift that God gives to Adam, the female who is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”  It unites the couple in an ecstasy of self-giving and leads to the extraordinary gift of new life.  As Peter Kreeft has pointed out,

Lust, like any sin, must be seen against that background.  Lust divorces the two things God designed to be together; it seeks the pleasure apart from the purpose.…  Thoughts and feelings of sexual arousal are not lust; lust is willing the thoughts and feelings just for the pleasure, without the purposes of the marriage union.

(Catholic Christianity, p. 247; see also CCC 2351).

The world is right in one sense:  sexual desire is God-given and, therefore, “natural.”  But lust – the unrestrained obsession with self-gratification – is only natural in the sense that we all, since the Fall, are burdened by a thing called concupiscence:  the inclination to sin.  Because of concupiscence, our desires are in rebellion within us, moving contrary to reason and will.  Thank God for his grace to overcome!

Examine your heart

This week we are offering up our temptation to lust as we pray with the 5th penitential psalm, Psalm 102.  Verses 3-11 seem particularly fitting to this intention.  Before you pray, consider meditating on one or more of the following verses. Then bring anything you find to God for healing as you pray with the psalm, using this antiphon: “From the sin of lust, O Lord, deliver me…”

Daniel 13, esp. vss. 7-14 (the story of Susanna, including a description of the way lust works in the mind and its fruits)James 1:14-15 (the progression from unrestrained desire to death)Romans 7:15-24 ( Paul’s own struggle with concupiscence)1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 (the relationship between self control and knowing God)Matthew 5:28 (the seriousness of nurturing lust in one’s heart)Romans 8:6 (choices have consequences)

 

If you want to read more about church teaching on concupiscence, start with Catechism Nos. 405, 1264, 2515, and 2520.

 

 

Download instructions here: Praying-the-Penitential-Psalms-download.pdfRead my reflection on Psalm 102 here.Up next: Week 6, Psalm 130 — “From the sin of Gluttony, O Lord, deliver me…”+ + + + + + +FIND GRACE IN THE PSALMS AS YOU CONTINUE YOUR LENTEN JOURNEY

I encourage you to reflect on the Penitential Psalms many times during Lent. Maybe as you sit before the Lord in adoration, before you go to confession, or in your daily prayers. And may your heart open wide to the graces Christ has for you!

fu

The post THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: Reflecting on the sin of Lust appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

This continues a series of reflections on the seven deadly sins, with related scripture for meditation. Begin the series here.

Week 4: Psalm 51 — “From the sin of WRATH, O Lord, deliver me…”

A lady once tried to rationalize her out-of-control temper to her priest. “It’s no big deal,” she said. “I blow up, and then it’s all over.”

“So does a shotgun,” he replied, “and look at the damage it leaves behind!”

Anger is an emotion, one of the “principal passions” along with love and hate, desire and fear, joy and sadness. Sometimes it is good to be angry: at injustice, for example. At loss, at waste, at needless pain.

Yet anger can cause us to sin. “Be angry, but do not sin,” wrote St. Paul; “…give no opportunity to the devil” (Eph 4:26-27).

Anger is a deadly sin because it leads to other sins. That’s why Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, says you’ve heard the commandment against murder, “but I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment (Mt 5:22).”

Sébastien Leclerc II, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

It’s not the anger itself that is the problem, but the nurturing of anger so that it turns destructive. After all, Jesus was angry plenty of times (see Mark 3 or 11 and Luke 17 for starters).

For this reason, I prefer the old-fashioned word “wrath” to describe this deadly sin.

Anger can be a stimulus to constructive action. When it turns to wrath, it rarely solves, builds up, or heals. Wrath is a heated, pent-up explosion of rage. It aims at retaliation and punishment. It takes judgment into one’s own hands and inflicts it without mercy. With wrath, the person gives up control to the emotion.

I love this description by Frederick Buechner:

Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. … To savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back—in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”

Examine your heart

Are you eaten up by anger? Whether justified or not: what are you doing about it? Spend some time meditating on one or more of these passages before praying with Psalm 51*, using the antiphon “From the sin of wrath, O Lord, deliver me…”

Sirach 27:30 – 28:7James 4:1-2James 1:19-20Psalms 37:8Proverbs 29:22

 

* Psalm 51 is one of the best-loved psalms of all time: “Create in me a clean heart,” King David cries—after sleeping with another man’s wife and then sending that man to his death to cover it up. You don’t need to commit as grave a sin as that to need God’s mercy, and this beautiful prayer is a good place to start if you can’t find the words to pray.

 

+ + + + + + +Download instructions here: Praying-the-Penitential-Psalms-download.pdfRead my reflection on Psalm 51 here.Up next: Week 5, Psalm 102 — “From the sin of Lust, O Lord, deliver me…”+ + + + + + +FIND GRACE IN THE PSALMS AS YOU CONTINUE YOUR LENTEN JOURNEY

I encourage you to reflect on the Penitential Psalms many times during Lent. Maybe as you sit before the Lord in adoration, before you go to confession, or in your daily prayers. And may your heart open wide to the graces Christ has for you!

© 2025 Sarah Christmyer. Adapted from a series on the 7 Deadly Sins that appeared on this website during Lent 2014.

Quote by Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking Transformed by Thorns, p. 117.

The post THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: Reflecting on the Sin of Wrath appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

If you’re reflecting on the seven deadly sins with me, and praying with the Penitential Psalms to overcome them, notice how well this week’s Psalm 38 expresses our experience with envy: “thy arrows have sunk into me” (vs 2); “my wounds grow foul and fester” (vs 5); and “Lord, all my longing is known to thee” (vs 9).

Week 3: Psalm 38 — “From the sin of ENVY, O Lord, deliver me…”

At what point does longing cross over to envy?

Everyone has longings, for things we don’t have. Sometimes we want things that others have, that we do not, and covet them. When our focus jumps from the thing to the person who has it, envy is born.

Envy lies in the void between her having and my lacking.  If she did not have it, I would not mind.  But now that she does — I feel lesser, somehow.  I am losing out.  I am diminished.

Envy eats away at the soul.  It erupts in gossip.  In harm-wishing.  In rejoicing over another’s misfortune. And it hurts us to the core.  Someone once said that nurturing envy is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.

“Envy” by John Goddard, c. 1640. Public Domain.

 

Chaucer wrote that envy is the worst of sins: “for in truth, all other sins are at times directed against one special virtue alone. But envy takes sorrow in all the blessings of his neighbor” (“Parson’s Tale,” 488-489).

In verse 10 of Psalm 38, which is the Penitential Psalm we read for this intention, the psalmist moans that “the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.” Maybe Dante had that in mind when he described in his Purgatorio how the envious are purged: they weep through eyes sewn shut with iron thread.  They cannot envy because they cannot see, and they must rely on one another:  something that is incompatible with envy.

The envious must learn to love.

Examine your heart

To prepare for an examination of conscience, read about envy in the biblical stories of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4) or King Saul and David (1 Samuel 18).  Then read James 3:13-18 to learn more about the fruits of envy and its antidote.  Offer up your own tendency to envy as you pray with Psalm 38:

“From the sin of envy, O Lord, deliver me…”

+ + + + + + +Download instructions here: Praying-the-Penitential-Psalms-download.pdfRead my reflection on Psalm 38 here.Up next: Week 3, Psalm 51 — “From the sin of Wrath, O Lord, deliver me…”+ + + + + + +FIND GRACE IN THE PSALMS AS YOU CONTINUE YOUR LENTEN JOURNEY

I encourage you to reflect on the Penitential Psalms many times during Lent. Maybe as you sit before the Lord in adoration, before you go to confession, or in your daily prayers. And may your heart open wide to the graces Christ has for you!

© 2025 Sarah Christmyer. Adapted from a series on the 7 Deadly Sins that appeared on this website during Lent 2014.

The post THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: Reflecting on the sin of Envy appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

This week I’m looking at the sin of greed (avarice), making it the basis of an examination of conscience and pairing it with the second penitential psalm in my lenten reflections. [Read more about that here – and download instructions here.]

Week 2: Psalm 32 — “From the sin of GREED, O Lord, deliver me…”

“Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough,” wrote the Dutch crime novelist Janwillem van de Wetering.

I have been blessed with many things – at least, that’s how I’ve always looked at it. But as I struggle to find something to wear in my packed closet, I wonder whether it’s right to say I’ve been “blessed,” materially. No one handed me all of these sweaters and jeans, I bought them. Just as I bought the lovely things in my kitchen and den, the flowering shrubs in my yard. And I wonder – at what point does enjoying God’s beauty and accumulating the good things of this world cross over to greed (aka avarice)?

Having things is not bad. Having money is not bad, either. It’s the love of money that St. Paul warns against in 1 Timothy 6:10. “The root of all evils,” he calls it. It’s like a drug that requires ever higher doses to deliver the same buzz. 

Avarice originates in idolatry. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Advertisement for the film “Greed” (1924). Public domain.

 

Greed is the insatiable desire to have more money or possessions, usually more than you need. Having more is never enough with greed; there is always something else to grasp at, more to be hoarded and stashed away. Our word “greed” comes from the old English graedig, voracious: “always hungry for more.” When we get obsessed with things, they take possession of us instead of the other way around, Pope Francis said in his Wednesday audience 1/24/24. Greed “is a sickness of the heart,” he said, “not of the wallet.”

As possible as it is to be greedy for things, it’s also possible to be greedy with things, so that we fail to be good stewards or to share with others. To the greedy person, goods are not to be given or even used so much as kept under lock and key. And it doesn’t just apply to things. We can be greedy with time, for example, or favor. Greed turns us in on ourselves and shuts others out.

For this reason, greed is directly opposed to love which holds things with open hands and is quick to give.

Lent, which calls us to abstain for ourselves and give to others, is a good time to detach ourselves from those things our hearts disproportionately long for and grasp. Self-denial and generosity help to starve greed.

Examine your heart

Do you struggle with insatiable desire and greed? Here are some short verses to ponder as you examine your conscience this week. Or read the “parable of the rich fool” in Luke 12:13-21. Then take any need you find in your own heart to God for healing as you pray with Psalm 32.

“From the sin of greed, O Lord, deliver me…”

Proverbs 28:25James 4:3Ecclesiastes 4:7-8Ecclesiastes 5:10-11Hebrews 13:5

 

+ + + + + + +Download instructions here: Praying-the-Penitential-Psalms-download.pdfRead my reflection on Psalm 32 here.Up next: Week 3, Psalm 38 — “From the sin of Envy, O Lord, deliver me…”+ + + + + + +FIND GRACE IN THE PSALMS AS YOU CONTINUE YOUR LENTEN JOURNEY

I encourage you to reflect on the Penitential Psalms many times during Lent. Maybe as you sit before the Lord in adoration, before you go to confession, or in your daily prayers. And may your heart open wide to the graces Christ has for you!

 

© 2025 Sarah Christmyer. Adapted from a series on the 7 Deadly Sins that appeared on this website during Lent 2014.

 

The post THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: Reflecting on the sin of Greed appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

I’m reflecting on the seven deadly sins this year, focusing on one each week as part of my Lenten examination of conscience. Will you join me? The internet is full of questions to use if you need help, just type in “examination of conscience, seven deadly sins” and find a set you like. Or you can do as I do: spend time reading what the Bible has to say about these sins, choose a few verses to meditate on and ask the Lord to examine my heart and bring things to mind. Then on Fridays, I add what I’ve discovered in myself as intentions when I pray with the Penitential Psalms. [It’s less complicated than it sounds – you can download instructions here:  Praying-the-Penitential-Psalms-download.pdf]

Week 1: Psalm 6 — “From the sin of pride, O Lord, deliver me…”

Fittingly, the first and possibly most deadly of those sins is pride. Pride with a capital “P;” the “mother of all sins,” it has been called. To St. Gregory the Great, it’s even more than that. It is the “queen of sins,” which once it conquers and possesses a heart, surrenders it to other sins to do their destructive work.

Lucifer, because of pride, thought he could rise to heaven and reign as God—and fell to hell as a result (see Isaiah 14:12-14).

Gustav Dore’ (1886), The spiritual descent of Lucifer into Satan. Illustration for John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” Public Domain.

 

Adam and Eve, tempted by that fallen angel to be like God, but without God, fell by pride as well. “In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good” (CCC, 398).

And here we are, you and me, as a result: inclined to that same grave and deadly sin.

Pride is thinking too much of yourself. It’s the excessive love of your own excellence. It can begin simply enough. All it requires is a turning away from God, a withdrawing of our heart from him (see Sirach 10:12).

Pride is deadly because it leads to hatred of God.

We’ve all heard that “pride goes before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18), and not just for Lucifer, Adam, and Eve.  But why? What does pride look like?  Consider some of the following in prayer, noting what you learn.  In what ways are you guilty of pride?  Bring anything you find to God for healing as you pray with Psalm 6, using this antiphon: “From the sin of pride, O Lord, deliver me…”

Psalm 10:4Isaiah 3:16Luke 18:9-14Acts 12:21-23

 

Download instructions here:  Praying-the-Penitential-Psalms-download.pdf

Coming next

Week 2,  Psalm 32 — “From the sin of greed, O Lord, deliver me…”

 

© 2025 Sarah Christmyer. Adapted from a series on the 7 Deadly Sins that appeared on this website during Lent 2014.

The post THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: Reflecting on the sin of Pride appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.