Welcome to the 33-day preparation for total consecration to Jesus through Mary, right here on the Catholic Sprouts podcast.

Before we begin, let's pray. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen.

Mary, Mother of Jesus, be a mother to us now, and bring us to your son. Amen.

Welcome back. Today is Day 11 in our 33 days of preparation for total consecration to Jesus through Mary here on the Catholic Sprouts podcast. In this first section, we have been talking

about sins that keep us attached to this world,

sins that we need to investigate and root out of our lives so that we can fully give ourselves to Jesus.

Today we are talking about our final sin, which is the sin of sloth.

Now, the sin of sloth is laziness, but it becomes a serious sin as it applies to the spiritual

life. By this I mean, sloth is the sin that keeps us from doing the important work of growing in holiness.

And in case you haven't realized, following Jesus is not easy.

Turning away from sin and creating new habits is not easy either.

A lot of these things are hard work.

We will fail and we need the perseverance to keep going, to have those hard conversations,

to walk into the confessional after a good examination of conscience and do the hard work of saying out loud our sins and asking for forgiveness.

It is also difficult when we have to choose other people when we might not want to, to give what we have, to share, to really root out those feelings of envy or anger.

It's hard work.

But is it worth it?

It's so worth it.

However, all too often we fall into sloth.

We don't want to do the hard work. We don't want to spend time

with Jesus to get to know him through scripture or to ask for forgiveness where we need to.

And therefore, sloth can come in and it can really drive a wedge between who we are and who we are meant to be.

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