Fruits of the Spirit

One of the things I learned growing up was that the fruits of the Holy Spirit are:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control (look it up in Galatians 5:22-23, or the Catechism, #1832).

Our Lord gives us the formula for a happy, happy life.
The mistake I often make is that I try to be patient, or I struggle to control myself
Jesus says simply to abide in him and I will produce the fruit.

What I try to do is produce the fruit myself.
"Can't do that," Jesus says.
No more than a branch can produce fruit apart from the vine can I produce fruit apart from Jesus.
My task is to abide in Jesus.
If I spent as much time and effort abiding in the Lord as I do trying to be good, I think I'd be a lot further along on the way to fulfillment.



Sit quietly in prayer with some fruit in your lap. Think about which fruit of the Spirit you need the most and ask God for it. Then have a banana!