Out With The Old, In With The New

Each night as I finish Evening Prayer using Magnificat, I usually take a sneak peek at the Mass readings for the next day so that I can read, and hopefully, pray them using my Douay~Rheims translation. The reading tomorrow is from Colossians 3:1~11. Magnificat always gives a verse from the reading before the actual reading; here is what the verse for this reading said: "You have died with Christ; put to death then the parts of you that are earthly." This verse stopped me dead in my tracks because the question that I then had to ask myself was, "Have I done this?" As the reading goes on, St. Paul gives two very convicting lists of things related to the old man. (and here I will give you the Douay~Rheims wording for it is much stronger than the New American Bible translation) The first list:"fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and covetousness." (Col. 3:5) Well I read that series of sins and said to myself that OK, since my return to Christ, I have pretty much gotten rid of those things. Then I read the second list: "anger, indignation, malice, blasphemy, and filthy speech out of your mouth.(Col. 3:8). That's where the Holy Spirit started doing His convicting. While I don't go around blaspheming, the anger, indignation, malice and even an occasional slip of an expletive (other than our Lord's holy name) still continues to live.
St. Paul tells us to put these things to death. The only way to do that is by God's grace, and the best place to receive that is in His sacraments~especially through sacramental confession and the Eucharist. The way I look at these two sacraments is one gets me clean, the other helps keep me that way.
I sometimes find myself getting very frustrated with myself because I can't seem to put away the "old woman." To a certain degree, that is my pride getting in the way. I try to remind myself that this side of heaven, I am always going to be subject to the effects of Original Sin. In doing that I can then come in all humility before Our Lord and ask for His mercy and forgiveness, and I can begin again.
So while attempting to live out my Catholic faith, I will continue to accept the Holy Spirit's convictions and continue to put the old to death and live in the new with Christ.
I think the other reason this passage may have struck something within me is that 46 years ago today, I was baptized. I spent some time today actually thinking about what that means and about the Baptismal Vows my Godparents took for me at that time and that I now try to live out. It is about constantly dying to myself so that I can rise anew in Christ.
If you have read my reversion story, you know that I spent a good portion of my life running from God and offending Him in all sorts of horrible ways. All I want to do now is spend any remaining tme He gives me "putting on the new, him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of him that created him." (Col. 3:10)

*Note: For more information on the Douay~Rheims translation of the Bible, see my sidebar under Catholic Links.