The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, Part 19

From the spirit of fornication, Jesus, deliver us.

Fornication is not a word people use very often these days, mostly perhaps because they do not care to acknowledge the sinfulness of the act. Specifically, fornication means sexual activity outside marriage between people who are not married (sexual activity outside marriage between people who are married is adultery).  

The spirit of fornication, however, implies something broader, particularly the impurity that leads to acts of fornication. It is a disorder in us, something that turns our desires upside down and inside out, something that tugs at us, drawing us away from God and from the moral law He has so perfectly set for us. The spirit of fornication nudges us to think that lust is not so bad or that just a little peek or a little off-color joke will not hurt anything. But what we are really doing is looking at other human beings not as God’s children endowed with human dignity but as objects for our own use. 

This is why we must pray that Jesus deliver us from the spirit of fornication, for it is a threat to the love that our Lord commands us to have for each other and for God.

From everlasting death, Jesus, deliver us.

Everlasting death is the consequence of living in grave sin and refusing to repent right up to the end. It is essentially choosing one’s disordered will, one’s serious sins over God’s perfect will and over His love. God has given us free will because without that gift we cannot truly love, but free will comes with a risk because we can turn our backs on God and become slaves to sin. We can choose everlasting death, separation from God for all eternity. And there is no greater horror than that.

From the neglect of Thine inspirations, Jesus, deliver us.

Jesus is always guiding us, always inspiring us, always nudging us (sometimes rather vigorously) toward the right path, which leads straight to Him. But are we listening? Are we responding? Or are we like St. Augustine who once prayed that God heal him of his sinful ways...but not quite yet?

We neglect or turn away from Jesus’ inspirations only to our detriment. We must learn how to hear our Lord, through Scripture, through the sacraments, in prayer, in the words and actions of other people. Then we have to set aside our own preferences and follow His ways, confident that what He wants is a lot better for us than our whims and even our plans.

The Litany Project: Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, Part 18

From Thy wrath, Jesus, deliver us.

We don’t like to think about Jesus’s wrath. It’s highly uncomfortable, and we would certainly prefer to picture Jesus as meek and mild, kind and loving. He is all of those, of course, but the fact is, Jesus hates sin. He doesn’t hate us, but He hates seeing us fall into sin, reject His will, and go down a path that will obviously harm us. This is what triggers His wrath.

Remember when Jesus’ cleansed the Temple? This is a prime example of how His wrath works. Something had gone drastically wrong in God’s house. The animal sellers and money changers filled the court with what must have been chaos. Imagine the noise and smell. And this situation made Jesus angry, righteously angry. So He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out. He turned over tables, spilled coins, and generally made His displeasure clearly known. He told people to stop making His Father’s house a marketplace. 

Remember, too, that we are God’s temples. When we are in a state of grace, God dwells within us. So when we make our temples a noisy, filthy mess, Jesus is going to get angry, and He will make us feel the consequences of our choices. This isn’t only so that He can punish us; rather, it’s so we can change, get cleaned up, and become a “house of prayer” and a place of love for Him to dwell.

From the snares of the devil, Jesus, deliver us.

The devil tempts us all the time. He lays attractive snares, trying to catch us with things that seem good but are really harmful to us. We have to be on the lookout constantly so that we don’t get caught, but as always, we can’t do this on our own. We need God’s grace to strengthen us, enlighten us, and protect us so that we don’t fall for the devil’s tricks.