The Fruits of the Spirit

We believe that grace works on nature, and our nature is physical and psychological. So it is not surprising that when we open to grace – the pure, free gift of God’s love – that there will be benefits of meditation that we will experience and recognize in our bodies, in our minds, and in the way we relate to other people. Those are the benefits, but we can see these benefits to be signs of grace. When we look more deeply into these benefits, we see that they are the fruits of the Spirit or signs of the fruits of the Spirit. As St Paul describes them, the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness and self-control.  These fruits of the Spirit are much more important than your cholesterol or your blood pressure because these fruits of the spirit are the signs of God’s life through Christ expanding in you, divinizing you, preparing you for your union with God.

Meditating as a Christian by Laurence Freeman OSB