Living our faith often boils down to an act of the will. At the end of the day, that’s all we have— the tremendous gift of the ability to choose for ourselves, which includes the ability to refuse grace.
It begs this question — what will we do? What will we do in this moment? At the time we said we would pray, will we? We have a lot of options of what we could do, but what should we do?
As Venerable Fulton Sheen once told us, true freedom is the power to do what we ought.
But, with the power and ability to do what we ought, we must take control of our own actions. We must gain self-control, and use our will to bring glory to God and our own sanctification.
In this moment, and in every moment, living our faith is an act of the will. It’s not a feeling or an emotion, although it sometimes can be. What will we do when the feeling isn’t there, when we feel dry or alone? In those lackluster moments, what kind of willpower do we have?