Posted on 07/01/2010 9:03:55 AM PDT by Mad Dawg
Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, Jesus.
That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I,
provided that I may become
as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
Dominicus Gabriel Mariae
O most gracious Lord Jesus:
To redeem an undeserving humanity
You gave up everything you had.
In your mercy, grant us the grace
of despising all things but you
and your love
That we may know the joy
you brought to us
through your dolorous Passion
and Death,
Who live and reign in might and bliss
with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
One God, in everlasting glory.
St. Maximillian Kolbe, Martyr of Auschwitz, pray for us!
Good Day of the Lord to everyone.
Yes, yes, today is a major holy day for us feelthy papists. And in my heart I want there to be nothing that spurs controversy on this thread. And this is one of those days where we are boogeying over something which really upsets some of our brothers and sisters.
I propose this: that what we are so fired up about is the fulfillment of God’s promises to all the faithful. The great thing which we think God has brought to perfection in Mary He is bringing to perfection, He means to bring to perfection in all of us.
We can join in being astounded at the more than ‘shaken down, pressed together, running over’ munificence of God, the “I asked for a dime; He gave me a zillion dollars!” extravagance of His generosity.
Even a fatted calf would be a thousand times more than we deserve but HE gave his Son! A ring on our finger would be startling, but He puts a crown on our head!
In the vanity with which we contend, we want those around us to think that we, as we are now, are splendid. What blindness to want others to envy the meal of our dumpster-diving, the tattered rags hanging from our spiritually emaciated frames, when if we, for just a second, could put down all this nonsense we could be fed and satisfied, bathed and anointed and robed in majesty.
May God turn us again from our illusory grandeur to the wonder of what He in His Love has prepared for us. For just a second, may we me given forgetfulness of self as we are swept up in the glory — never our own — that is to be revealed in us.
Amen to the prayer...
“Take notice that if souls do not find themselves quite resolved to pardon any injury or affront which may be inflicted upon them, they cannot trust much to their prayer. For the soul which God truly unites to Himself by so lofty a method of prayer, feels none of these things, and no longer cares whether she is esteemed or not, or whether she is spoke well of or ill; nay rather honors and repose give her more pain than dishonor and trials.”
(St. Teresa)
Amen!
Think of the portrayal of Mary in the Passion of the Christ. Does that not resonate with all Christians?
For the mothers among us, consider the bond forged between Mary and Jesus during the nine months our Lord was in her very womb.
And scripturally, in the Magnificant, Mary's timless beautiful prayer ... "For he hath looked upon the low estate of his handmaid: For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed". ... Luke 1:48
In my humble opinion, Mary should bring us together rather than the opposite.
Excellent remarks, Servant of the Cross. As a mother, I take this holiday very personally. Someday, it will all have been worthwhile; Our Lord’s love for His mother is a promise to the rest of us.
My Carmelite Secular Community (Third Order) is presently discussing , learning about and pondering this mercurial, elusive virtue of virtues, humility.
Our material is taken from the numerous and wonderful Scriptures about humility, and also from great conferences given by our Carmelite priests and from the counsels of saints. Every three years, in rotation, we begin again reviewing the foundation stone of humility.
Here are some very brief quotes from our material:
“Humility is to the various virtues what a chain is to the rosary; take away the chain and the beads are scattered; remove humility and all virtues vanish.”
The Cure of Ars, St. John Vianney
“Pride is not just thinking you are better than others, but the problem of thinking too much about yourselves at all. It is a preoccupation with self. Even the desire to be humble can become an all-about-you activity which negates the whole endeavor.” Fr. Chad Gion
“Genuine humility does not make one self-centered. Rather it relates one to God.” Fr. Gabriel Barry
“Whatever I have or hold You have given me; I give it all back to You.” St. Ignatius Loyola
“Make me distrust myself, but put my trust in You.” St Augustine
“The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself against it.”
St. Vincent de Paul
“By pride we consider our good to have come from ourselves, to be directed to ourselves, for the sake of ourselves.” Fr. M. Eugene Boylan
“No man is good unless he is humble. Humility is the recognition of truth about oneself.” Bishop Fulton Sheen
“Humility is necessary not only for the acquisition of virtues, but even for salvation.” St. Bernard
“Every morning I make a resolution to practice humility and in the evening I recognize that I have committed again many faults of pride. At this I am tempted to become discouraged but I know that discouragement is also pride. Therefore, my God, I wish to base my hope on You alone.” St. Therese of Lisieux
“I must disappear, lose myself in Him” St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
“It is you who have accomplished all that we have done—it is from You only that we can call upon your Name” Isaiah 26: 12
“He who seeks only himself brings himself to ruin, whereas he who brings himself to naught for Me, discovers who he is” Matthew 10:19
.....................................
And how about this one from the 19th century, Presbyterian preacher Henry Drummond:
“Humility: to put a seal upon your lips and forget what you have done. After you have been kind, after love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and say nothing about it. Love, in humility, hides even from itself. Humility sweetens and purifies.”
(Drummond wrote a most beautiful little book called “The Greatest Thing in the World”, which is all about “...and the greatest of these is Love”. That tiny work is a treasure.
........................................
And so, these are only a few selections that we use to ponder and reflect and discuss and pray about-and-for the virtue of humility.
Thanks for your ping and noting God’s awesome Love in His Redemptive efforts with all who earnestly call Him Lord.
Amen, brother.
And thanks to both of you, Melian and Quix! Happy Day!
Thanks, MD
Here’s a great quote that I attribute to FReeper Mrs. Don-O from another thread: “self-marinating”
How ‘bout that? We are “marinated” in ourselves.
H-m-m-m....from the sauce to the fire?
Humility is the work of a lifetime, pride the work of a seconds impulse.
One use for vanity is that it helps us understand others. For instance, consider lousy driving. Driving is one area where most Americans consider themselves above average.
Hmmm.
Maybe learning to forgive vanity in others is part of learning to notice it in ourselves? I don’t know.
Probably.
Vanity one way or the other trips me about 4280 times a day.
Wouldn't it be funny to carry one of those counters, you know, you push a button and it increments by 1, so that every time one caught oneself being a jerk one hit the button and at the end of the day one --- threw it in the trash! At least that's what I'd do!
Good morning bubbas and sissies!
[Insert devotional message here.]
Sorry, gotta go say my prayers, shine my boots, and hope that the bad guys don’t look at me carefully enough to see that I couldn’t stop a threatening kitten.
May God bring us all to where we are too busy enjoying Him to be entranced by silly ideas about how splendid we are!
[Insert devotional message here.]
Okay. I'll continue to discuss the Assumption of Mary, my favorite Holy Day of Obligation. Our substitute musician yesterday played a song for Offertory of which the refrain is (in English, he did it in Spanish): "Teach me, teach me, Mary, to be humble like you. Teach me, teach me, Mary, to do His Will."
If we are humble, like Mary, we will do God's will even if we think it's impossible, even if we think the outcome will be disastrous for us. Consider the young man in today's Gospel, who could not follow Jesus because he was afraid of doing without his "great possessions." What "great possessions" do I refuse to sell in order to follow Jesus? I think it would be easier to dispense with all the Stuff (which makes me so tired, anyway!) than to abandon the self-concept which doesn't always have room for what God wills.
And as a final thought, using the format of this Litany, I had prayed, "That no one show me the same consideration I show them, Lord, grant me the grace to desire it." After considering whether anyone does, the one person I can think of is my mother, the eponymous OldTax-lady. I will send her a note today to let her know how much I appreciate her. There really is nobody like one's mother.
THX FOR THE PING.
AMEN, AMEN.
Now THAT's a nice story!
Dear bubbas and sissies in the Lord!
So, I got hung up. I stretched my poor brain trying to say something coherent to Bro Quix about the Eucharist, and then over on FaceBook there is some sensitivity on either side of the “Ground Zero Mosque” issue. And it’s important to remember that God loves wishy-washy liberals too and we have no call to be unnecessarily harsh or uncaring to anyone whom God loves — however much we’d like to slap them knock-kneed.
Sometimes, when I expect a harsh retort, it takes a surprising amount of resolve for me to log on and go over to where I suspect the retort lies. Yes, I know, part of that is because I really am exquisitely sensitive and empathic and all that bazz fazz.
But some of it is because I am a wussy. And my wussiness is related to my vanity and to my looking anywhere but “to Godwards” for my ‘sense of self’ and my comfort.
This reveals to me that, however much I despise hot-dogging, I do a lot of it and feel hurt when the crowd does not applause. However much I look down on playing to the gallery, I do a lot of it myself.
“My own heart teacheth me the wickedness of the ungodly!”
May I see, may we see, ever more clearly our sinfulness, not to wallow in some slough of guilt, but so that we can be ever more grateful and ever more astonished at the love of our merciful God.
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