The proud, poor creatures, have to suffer a thousand silly little things which their self-love makes out to be enormous but are unnoticed by others.ĭo you think that no one else has ever been twenty years old? Do you think they were never restricted by their parents when they were under age? Do you think they avoided the problems, however great or small, that you come up against? No. Fight against pride, every day, at every moment. And do not doubt that grace comes to you by means of those who fight to match their deeds to Christ’s ideal.įor as long as you are convinced that others should always be paying you all their attention, and for as long as you delay the decision to serve (to hide yourself and disappear from view), your dealings with your brothers, colleagues and friends will be a constant source of disappointment, ill-humour.: of pride.ĭetest showing off. Why do you always think that everything you are told has a hidden meaning? By being so touchy you are limiting the action of grace all the time. You are always seeking people’s obvious attention! But, above all, that they should pay more attention to you than to anybody else. That is because you are isolated from your brothers by your selfishness, and because you do not come closer to God. these are all adjectives which you deserve, even though they might annoy you. Malicious, suspicious, devious, mistrustful, grudging. I pity you: you lack the decision to seek holiness. If that false conviction, born of your pride, remains, you will never change. You then become convinced that he is mistaken: he doesn’t understand you. Don’t be angry if I tell you that you are behaving like an arrogant despot.Ī friend of yours, loyally and charitably, points out to you, on your own, certain things which tend to mar your behaviour. Without you, it seems, nothing is done properly. Who’s in, who’s out? -What does it matter to you? You have come, you tell me, to be useful, to serve, with complete availability. Through presumption or simply through vanity, many people run a black market to raise their own personal worth artificially. Pride sooner or later ends up humiliating a man in front of others, however much of “a man” he is, since he will have been acting like a vain and brainless puppet, moved by satan’s strings. and abuse it by humiliating those who are less fortunate, show that they are fatuous and proud. Those who enjoy privilege thanks to money, ancestry, rank, position or intelligence. Do not lose that holy ambition of yours to lead the whole world to God, but when those ideas present themselves (they might show perhaps a desire to desert) remember that you too have to be obedient and work away at that obscure job, which does not seem at all brilliant, for as long as God asks nothing else of you. But Jesus Christ fulfils the Will of his Father, and he waits. During his hidden years, there were also “very favourable” chances to advance his public life - when he was twelve years old, for instance, and the doctors of the law were in amazement at his questions and at the answers he gave. Turn your eyes back to Jesus he is “the Way”. It is a lie - and I really mean that - when we seek to justify our actions by saying that we must not miss certain opportunities, certain favourable chances.
Opus domini translation professional#
How can you pretend to follow Christ, if you only revolve around yourself?Īn impatient and disordered anxiousness to climb up the professional ladder can mask self-love under the appearances of “serving souls”. And you will never be effective until it is him, him, him, so that you act in nomine Domini - in the name and with the strength of God. Give thanks to God because you are beginning to catch a glimpse of your “duty to be humble”.Īll the time it is you, you, you. Now your conscience accuses you, calling you proud. And despite it all, you have not learned to humble yourself. Because your attacker was powerful you could not defend yourself and you felt the pain of a hundred blows. They ignored what you call your “rights”, which I translated for you as your “right to be proud”. But the Lord said: Sine Me nihil! - without Me you can do nothing. That is the secret of effectiveness and happiness.Īlthough you say you follow Him, in one way or another you always make sure that it is “you” who do things, according to “your” plans, relying on “your” strength alone. Pull self-love out by the roots and plant in its place love for Jesus Christ.
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