Tag: pride

Posted in CHRIST the JUDGE, HUMILITY-Fr Richard Clarke, QUOTES on HELL, QUOTES on HUMILITY, QUOTES on PRIDE, QUOTES on the DEVIL/EVIL, The LAST THINGS

Thought for the Day – 8 June – Aids to Humility

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 8 June – Meditations with Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)

HUMILITY
Meditations for a Month

Aids to Humility

To foster in ourselves a spirit of humility, we must not only look back but also look forward.
When we appear before our Lord to be judged, what reason we shall have for shame and for dismay! How can I, who am so full of sin, venture to face Him, Who sees through every disguise and recognises the true nature of every action?
How can I meet Him who has witnessed deeds of evil hidden from the eyes of men and wicked and uncharitable thoughts, indulged in secret!?
When I think of that day, I must be humble.

Nothing will then be such a cause of shame to me as my pride.
Nothing will so turn away the Face of my Judge from me in anger.
If God abhors the proud, how can I look forward to that day without trembling? St Teresa said that when she had the privilege of seeing our Blessed Lord in a vision, the prevailing thought in her mind was, what a terrible thing it would be, if He were to be angry with her.
He will be angry with me, then, unless I learn more humility!
O my God, make me humble at any cost!

What will be the punishment of pride? Will it be the fire of Hell that was prepared for the devil and his angels, simply and solely because of their pride?
None will endure such misery as the proud; not the gluttonous, or the impure, or the covetous, except, so far as their other vices fostered pride in them.
O my God, if nothing else will make me humble, grant that the thought of the lowest Hell, reserved for the proud, may conquer in me that hateful vice of pride!

Posted in GOD ALONE!, HUMILITY-Fr Richard Clarke, QUOTES on HUMILITY, QUOTES on PRIDE

Thought for the Day – 30 May – The Deeper Foundations of Humility

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 30 May – Meditations with Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)

HUMILITY
Meditations for a Month

Chapter Four
The Deeper Foundations of Humility

The consciousness of past sin will not, of itself, give us the perfection of humility. It necessarily fixes the eye of the soul upon ourselves and our own doings, whereas perfect humility means the annihilation of self. We have a deeper and more solid foundation for this virtue in our own nothingness and the absence of any sort of good, save that which God has given us. Every gift of nature is simply a free gift from Him. All that is from ourselves is the marring and injuring of what we have received; the misuse of talents, money, position, influence. What folly, then, to pride ourselves on what belongs to God!

Regarding supernatural gifts, we are still mere nothing and less than nothing. Our natural gifts are put into our hands, they remain with us and are in some sense ours but, a supernatural gift requires a fresh giving immediately from the hand of God each time it is given us! We
cannot begin any supernatural work without His preventing grace; we cannot move a step in it without fresh grace to carry on; we cannot bring it to a successful issue, without the grace necessary to complete it. Do I realise, as I ought, this nothingness of myself and my absolute
and continual dependence upon God, for each thought or act, pleasing to Him?

If this is so, how can I be anything but humble? To pride myself on that which God does in me, would be ridiculous; to pride myself on what I can do of myself, would be to pride myself on all which mars and spoils the work of God.
“What hast thou that thou hast not received?” asks St Paul.
Yes, O Lord, I have only one thing that I have not received and that is my vileness, misery, sin.
Can I boast of these!?

Posted in ArchAngels and Angels, CHRIST the PHYSICIAN, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, LENT 2024, QUOTES on PRIDE, QUOTES on STRENGTH, SAINT of the DAY

Our Lenten Journey with the Angels and the Saints – 12 March – Pride, Strength, That I May See!

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Our Lenten Journey with the Angels and the Saints – 12 March – Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Lent – St Gregory the Great (540-604), Pope, Confessor, Father & Doctor of the Church, “Father of the Fathers” “The Apostle of England”

Pride, Strength, That I May See!

St Gregory the Great (540-604),
Pope, Confessor, Father & Doctor of the Church

“Whenever something is to be done needing great power,
Michael is sent forth, so that from his action
and from his name, we can understand
that no-one can do what God can do.
Hence that old enemy, who through pride,
desired to be like God, saying,
“I will scale the heavens,
I will set up my throne,
I will be like the Most High,”
is shown at the end of the world,
left to his own strength and about to undergo
the final punishment, as destined to fight
with Michael the Archangel.
Similarly, Gabriel was sent to Mary;
he who is called “strength of God” came to announce Him,
Who deigned to appear in humility
to conquer the powers of the air.
And Raphael is interpreted, as we said,
“Medicine of God,” for when he touched the eyes of Tobias
to do the work of healing, he dispelled the night of his blindness.”

Practice: If I am tempted to pride today I will ask St Michael to help me conquer my pride. I will have great confidence in his prayers for this intention since it was he who brought down Lucifer, the very spirit of pride. “Who is like unto God!”
And to St Gabriel, in my weakness, I may ask prayers for strength and of St Raphael, his prayers to cure my many hurts, both physical and spiritual.

Posted in "Follow Me", CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES on PRIDE

Thought for the Day – 27 April – PRIDE

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 27 April – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

PRIDE

“Do you remember the occasion when the Apostles, their minds filled with ambitious speculation, approached Jesus and asked Him who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?
Our Lord called a little child and placed him in the centre of the group.
“Unless you turn and become like little children,” He said, “you will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 18:3).

How different are God’s designs from the desires of men!
His ways are full of simplicity and humility, in a sharp contrast with our pride and ostentation.
Jesus taught us this lesson, not only in His discourses but, also in His life.
He was God and He became man; He was rich and He became poor.
He left His heavenly mansion and came down ro live in a stable in Bethlehem and to the home of a poor carpenter in Nazareth.
For thirty years He performed a tradesman’s job in this obscure village in Galilee.
It was only when He had already spent thirty years teaching us His love of poverty, that He emerged to preach the Gospel in public.
After He had preached and worked miracles for three years, He sank back into the depths of lowliness and was even condemned to die upon the Cross.
This is a tremendous lesson for us.
This is the road which we must travel, if we ae to follow Jesus!”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

PART ONE:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/04/20/thought-for-the-day-20-april-pride/
PART TWO:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/04/29/thought-for-the-day-29-april-pride/

Posted in MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES on PRIDE, QUOTES on SIN, QUOTES on the DEVIL/EVIL

Thought for the Day – 5 April – PRIDE “I will not serve.”

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 5 April – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

PRIDE  “I will not serve.”

“Pride is the sin of Satan.
Being a pure spirit, he could not commit sins which have material things as their object, such as sins of impurity or of avarice.
The one sin of which a spirit is capable, is pride.
Satan had been created by God and had been endowed with the loftiest gifts but, he was obliged to undergo a trial, in order that he could merit the reward reserved for him by God, namely, the everlasting happiness of the Beatific Vision.
It is generally held, that God revealed to Satan and to all the legions of Angels, the Eternal Word made man, Jesus Christ and commanded them to adore Him.
But when Satan and the other rebellious Angels saw in Jesus Christ, a nature far inferior to their own, they were indignant, because, the Divine Word had not been united to the angelic, instead of the human nature.
They refused to bow their haughty heads and flung back at God, the arrogant and blasphemous ultimatum:  “I will not serve.”

This, is the essence of pride – the creature attributes to himself, the gifts which he has received from his Creator and believes, that he can do without God.
Pride is opposed to truth, which requires us to acknowledge, that we have received everything from God.
We should not grow proud, therefore but should gratefully refer all that we are and all that we have, to Our Lord and Creator.
We should remember, that one day, we shall have to render to God, a strict account of all these gifts.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in "Follow Me", MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES on PRIDE, QUOTES on SELF-DENIAL, QUOTES on VANITY

Thought for the Day – 29 April – Pride

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 29 April – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Pride

“Just as humility is the most difficult of the virtues to acquire, pride is the most common of the vices.
We are all conceited and take pride in things, which do not belong to us but to God!
One would imagine, that it would be easy to understand that we are nothing without God but, in practice, it is the other way round.
It is not only prominent personalities, noted scientists and men of letters but also the most ordinary men, who believe, that they are unique and superior to their fellows.

Other vices follow pride.
There is a presumption which leads us to believe that we are more important than we really are and attempt things which are beyond the power which God has given us.

There is ambition ,which drives us to make an immoderate quest for honours and responsibilities, our main goal in life, as if our hearts could be satisfied by these things, rather than by God and by our own sanctification.

There is empty vanity, the futile but burning desire to be praised and esteemed, as if our merits (if we have any) were anything else but a gift from God, which we have been able to develop only by His assistance and grace.

Let us examine ourselves in this regard and we shall find many distortions in our own personality.
We shall discover many vain notions, which we ought to dispel and many selfish detractions from God’s glory of which we are and have been, guity.
“Take away pride,” said St Augustine “and what are men but men?”
Remove the mask of arrogance and affectation and who will find, that even those men, who regard themselves as outstanding personalities, are very insignificant creatures after all.
Let us keep constantly in our mind the words of Jesus: “Amen, amen I say to you, the servant is not greater than his lord; neither is the apostle greater than he that sent him” (John 13:16).”
We can learn a great deal from a meditation on this subject.

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

PART ONE HERE:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/04/20/thought-for-the-day-20-april-pride/

Posted in MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on PRIDE, QUOTES on SIN, QUOTES on the DEVIL/EVIL, QUOTES on TRUTH, The LAST THINGS

Thought for the Day – 20 April – Pride

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 20 April – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Pride

“Pride is the sin of Satan.
Being a pure spirit, he could not commit sins which have material things as their object, such as sins of impurity or of avarice.
The one sin of which a spirit is capable, is pride.
Satan had been created by God and had been endowed with the loftiest gifts but, he was obliged to undergo a trial, in order that he could merit the reward reserved for him by God, namely, the everlasting happiness of the Beatific Vision.
It is generally held, that God revealed to Satan and to all the legions of Angels, the Eternal Word made man, Jesus Christ and commanded them to adore Him.
But when Satan and the other rebellious Angels saw in Jesus Christ, a nature far inferior to their own, they were indignant, because, the Divine Word had not been united to the angelic, instead of the human nature.
They refused to bow their haughty heads and flung back at God, the arrogant and blasphemous ultimatum:  “I will not serve.”

This, is the essence of pride – the creature attributes to himself, the gifts which he has received from his Creator and believes, that he can do without God.
Pride is opposed to truth, which requires us to acknowledge, that we have received everything from God.
We should not grow proud, therefore but should gratefully refer all that we are and all that we have, to Our Lord and Creator.
We should remember, that one day, we shall have to render to God, a strict account of all these gifts.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci