Humble me all my life, O Lord.

Nothing is difficult for the humble.

O my Lord, inflame my heart with love for You, that my spirit may not grow weary amidst the storms, the sufferings and the trials. You see how weak I am. Love can do all.

-St. Faustina

Whoever exalts himself will be Humbled.

Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Dominican tertiary, Doctor of the Church, co-patron of Europe
Dialogues, ch. 4 (©Classics of Western spirituality)

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled“

Saint Catherine heard God say to her:

“You ask for the will to know and love Me, Supreme Truth. Here is the way, if you would come to perfect knowledge and enjoyment of Me, Eternal Life: Never leave the knowledge of yourself. Then, put down as you are in the valley of humility you will know Me in yourself, and from this knowledge you will draw all that you need. No virtue can have life in it except from charity, and charity is nursed and mothered by humility. You will find humility in the knowledge of yourself when you see that even your own existence comes not from yourself but from Me, for I loved you before you came to being. And in My Unspeakable Love for you I willed to create you in grace.

So I washed you and made you a new creation in the blood that My Only-begotten Son poured out with such burning Love. This blood gives you knowledge of the Truth when knowledge of yourself leads you to shed the cloud of selfish love. There is no other way to know the Truth. In so knowing Me the soul catches fire with Unspeakable Love, which in turn brings continual pain.

Indeed, because she has known My Truth, as well as her own sin and her neighbors’ ingratitude and blindness, the soul suffers intolerably. Still, this is not a pain that troubles or shrivels up the soul. On the contrary, it makes her grow fat. For she suffers because she loves Me, nor would she suffer if she did not love Me.”

*As meditation / reflection guide for the Holy Gospel today, March 2, 2010. 

*If you wish to go to Today’s Mass Readings and Homily at EWTN, please click HERE. If you wish to read the Gospel today, click HERE.

Humility.

Commentary of the Day from DGO

For the Gospel today, September 30, 2009

Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), Founder of the Jesuits 
Spiritual Exercises, 2nd.Week, 12th.Day (trans.Thomas Corbishley) 

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The three ways of humility.

The first way of humility is necessary for salvation.

It consists in my subjecting and abasing myself as far as I can, 
so that I always obey the law of God our Lord, at least to this extent: 
even if men were to offer to make me Lord of the entire creation, even were 
my life threatened, I should yet not think of breaking any commandment, 
divine or human…

The second way of humility is more perfect than the first.

It means that I so submit myself that I neither seek nor desire to be rich rather than poor, I do not try to be well thought of rather than disregarded, I do not want to live many years rather than few, 
where the service of our Lord God and my own salvation are equally 
promoted…

The third way of humility is the most perfect. 
Supposing that I have attained to the first two ways, and granted an equal 
measure of praise and glory to God, I desire to be poor along with Christ 
in poverty rather than rich, to be insulted along with Christ so grossly 
insulted, rather than to be thought well of: I would rather be thought a 
helpless fool for the sake of Christ who was so treated, rather than to be 
thought «wise and prudent» in the world’s eyes (Mt 11,25).

—

 Help me be humble, O Jesus. Help me abandon everything and trust You with my everything. You are My Everything. Help me not want nor desire anything but You.

Legacy.

Let us pray for all children today- and everyone who has stolen and is stealing their innocence.

If we stop and look around us- almost <b>everything</b> is commercialized- the media is everywhere- the billboards, the posters, the advertisements, the store banners- and what do they all have in common? Marketing, yes. 

BUT THERE’S MORE. They are all POISONS. Poison to the mind, poison to the heart. And almost all of them shouts the message of VANITY and LUST. On one side, there is a woman wearing a skimpy suit or a bikini. On the other is a guy with no shirt on. Even on TV- especially on TV- the soap operas and the commercials- EVEN in the INTERNET- they feed their audience with messages of almost EVERY kind of sin- LUST, PRIDE, ENVY, SELFISHNESS, DISRESPECT, IMMORALITY, APATHY. And everyone can have access to all of these- even the innocent children, even us- who are not so innocent but are being made more sinful with every thought that accompanies every glance.

How long would it have to take, how many souls would have to be lost, until mankind realizes that with every upgrade of technology, with every innovation of a “product”, with every rise of a skyscraper, with every new car model, with every new thing in the market which was supposed to be for the betterment of OUR LIVES- if all these are desired in vain, if all of these are desired to profit self and ONLY ONESELF- then all these would NEVER really PROFIT us but destroy us.

Look around you. People fighting with each other because of someTHING– People with much desire to protect, preserve or acquire a non-living thing that we are willing to HATE another person. 

MONEY IS NOTHING. I may be the daughter of a multi-billionaire, or I may be the daughter of a cab driver- but NO MATTER HOW MUCH MONEY I HAVE OR HOW LITTLE MONEY I HAVE if I cannot LOVE and if I AM NOT LOVED- then I will never be happy. If I never realize that I am loved- then I will die regretfully. And If I never love, if I am never able to give myself fully- after every heartbreak, after every sacrifice, after every moment that I have been humbled, or put down, no matter how hard it is or how much it hurts- and the Thing that keeps me going is my love for HIM- then I have never TRULY LIVED. And the money I have- no matter how many or little- is NOTHING because it has never and WILL NEVER be able to LOVE me.

To Love until it hurts.  It sounds too much cliched- especially if the one you are loving is a mortal, imperfect being. I found it very hard to Love God- He, Who is so easy to Love; He, Who has given His Everything to me; He, Who gives me the sun, the bright clouds, and the glorious sky every morning, the loving stars, the caresses of the wind and the engulfing peace at night; He, Who has given me every breath, every smile, every laugh, every heartbeat, every tear, everything- what more if I try to Love my fellowmen- YOU WHO ARE SO HARD TO LOVE. And yet, God- no matter how imperfect we are, no matter how poor, how rich, how fashionable, how unfashionable, how beautiful, or ugly we are- He Loves us perfectly. 

This is why I cannot take anymore. Because God has given me SO MUCH. MUCH MUCH MORE THAN ANYTHING- He gave me HIMSELF.

You know how hard it is to Love me? Think about your enemy, the girl you bitch-slapped last week, the nerdy guy who barely speaks, the girl who is so trying hard to fit in, your classmate who just talks about him/herself, those people who you would never be caught hanging out with- I am MUCH HARDER TO LOVE than them.  But I am not suicidal, I am not miserable, I am not lonely, I am not desperate, I am not depressed, I WAS NOT, AM NOT AND WILL NEVER BE ALONE- only that I am yearning. Yearning to Love Him, the One- the Only One- Who sustained me when even dying is too glorious of a fate for me. 

My desire now is to give, to share, especially to the children today- that the sun, the bright clouds, and the glorious sky every morning, the loving stars, the caresses of the wind and the engulfing peace at night- these are the things we- with everything we have earned or achieved- were never and will never be entitled to- but are given the leisure to experience. BUT MORE THAN THESE, is LOVE- because with Love, even if the sun is covered with dark clouds, or the stars forgot to love, even when the sun dies or peace failed to enamor the night- with LOVE, there will be a Sun in our sky gloriously more than ever, a Peace in our hearts engulfing our whole being and those who we Love, and Happiness- not only in our spirit, or in our soul, but in all of Eternity.

——————————————–

You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love at which we do them.

Be not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be without feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and carry you like a little child too feeble to walk.

– St. Therese of Lisieux