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Humility always has a good cry and then forgets petty insults. Remember this. If you want to conquer the devil, arm yourself with humility.
- Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias
(How are you being called to be more humble these days -- of acknowledging your true strengths and weaknesses?) |
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Acts 9:1-20; Ps. 117:1bc, 2; Jn 6:52-59
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
USCCB Lectionary
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John 6: 52-59 (More on the Bread of Life)
These are some of the most
uncompromising words ever attributed to Jesus. The Greek word for flesh used by John refers to bodily flesh, causing us to ask, with the Jews, ‘How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?” This unmistakable allusion to the importance of the Eucharist should remind us that Jesus’ gift of his life is the greatest gift we can receive.
- Many people who proclaim Jesus as their lord and savior speak of him as having died for their sins. How do you understand this? How has Jesus given his life for you?
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List a few of the many changes that have come to the world because of Jesus. Spend some time thanking God for these graces which determine the social and cultural contexts of our lives.
Paperback, Kindle
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The Way of Perfection, by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) Continues the same subject and gives counsels concerning different kinds of temptation. Suggests two remedies by which we may be freed from temptations.
Beware also, daughters, of certain kinds of humility which the devil inculcates in us and which make us very uneasy about the gravity of our past sins. There are many ways in which he is accustomed to depress us so that in time we withdraw from Communion and give up our private prayer, because the devil suggests to us that we are not worthy to engage in
it. When we come to the Most Holy Sacrament, we spend the time during which we ought to be receiving grace in wondering whether we are properly prepared or no. The thing gets to such a pass that a soul can be made to believe that, through being what it is, it has been forsaken by God, and thus it almost doubts His mercy. Everything such a person does appears to her to be dangerous, and all the service she renders, however good it may be, seems to her fruitless. She loses confidence and sits with
her hands in her lap because she thinks she can do nothing well and that what is good in others is wrong in herself.
- Chapter 37 (Keep in mind that she is writing to
sisters in a cloistered contemplative order.)
Paperback, Kindle
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