Father Michael Carlin has a great video on Lent and Humility. He suggests that it is much better to fail at Lent on our own , than through pride and gritting our teeth to succeed. That our constant attitude must be to be asking, begging God for help to let Him carry us through it.
This is true also of the Spiritual Life in General. When we beg the Holy Spirit to grant us graces of Humility we are basically asking God for a good swift kick in the teeth, for it is only through a very painful confrontation with the truth to we catch ourselves on. It is rather like getting salt thrown into an open poisonous wound and is never ever going to be easy. We never ever reach the point of being humble. For as St Phillip Neri said, 'My pride will die half an hour after I do!' Pride is embedded in all that we are and all that we do. It is part of our mutual fallen state. We must pick up our Cross to follow Jesus and this involves repeated kicks in the teeth to bring us down a notch or two. ..and the Holy Spirit is so good a teeth kicker He should be part of Heaven's National Football Team. Many people mistake St Therese of Liseaux', 'Little Way', as doing small things well for God. But this was only her tactic. The heart , the strategy of her, 'Little Way', is to let God carry us like a little baby in His arms. To stop the insane habit we have of earning our way to heaven and being humble enough to lie still and let Him carry us with His Grace. This is not something that can be taught. It is only something we can learn through having our teeth repeatedly bashed in. Very often only at the point of beaten more nor less to death. 'It is true that to enjoy these treasures we must humble ourselves, must confess our nothingness – and here is where many a soul draws back. 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 with which we do them.' St Therese.
Hi Maryrose, I was looking for somewhere to post a wonderful video on penance but the time passed and I had to go out and water the garden before nightfall. I'll post it here, the talk by a Franciscan Friar and is one of the best I've heard, no that's not correct, its by far the best I've ever heard on penance and humility, it gives hope and explains much of what I believe many here on the MoG forum experience. I've also posted it on another thread, as I would like all to listen to it. I believe it will be helpful to many.
I remember reading a homily by a church father (I think Ambrose of Milan) who said that God allowed Peter to deny Christ 3 times so that he would not judge others harshly in their shepherding. I couldn't currently find the source of this; maybe someone on the forum has already read about this.
Fr Brendan covers some of the very same points that the Franciscan Friar covers in the video uploaded in #24. Thank you Padraig
I've read the same thing Luan. But it's not just Peter's denial, all 12 apostles failed Jesus before Pentecost. Judas betrayed and was lost but the others all ran away, including St John who was the only one to come back with Mary, but even he could not stay awake and pray as Jesus asked them 3 times. History would forever record that women and other poor disciples who had few privileges with Christ withstood the onslaught of evil to stay with Him til the end. As the apostles went to preach afterwards, they had to recount the story and Passion of Jesus and that story included their failures in the darkest hours - and how they must have cried over that over and over again - but Jesus forgave them so they knew how to have compassion because it was shown to them. I'm sure it was a source of lifelong repentance. In a text that I read Jesus tells the apostles that the humiliation for them was necessary so that they would become lambs instead of wolves. Deep stuff really if you look around at the situation today. The apostles still had pride in them which needed to be broken completely through a harsh experience of public humiliation. I think about this a lot, it's better for us to break ourselves before the Passion than to wait for the trials to break us because with too much pride in us (Judas) the risk is that instead of accepting and repenting, we could revolt and rage against God.
Excellent reflection. Peter and the apostles caved in to their fear and left Jesus to the wolves. (What BXVI begged for prayers not to do) Such an experience was a crucible that purified them over and over as they retold their story. Fear can blind us and make us cowards--no doubt about it. Fr Walter Czsick SJ who wrote the wonderful "He Leadeth Me"speaks of this when the Communists had him in Lubianka prison and threatened him with death if he didn't sign a false confession. He signed. Later in his cell crushed in spirit and horrified at his own weakness he fell into a terrible spiritual darkness tempted to despair. Out of it he cried out in humility to the Holy Spirit--refusing to give in to the darkness. The change in him was nothing short of miraculous. He became fearless in his humility with absolute trust in God. The communists didn't know what to make of him. They sent him off to Siberia where he was able to minister to the poor prisoners in the labor camps. It sounds so much like the first apostles who became utterly fearless in their humility and love--desiring only to serve Jesus. We all have to get there one way or another. Pride and self reliance don't go easily but there is such a freedom that comes from facing our own weakness and absolute dependence on God. Its a great grace to learn our "true condition."
I recently lost my temper with my beloved Geralyn. Tons of humble pie which lacks any hint of sweetness. She forgave me. Bless her.
I keep reading this lately, about these profound conversion that can only happen when someone is completely broken. It's a bit scary! On a related note, I listened to an interview a while ago of a protestant pastor, Todd Coconato, who said that he knew an American Christian who lived somewhere in the east where there was heavy persecution and had been held in a prison for months and this man said that almost all us western Christians have no clue how to suffer and are none of us are ready for persecution. I guess that's one reason we will need the warning (illumination).
I read an interesting , insightful story about a Chinese gentleman who suffering horrific persecution by the Communists in his native land and ended up spending a very long period in prison for his beliefs. Eventually he left China with his family and moved to Texas in the USA were he became a very successful buisnessman indeed. However he because so busy he found he had no time for his Church and eventually lost his Faith in God altogether. So all those years of persecution and he kept the Faith. But riches and success caused him to loose it. https://christdesert.org/prayer/desert-fathers-stories/ Abba Poemen said of Abba John the Dwarf that he had prayed God to take his passions away from him so that he might become free from care. He went and told an old man this: ‘I find myself in peace, without an enemy,’ he said. The old man said to him, ‘Go, beseech God to stir up warfare so that you regain the affliction and humility that you used to have, for it is by warfare that the soul makes progress.’ So he besought God and when warfare came, he no longer prayed that it might be taken away, but said, ‘Lord, give me strength for the fight.’
Good poing! I remember hearing Fr Mike Schmidt tell this story. This period of prosperity and (over) abundance I'm sure was done on purpose, to get the children of God to lose their ways.
I know many people, including long time married couples, where after a wrong doing, do not have humility to even ask for forgiveness. It’s a grace in many ways. And yes, also a grace to forgive (and forget) when wronged.
