Caritas Christi Urget Nos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's that in Latin?

 

For God so loved the World

that He Sent His Only Son!

 John 3:16

 

 

The Lord has give me a well-trained tongue,

that I might know how to speak to the weary

a word that will rouse them.

 

These words we read from the Prophet Isaiah the Church applies to Jesus. He came to speak to us, the weary, the tired, the burdened--"a word that will rouse" us.

 

Sometimes words are not enough and we need deeds--ACTIONS! The Second Reading from St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians reveals the depths of love in the Heart of Jesus. We read:

 

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God

As the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity

 

Did not regard equality with God something to be grasped at.

He did not hold onto His divinity

 as a miser does his gold!

 

Rather, He emptied himself,

Jesus lowered Himself; He became as we are.

 

Taking the form of a slave

Taking on our flesh and blood!

 

Coming in human likeness;

Becoming fully human yet fully divine!

 

And found human in appearance,

As the Son of Mary and the Son of God!

 

He humbled Himself,

He stooped down to us as it were.

 

Becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus did what love requires.

He died to show His love for us even to the point of execution on the Cross.

 

 

My mother use to tell me: 

Actions speak louder than words! All we need do is look at what Jesus did!

He died so we might live!

 

Jesus taught: Greater love than this no one has that he lay down his life

for his friends and I call you friends.

 

 

Mark's Gospel reveals in great detail the lengths Jesus' love takes Him. His Passion and death are a Love Story! His love for us and His call to us to join our sufferings and our troubles with His own suffering, so that together we might change our world and draw others to His heart.

 

As we enter this Holiest Week of the year each night before we sleep or the first thing in the morning, let us read a few lines of the Love Story and listen in our hearts to His special words for us. If we listen we will hear just the words we need to grow and become the person His love calls us to be. Peace be with you!

 

Father, as we enter more deeply into the Mystery of your Son's Passion and Death, help us as too experience His pain and suffering!

 

We believe in you. We trust in you! Lead us from our present sorrow to the full Joy of Easter.

 

May all who see us; see your Son living and loving in us! Amen.

 

I ask myself: What is the quality of my friendship with Jesus? How close are we?

 

 

 

 

 

"Lord, by the grace of this sacrifice may we who ask forgiveness be ready to forgive one another."  These words startled me. Did others hear what I heard? The congregation was focused on the celebrant. After mass I looked in the Sacramentary. There I read: "Lord, by the grace of this sacrifice may we who ask forgiveness be ready to forgive one another." 

 

Could God be challenging us to forgive, to let go of those hurts we hug to our hearts? Could God be challenging us to be at peace now? How do you live in peace? Does respecting others, especially those with whom we live and work, really build a world of peace? Is peace a verb or a noun? Is peace something we do or is it something we are? Does peace begin the moment each of us looks into our own heart and confronts the evils that dwell there?

 

We cannot change the world, but we can change ourselves. We cannot sign peace treaties and grant amnesty, but we can meditate on these words. This is the challenge! Person by person, we can change the world; we can heal the world, if we examine our own attitudes. Do we treat others as if we were God and want everyone else to bow down and worship? The challenge is to name our own sin; acknowledge our own woundedness and ask forgiveness. Only when we accept the forgiveness, which flows from the Heart of Jesus, will we be able to forgive others. 

 

While dying on the cross Jesus taught:

 

"Father, forgive them. They don't know what they are doing."

 

Can we accept the forgiveness and the love of Jesus? Can reach out to others in forgiveness? As children of our heavenly Father we are called to make a difference in the world. We can think thoughts of peace, while in the midst of war. We make peace with ourselves; we take responsibility for past failures and forgive ourselves, knowing God has forgiven us. Peace will only be a part of our world, when we begin to forgive. Hard enough to forgive in times of peace, it's doubly hard in times of war.

 

 

As we make peace with ourselves, we repair those relationships, which are wounded; we call family members with whom we haven't spoken for years. Person by person, we ask for forgiveness. We let go of grudges, remembering Jesus taught:

 

"Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them. Whose sins you hold fast, they are held fast."

 

Our call to forgive is the call to make peace. Jesus' words on Easter night give us hope:

 

"Peace be with you."

 

Then He showed them his hands and side. As if to say: "This is the price of peace." It is by His sacrifice we can forgive. Alone we could not do this. God gives us the courage to look beyond "our hurts" and "our wrongs" to the real need that binds us together as a family and as members of the human race. We acknowledge that we need each other. Our call to holiness is the call to enter into the Mystery of Salvation by extending the forgiveness and the Peace of Christ to each other.

 

            Is peace a dream for Pollyannas? Or is peace the bedrock need of every person? Do we need peace to be the person God calls us to be? Each of us must answer these questions for ourselves. How we answer will determine how we live and how we die. How we answer will catapult us into a world of peace or a world of fear. May the grace of God be with us as we ponder the price of peace.

 

              

            Why am I a sister today? It was not to "save my soul" nor was it to teach or to nurse. I entered religious life and I am a sister today, because Jesus Christ is real to me.  The one thing I knew at eighteen years of age and that which I am even more convinced of now, many years later, is I AM LOVED. This one central conviction continues to compel me, urge me, and draw me today to be a sister even more than it did so many years ago. At that time I did not know what vows were; I had never heard of them, but I did know the love of the Heart of Christ. This love pierced the darkness of my ignorance and the shallowness of my thoughts. It called me to live "differently" from others. I did not understand what this meant, because I wasn't even sure if God was calling me. I only knew I had to give God a try, an opportunity to be number one in my life. I entered not so much to "do" as to "be." I wanted to "be" for Christ Jesus; I wanted to be the Love of the Heart of Jesus for others as my parents and teachers were for me. Entering religious life for me was all about loving.

 

            Religious women and men make vows, or promises. The vows for me are a "means to an end." Poverty, in and of itself, holds no attraction for me. My vow of poverty reminds me that I place my identity not in what I have or possess, but who I have been called to be from the very moment of my existence. Poverty's not about dollar and cents; it's about a willingness to share who and what I am. Poverty's not just a state of mind; it's an openness of heart, a willingness to love those who do not love me or are incapable of loving because they are in so much pain. Poverty's more than a promise to be with others in their pain; it's a presence, a power to be make present God's love here and now in the midst of my own pain. Poverty's the power to consecrate through the power of God -- the nothingness, the void within, and to create community... friendship... peace. Poverty's an emptying of self and the experience of my own emptiness. "Though He was as one with God, He did not deign equality to God something to be grasped at. Rather He emptied Himself and put on the nature of a slave." Poverty's the freedom to be Christ for others as others are Christ Jesus for me. Poverty's acknowledging, yes, even embracing the limitations that I have so that God can fill them. So when I act, it is God moving and acting in me.

 

            How did I come to discover this relationship? How did I come to know that I was loved? By listening. The vow of obedience teaches me to listen, to be sensitive to God's presence in every moment of my life. Obedience's a listening, an opening of self to God and others. Obedience is more than the fulfillment of laws and directives; it's a commitment to listen with the whole self to the voice of God in myself and in others. Obedience's a leap in faith into the unknown. It's doing what I never thought I could do; it's being who I never imagined I could be. Obedience is finding my identity in Christ Jesus who found his identity in relationship to the Father.

 

            I discover I am a daughter who is called to change her mind, to open her heart to allow the Word of God to speak in her and through her. The Word resonates in my life, in all the events of my days. Silent music permeates my veins; a hidden harmony calls me to a cadence that I would not have chosen. Yet my heart is enchanted, is fascinated by the subtle beauty, the deceptively simple rhythm: "If you want to be perfect, come follow Me." Hearing the Word, finding the Word, sharing the Word, consecrating the world with the Word by my life and example seals my share of Christ's priesthood given in Baptism. I make the Heart of Jesus present as does the priest in the consecration of the bread and wine. I offer the wine of my days and the bread of my life so that others may come to hear and know the voice of Christ Jesus. My vow of obedience draws me into these relationships. I do not speak for myself; I speak for Him who speaks through me. My heart is fastened on God alone. In all the disparate events of my days, I hear one voice, one rhythm, one song. A unity exists in my life. I find God's voice, God's presence as much within myself as in others. I am at peace. Life becomes simple. God is one. I am called to love as God loves. This is the vow of chastity.

 

            Chastity's the courage to love others rightly, purely, wholly for who they are -- not for who I want them to be. Chastity's about giving life and nurturing life. Chastity's the Father's look of love to the Son and the Son's answering love of the Father poured out in the Spirit of their love on us. Chastity's the  mystery of this love within me; most of all it's the struggle to put on the mind and heart of Jesus so as to love with Jesus' Heart and proclaim His love to all. This is the life of the vows.

 

            This is Religious Life, a life intimately a part of the life of the Church and rooted in that Baptismal relationship established between God the Father and each of us through Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit. At Baptism we each "put on Christ Jesus." We entered into a love relationship. Religious Life is one way to live that love relationship. A call echoed and echoed in my being and continues to resonate even today in my heart; so that for me the only way I can be true to myself and true to my experience of God's presence within me is to be a religious woman, to live this life of the vows. Could God be calling you or someone you know to Religious Life? Probably. God's love is everlasting; God's love is constant. God continues to call out to us across the confusion and distress of our days to say: "YOU ARE LOVED." God still needs people to proclaim this love by their lives as God needed Mary of Nazareth to give flesh to the Christ Child. Could God be calling you to be His love to others as God calls me? You must decide this for yourself.

 

         Last Sunday I was driving home during a snowstorm. I had an unexpected encounter with God. As I got off the interstate I realized the road was slushy, so I dropped into the lowest gear possible. All was well until...

 

          "Oh my God!" I cried, as the car started to skid into the oncoming traffic. Turning the wheel as quickly as I could to avoid crossing the divide, I held my breath. The next thing I knew the car was spinning uncontrollably. I didn't know what was going to stop it. The car bounced off the guard rail and finally stopped with a lurch. Taking a moment to breathe and collect myself, looking up I saw two cars appear from over the hill and approaching me at a snail's pace. One man looked at me funny as if to say: "What are you doing facing the wrong way?"

 

                Gingerly I turned the car around, thinking: "No other car is involved. I don't have to call the police." My head was swimming: "Let me just get home. The car hit the guard rail, but where?" Cautiously I drove the last mile home, not attempting to drive up the sharp incline of parish drive way. Taking my time, I drove into the parking lot, circled the rectory and finally pulled into the garage.

 

                With a sigh I got out of the car. "Where did I hit the guard rail?" I walked to the front of the car: "Nothing!" As I gazed at the rear end of the car on the driver's side, I held my breath, the car was totally smashed into the frame. My eyes widened as I realized I'd missed the gas tank by inches. "Thank God!" I exhaled. "How close I've come to death!"

 

                How often our life seems "out of control!" We react to life more than we thoughtfully respond.

 

                "Who can respond? Who has time?" I can hear you ask. "So many things come at us... so fast! What do we do?"

 

                We stop. We pause. We breathe. We slow ourselves down. We give ourselves five minutes to pull ourselves together. We stop to give ourselves the gift of time. We stop to aleve the pressure, the stress we put on ourself. We stop so we can be quiet and reclaim our deepest self. We recall the words of St. Paul: "Do you not know that you do not belong to yourself? You have be bought and paid for by the precious blood of Christ." (1 Cor 6: 19)

 

                We recall: We don't have to do it all. We're not God. God Alone is God and He is taking care of the world. All we need do is put in our piece of the puzzle and trust God to do the rest.

 

                Easy? No! Not at all! To do this is to walk a dark path, to walk in darkness not knowing where we're going. It's the way of trust. It's the way of the saints. It's Jesus' way: "Into your hands, Father, I entrust my spirit." To do this is to know in the  deepest depths of yourself the Father's care and providence; to know with all your might He's watching out for you; to know most of all: I am loved!

 

                Stopping to breathe, stopping to reclaim ourselves, stopping to remember we are loved releases fear, releases stress, releases us from our own agenda and makes us open... AVAILABLE to be who it is God is calling us to be and needs us to be right here, right now in the messiness of our life. How did we get here? By stopping! By breathing! By remembering!

 

                My prayer for you: May you take time to stop and breathe, because you hear His call amid all the confusion and noise:

 "Come to me all you who are burdened and find life tiresome. I will give you rest." Matthew 11: 28.

 

 

     Robert Benson in The Friendship of Christ has a lovely description of the beginning of the Purgative Way.

 

The initial stage of the Friendship formed with Jesus Christ is usually one of extraordinary happiness. For the soul has found for the first time a companion whose sympathy is perfect and whose Presence is continuous. It is not, necessarily, that the soul consciously attends every instant to this new intimate, so much as that she is never wholly unconscious of him. As she goes about her ordinary business, paying to each detail of it as much attention as ever, the fact that He is present within her is never entirely forgotten: He is there as is the sunlight or the air, illuminating, freshening and inspiring all that she experiences. From time to time she turns to Him with a word or two; at times He speaks gently to her. She views all that she sees from His standpoint, or rather from her standpoint in Him; lovely things are more lovely because of His loveliness; painful things are less distressing because of His consolation. Nothing is indifferent, because He is present. Even when she sleeps, her heart wakes to him. (Bension, 1912, __ )

 

Benson describes well the experience of the one first captured by the love of Christ; everything is changed: "...lovely things are more lovely because of His loveliness; painful things are less distressing because of His consolation. Nothing is indifferent, because He is present." This awareness of Jesus even is operative in sleep: "Even when she sleeps, her heart wakes to him." Benson continues to describe the various stages one must go through; each of these may be summarized as a stripping, a kind of dying to which results in one having great knowledge of Him who is Truth, Goodness and Beauty. The dynamics of the Purgative Way embrace the first two beatitudes.

 

These first two beatitudes, the first two steps on the journey, may be compared to the Purgative Way as Thomas D. McGonigle, O.P. discusses in The New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality (1993):

 

The task of the purgative way is to come to the accurate knowledge of one's self and to a true understanding of God's call to ever new life in Christ so that one can leave behind whatever attachments keep the individual from a deeper commitment to the Christian life. Meditation, in which one tries to reflect on Scripture and to allow the word of God to be the horizon with which attitudes and patterns of behavior are reformed in accord with the gospel, is understood to be the principal means to this end.  ...The attempt to put on the mind of Christ towards one's life and one's world involves the constant struggle to overcome the attitudes and patterns of behavior that tend to draw the individual away from a life of holiness  and service. (McGonigle, 1993, p. 801)

  

In the above statement McGonigle succinctly summarizes the goal of the first two beatitudes. The first two beatitudes work in tandem, the first beatitude prepares us to practice the second beatitude. Knowing our need of God prepares us to "leave behind whatever attachments keep the individual from a deeper commitment to the Christian life." How do we do that? "... one tries to reflect on Scripture and ... allow the word of God to be the horizon with which attitudes and patterns of behavior are reformed in accord with the gospel..." God is drawing us closer to himself; He is calling us to a life "of holiness and service." God is purifying us through our living of the first two beatitudes.

 

 

Benson illustrates how this purification takes place.

 

There follows, however, a third stage before the Way of Purgation is wholly passed. The soul has learned that external things are not Christ; that internal things are not Christ. She has become "disillusioned," first with the frame of the picture, and next with the picture itself, before she has reached the original. She now has to learn the last lesson of all, and become disillusioned with herself.

 

Up to now she has always retained a belief, however faint and humble, that there was something in herself, and of herself, that attracted Christ towards her. She has been at least tempted to think that Christ had failed her; now she has to learn that it is she who, all along, in spite of her childlike love, has been failing Christ; and this is at once the real essence and object of Purgation. She has been stripped of all her coverings, of her ornaments and her clothes; now she has to be stripped of herself, that she may be the kind of disciple that He wishes.

 

 

This is the rudest of awakening! To know that God does not love us because of who we are or what we do or what we have is a shock. To know in the depths of one's heart that there is no good within us that comes from us is, also, to discover that any good we have is a gift of Him who loves us. Benson describes the stance of one who has passed though the Way of Purgation: "She sees for the first time that there is no good in herself apart from Christ; that He must be all, and she nothing." Until we discover our very real need of God; until we discover and name our secret, hidden sins; until we mourn what we are leaving behind, we cannot enter the School of Love.

 

CATHERINE OF SIENA

 

          God: Do you know how these three virtues come to be? Think of a circle traced on the ground and in, the center of this circle, a three with a sprouting shoot. The three lives on the soil contained within this circle. If the tree was uprooted it would die. It would not be able to produce any fruit until it was replanted in the soil.

 

Now think of the soul as a tree that was made for love and that can live only with love. It is therefore indeed true that if the soul does not have divine love, which is perfect  charity, it would not know how to produce living fruit but only dead fruit. The root of the tree, that is to say the will, must be deeply rooted in self-knowledge because it is precisely this self-knowledge that unites it to me who, like a circle, am without beginning or end... You can turn round and round inside a circle finding neither its beginning nor end and remain within it. This knowledge of yourself and of me within yourself is found in the soil of true humility, which is as great as the surface of the circle, that is, as great as the knowledge of yourself united with me. If this were not so, there would be no circle without beginning or end: there would be a beginning since you would have begun to know all about yourself, but it would end in confusion, if this knowledge were not linked to me. The tree of charity is nourished in humility, and it puts forth from its side the shoot of discretion.  ~ Women Mystics of the Medieval Era (Catherine of Siena, 2003, pp. 90-91)

 

 

WE PRAY

 

Take a few minutes to tell Jesus of your own struggles with humility. Review Clelia's Vow of Humility. What part of it speaks to you? What do you hear God calling you to do?

 

 

THE CHURCH PRAYS

 

Father in heaven, Creator of all, look down upon your people in their moments of need, for you alone are the source of our peace. Bring us to the dignity which distinguishes the poor in spirit and show us how great is the call to serve, that we may share in the peace of Christ who offered his life in the service of all. We ask this through Christ our Lord. (CP Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time p 630) 

 

THE SAINTS SPEAK

 

 

SAINT PETER CHRYSOLOGUS

 

          Why then, man, are you so worthless in your own eyes and yet so precious to God? Why render yourself such dishonour when you are honoured by him? Why do you ask how you were created and do not seek to know why you were made? Was not this entire visible universe made for your dwelling? It was for you that the light dispelled the overshadowing gloom; for your sake was the night regulated and the day measured, and for you were the heavens embellished with the varying brilliance of the sun, the moon and the stars. The earth was adorned with flowers, groves and fruit; and the constant marvellous variety of lovely living things was created in the air, the fields, and the seas for you, lest sad solitude destroy the joy of God's new creation. And the Creator still works to devise things that can add to your glory. He has made you in his image that you might in your person make the invisible Creator present on earth; he has made you his legate, so that the vast empire of the world might have the Lord's representative. Then in his mercy God assumed what he made in you; he wanted now to be truly manifest in man, just as he had wished to be revealed in man as in an image. Now he would be in reality what he had submitted to be in symbol.

 

          And so Christ is born that by his birth he might restore our nature. He became a child, was fed, and grew that he might inaugurate the one perfect age to remain for ever as he had created it. He supports man that man might no longer fall. And the creature he had formed of earth he now makes heavenly; and what he had endowed with a human soul he now vivifies to become a heavenly spirit. In this way he fully raised man to God, and left in him neither sin, nor death, nor travail, nor pain, nor anything earthly, with the grace of our Lord Christ Jesus, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, for all the ages of eternity. Amen

 

 

CLELIA PRAYS    

 

I am nothing; and You... you, O Jesus, know that unless my nothingness is enriched by Your divine power it cannot accomplish anything... Give me generosity, and I, assisted by Your power,... promise You heroic sacrifices. I will not cease offering all of them to You without exception. The more repugnance I feel in making certain sacrifices, the more I will seek these trials and sacrifices, which You ask of me. (Merloni, 1970, 370)

 

 

My God, to honor your bountiful mercy, I make to you a vow of humility:

• I will never complain either interiorly or exteriorly about any treatment whatever which I receive whether from God or from creatures--rational or irrational. To nothing, nothing is owed and it never complains.
• I will not speak of myself except for obedience, or charity, and never to satisfy myself, for any human goal. For obedience, for charity, when it would be of use to my neighbor.
• I will not avoid saying things that mortify me, so long as these do not make the Superiors who listen to me uncomfortable, when it is intended by obedience and when I would not be failing in the fulfillment of my duties.
• I will keep myself in spirit under everyone's feet, with the conviction of my nothingness, and in action making myself be the servant of all, when this is not hindered by the intention of obedience or by the practice of my duties.
• I will be happy and jubilant to prove to Him my love by conquering my self-love in occasions that God will grant me.

O my God, grant that I may do it always with increasing generosity. (Merloni, 1970, p. 376-377)

 

THE JOURNEY OF CLELIA

 

          I, Sister Clelia Merloni, Foundress of the Sisters Apostles of the Sacred Heart, not Zelatrices, having lived in the Congregation itself for 23 years, giving little edification to my Sisters in Religion because of my impetuous and suspecting nature.

 

          Not having directed my daughters in Jesus during my term as Superior with the even temper, humility and prudence that are so necessary for a General who must govern an Institute of about 500 Sisters scattered in houses throughout Italy, Austria and the two Americas, and not having had that tact and virtue for directing those poor Sisters who were always reproved by me, either justly or unjustly, according to my state of soul or nervous irritability in which I found myself... and furthermore, having borrowed the dowry that some of my Sisters had handed over to the Institute using it partly for the needs of the Institute and partly for works of charity but with the intention that when the Institute would be in better circumstances I would return, a little each year, the dowries spent (these grew to the total sum of 65,000 Lire),

 

          Whether it is because of my rash and incorrect behavior or because I drew on the capital of the dowries, it is understandable that some of the Sisters of the Institute must have referred this matter to the Sacred Congregation, and by order of the now deceased Cardinal Vives y Tuto, two Visitators were sent to examine the actual situation. Having examined everything, they removed me from office and handed over the government to a Sister who in the past had been the Vicaress General.

 

        Immediately upon hearing that they wanted to take the responsibility of the Institute away from me because of my ill health, I believed it and was grateful; but later when they removed the Councilors and replaced them with other Sisters who were anything but suitable, and even more when they changed the spirit of the Institute, I understood that this was not all done out of concern for my health but rather for motives which I was able to intuit but was not able to understand clearly at that time.

 

          Then, my nature rebelled against my spirit and a hateful revolt took possession of my poor soul. Notwithstanding this, I continued to pray always and to beg the Lord not to permit me to stain my soul with the serious guilt of hatred. 

~Mother Clelia's Letter to Padre Pio on November 22, 1920 in Book 12

 

 

COMMENTS AND CONNECTIONS

 

          In this letter to Pade Pio, Clelia sketches in a few, brief words with broad strokes her feelings and the situation in which she finds herself. As we listen to her speak, it sounds as though she is going to confession, as she lays bare her soul, as well as she admits her faults and shortfalls.

 

"Not having directed my daughters in Jesus during my term as Superior with the even temper, humility and prudence that are so necessary ...and not having had that tact and virtue for directing those poor Sisters who were always reproved by me, either justly or unjustly ...

 

Her humility is more than evident as she reveals what she knows to be her faults and short-comings. She struggles to honor charity and not fall into sin, for she writes:

 

 "Then, my nature rebelled against my spirit and a hateful revolt took possession of my poor soul. Notwithstanding this, I continued to pray always and to beg the Lord not to permit me to stain my soul with the serious guilt of hatred. "

 

We see in her letter to Padre Pio, Clelia's great desire for truth and an understanding of God's action in her life. This desire for truth and her own simplicity reveal Clelia's rootedness in humility. Her Vow of Humility, found in the Clelia Prays section reveals Clelia deep understanding of this beatitude. 

                      

 

REFLECT QUESTIONS

• Which of the words of Clelia touched me the most?
• What do I understand poverty of spirit to mean?
• How do I practice it?
• Do I share who I am and what I am with others or do I just give the minimum in community?
• What is the connection between this beatitude and my following of Jesus as an Apostle?

 

CLELIA TEACHES

 

          My daughters, how tender is God's love for the humble soul! When Jesus sees a the humble soul in trial, he consoles her; when he finds her immersed in the knowledge of her true nothingness, he draws near and gives her a great abundance of graces and, to the degree that she humbles herself, he raises her toward glory, reveals to her his secrets and draws her gently to himself. My daughters, the more you descend in the abyss of your misery, the more God will lift you up in grace here below and to glory in heaven. When you, daughters, ask him something with humility of heart, be certain that your prayers will be well received. (SA 142) 

 

        Practice holy humility, my daughters, remembering always that humility is most useful in helping us bear all the trials of life in a Christian manner. The proud person can't bear anything, he becomes annoyed at and rebels against the cross; he doesn't want to understand that he, having surrendered to his impatience and wicked moods, deserves to suffer, that he needs to, and that suffering is from God who holds pride in horror. The humble person, on the contrary, accepts crosses willingly; she recognizes that, being a sinner, it is right that she suffer; that whatever she has to suffer is nothing compared to what she deserves... (SA 136)

 

          If I wish to obtain humility and to have it as a companion in my life, I must watch carefully so that nothing offends it in my thoughts, in my words, in my actions... Lacking humility in my thoughts, I made rash judgments. Lacking humility in my words, I offended a sister... Lacking humility in my actions I was haughty and spiteful. I was punished and humbled, and also obliged on my knees to ask pardon of the sister, such I did without hesitation, having realized that I acted unkindly. (WTR 485)