Meek of Heart and Humble

After reading and reposting the blog  Marriage Isn't For You  sethadamsmith.com, where the writer makes the distinction between being selfish and selfless for love of your spouse,  I recalled that I had this prayer in my "pile".

I found it in the Meditation of the Day section in one of my summer Magnificats.  It was written by Blosius the Venerable who was the abbot of the Benedictine Abby of Liessies in France.

Every time I read it I realize how far I am from the goal. But, on the up side, I can feel God working on me so I keep trying.

Here is the prayer:

Denying Self and Following

Oh,when shall I perfectly die to myself an be free from all creatures?  Oh, would that I were truly meek of heart and humble; truly poor and naked in spirit.  Grant, O Lord, that by perfect self-denial, perfect mortification of my vices, I may arrive at perfect love of you.  You have commanded that I should love you: give what you command and command what you please.  Grant that I may love you with my whole heart, my whole mind, with all my powers, with my whole soul.  Deign to heal and reform the powers of my soul, broken and corrupted by sin by the powers of your most holy soul.  Free my soul from all distracting cares; strip from it the images and forms of perishable things. Grant me to dwell with you in the sanctuary of my soul; grant that by steadfast thought, clear knowledge, and fervent love, I may always be able to flow into you. Amen.

Have a Sonfilled day! 

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On Confession. Part 2

One of the talks I heard was given by  Fr. John Riccardo and I've heard him explain this more than once.  He always says this:  We confess our sins to any number of people everyday.  We tell a friend, a sibling, a co-worker, a spouse; "you won't believe what I did!"

We have a natural tendency to want to get it off our chest; to put it out there and see what someone has to say about it. We're confounded as to why we would do such a thing or how we could continue to be so weak in a particular area.  For example, yelling at the kids, being grumpy with your spouse,  telling a lie to save face, taking something that does not belong to us. The list could go on and on.

We are sinners.  A fallen people striving to do better.

So Jesus gave us the gift of Confession.  Some will say, "Why do I have to go to a priest?  Can't I just tell God my sins and be forgiven?"  The answer is "yes".  But there is so much more to it than just telling God.  He already knows.

Confession gives us some great gifts. Two of them are humility and grace.

How easy it is to say to God, in your head,  I did _________________.  (Fill in the blank).

How HARD it is to confess out loud,  "I did ___________________. " Though we may say it to a trusted friend, we tend to justify our behavior with an added "but" or "because".  How HUMBLING it is to walk into a confessional and lay all the blame on ourselves without excuses and admit that we have messed up.

But with that humility the floodgates of grace open and pour out on us.

With this grace we can move forward and try harder to sin no more.  This grace gives us peace.  It increases our hope.  It make us stronger.  What a gift!

To be continued . . .