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October 27, 2025“'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity -- greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.
Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth; the‘Seven Deadly Sins’ were first put forth by Pope Gregory I. Just a few thoughts on pride, not the pride of doing a task well and responsibly, but the sin of pride promoting oneself at the exclusion of others.“The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility...According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere flea bites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”(C.S. Lewis)“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously.A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity, to what we would have others think of us.”(Jane Austen)Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. (Steve Jobs, founder of Apple)
“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”(St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians)“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil.The only crime is pride.”(Sophocles, Ancient Greek playwright)“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” (St. Augustine)“Charity feeds the poor, so does pride; charity builds a hospital, so does pride. In this they differ: charity gives her glory to God; pride takes her glory from man.”(Francis Quarles, English poet)“Pride goes before destruction.”(Proverbs 16:18) Intelligent people who are proud of their intelligence are like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.”(Simone Weil, French philosopher)“This what the Lord says‘Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches; but those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know the Lord.”(Jeremiah 9:23-24) “But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.'”“The world calls for, and expects from us, simplicity of life, the spirit of prayer, charity towards all, especially towards the lowly and the poor, obedience and humility, detachment, and self-sacrifice. Without this mark of holiness, our word will have difficulty in touching the heart of modern man.”(Pope Paul VI)
”Pride makes us artificial, and humility makes us real.”(Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk)“These are the few ways we can practice humility: To speak as little as possible of one's self. ~ To mind one's own business. ~ Not wanting to manage other people's affairs. ~ To avoid curiosity. ~ To accept contradictions and corrections cheerfully. ~ To pass over the mistakes of others. ~ To accept insults and injuries. ~ To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked. ~ To be kind and gentle even under provocation. ~ Never to stand on one's dignity. ~ To always choose the hardest.”(Mother Teresa, A Guide to Daily Living) God Bless, Fr. Tim