PRIDE vs. HUMLITY

As you well know, pride and humility are contraries. You have also heard that:

Pride always goes before a fall... The bigger you are the harder you fall...etc.,

Ironically, as the most popular vice, pride has the least popular solution: humility. Humility is a scary word. Wrongly understood, it is often associated with having little self worth. Who wants that? 

Luckily, that is not what humility is. Humility is simply the right understanding of one's self. 

It is not thinking more highly of one's self  than one actually is, nor is it thinking lower of one's self than one actually is. It is understanding one's self exactly.

It is responsibly and honestly assessing who we are, what we have done, what we are good at, and what we have failed. It is realizing that we aren't in control.

St. Paul says, "For that which I work, I understand not. For I do not that good which I will; but the evil which I hate, that I do." (Rom 7:15) 

If St. Paul isn't in control of himself, than how can we claim such a control over ourselves, our lives and each other? Do we not also sometimes do what we hate, because of weakness? Who is without regret, without sin, without unchecked self-appointed glory?

Not me!!! :-)

Therefore, on Day 1 of 7 on PRIDE vs HUMILITY, I offer a simple prayer:

Jesus, please help me to see myself as You see me. 

Heal me from my self inflicted blindness. 

Open my eyes so that I see clearly what I need to be for You. 

I beg Your forgiveness for all the times I praised myself instead of You.

 Please heal the wounds that my pride has caused in me over the years. 

Please also bless those whom I have hurt because of my pride;
please bless them more than You bless me. 

Thank you. Amen.