Pride

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We as Catholic Apostolic Christians have a lot of treasures written on Pride. I think it would be good to share. It is a very good subject. Any thoughts?

"In the Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector (Luke 18:10-14) the Pharisee was an honest man and very religious. Note that he fasted twice a week. According to Jewish law only one day in the year was an obligatory fast day. He paid tithes on his income, i.e. gave away 10%. He was probably much more religious than any of us. However he was proud, he was using religion to box God in. He was using his religious practices to keep God at a distance. It is easier to give donations than to love. When we give a donation it is over quickly but there is no end to loving others. God is asking us to love, it would be easier to give an offering. Being better than others is not what matters but becoming more like God. The prayer of the tax collector reminds me of the prayer of the Mass “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed”. The parable calls us to be humble, let God be God and not pretend we are God.
“The proud cannot bring themselves to hold out empty hands to God, they insist on offering virtues, good works, self denials, anything in order not to have nothing. They want to be beautiful for him from their own resources, whereas we are beautiful only because God looks on us and makes us beautiful. God cannot give himself to us unless our hands are empty to receive him. The deepest reason why so few of us are saints is because we will not let God love us. To be loved means a naked, defenceless surrender to all God is. It means a glad acceptance of our nothingness, a look fixed only on the God who gives, taking no account of the nothing to whom the gift is made. To lose ourselves like this is the most radical of despoliations because the last shred of self-importance is discarded. The very words and acts of humility can be a barricade of well-nigh infinite subtlety. Jesus came to us precisely to break down the bars, something we could never have done of ourselves. Yet we cannot live the life of Jesus unless we consent to leave our own pitiful lives, and this is what pride finds unendurable. Striving for ‘perfection’ is the most disastrous of the mistakes good people fall into. It feeds the very vice it intends to destroy. Most fervent souls are prepared to give God any mortal thing, work themselves to death, anything except the one thing he wants, total trust: anything but surrender into his loving hands. ‘You must become as little children’, whose one virtue is that they know they are unimportant.”
Code: 
        (above paragraph taken from **Guidelines for Mystical Prayer** pages 83-84 by **Ruth Burrows**, published and copyright **1976** by Sheed and Ward and used by permission of the publishers.)
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That was interesting, it does make me think about his motivation. I always like to cut the underdog extra slack and in this parable I suppose he could be like Frederic from the Pirates of Penzance and a “Slave of Duty”. Some people really like to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s and the Pharisee might qualify as such. But then he starts thinking it makes him better than the publican and I guess you’re right, that’s pride.
 
“Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go; first of all in your own home. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next-door neighbor.”
Mother Theresa
 
“Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not count the cost;
to fight and not heed the wounds;
to toil and not seek for rest;
to labor and not ask for reward, except to know
that I am doing your will.”

St. Ignatius of Loyola
 
This the post that did not load above, it is from my site, my heart as well.

It is an epiphany this stuff on Pride. I think one can have a breakthrough in their life when it is studied in the Catholic light. I know this, as I very much did myself.

Saint Augustine put it like this:

“Pride about our good deeds is pointless. God has his own ideas regarding what is good and he does not always agree with us. If there is anything good about you believe better things of others. This will keep you humble. It will not hurt you at all to consider yourself less righteous than others, but it will be disastrous for you to consider yourself better than even one person.”

Thomas Kempis wrote: “What must he do? He must give up everything, especially himself, retaining no trace of selfishness. And when he has done everything required of him he must consider it as nothing. He must not agree with others when they applaud him, but rather admit that he is actually an ordinary servant. As the gospel says, ‘When you have done everything you were told to do, say “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty”’ (Luke 17:10). After admitting this he may be honestly poor in spirit, and may say with the psalmist, ‘Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted’ (Ps. 25:16). And yet, no one will be richer, no one more powerful, no one more free, because he is able to leave himself and all material things behind, and set himself in the lowest place.”

This is what Christ showed the saints; they acted on Christ. This is what we see when we commune with the saints who are much more alive now with God our Father than when they walked the face of the earth. We indeed are a very large family; those in heaven are very much alive. We draw strength from each other’s experience in Jesus. We have a special place in our prayers for saints such as Mary and Joseph who said yes to our Lord, to all the thousands of saints who have gone before us. For us death does not separate the dead from the living, for in God all that is good is indeed very much alive. All that is good comes to us in and through Christ Jesus. I personally see the saints as pointing to Jesus while deflecting any glory that may come their way, as all glory, honor and righteousness is God’s and His alone. Which one of us can really be trusted with such power? Such Glory? Righteousness and Honor? Those things that belong solely to Jesus? Most of us let those desires get in the way. The saints learned to step aside themselves if only for a moment.

A witness we admire and long to carry on

Found www.catholic-rcia.com
 
contemplative said:
“Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go; first of all in your own home. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next-door neighbor.”
Mother Theresa
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Amen
 
While praying at Eucharistic Adoration, I was reading a book of letters written to a fellow priest, encouraging Perpetual Adoration at his parish. Msgr. Pepe was the author of “Letters to a Brother Priest” that are so enlightening. He wrote: “Pride focuses on who we are apart from Christ. Humility shows our infinite value in Christ, redeemed in His Blood, covered with His Love. Then we are most secure.”

He also wrote “This is why God allows suffering in our life. Like medicine it cures us from the illness of pride. Only when our heart has been broken, or crushed, or defeated, or humiliated, or is suffering in any way, can we experience the full sweetness of His love. For He is The Most Broken One of All.”

Archbishop Fulton Sheen also offers great wisdom: “All suffering endured with love of God profits our families and even the world.” And also: “It is not so much the trials and sufferings that make [life] unbearable; it is how we react to the sufferings. If the trial is regarded as the canceling out of the ego and its pleasures, it begets an inferno within; if it is regarded as permitted by God for a greater good, it can positively create an inner joy.”
 
I dunno if you really meant to post to the LDS forum but this is the Mormon teaching on pride:

Pride is a very misunderstood sin, and many are sinning in ignorance. (See Mosiah 3:11; 3 Ne. 6:18.) In the scriptures there is no such thing as righteous pride—it is always considered a sin. Therefore, no matter how the world uses the term, we must understand how God uses the term so we can understand the language of holy writ and profit thereby. (See 2 Ne. 4:15; Mosiah 1:3-7; Alma 5:61.)

Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing.

The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us.

Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God’s. When we direct our pride toward God, it is in the spirit of “my will and not thine be done.” As Paul said, they “seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” (Philip. 2:21.)

Our will in competition to God’s will allows desires, appetites, and passions to go unbridled. (See Alma 38:12; 3 Ne. 12:30.)

The proud cannot accept the authority of God giving direction to their lives. (See Hel. 12:6.) They pit their perceptions of truth against God’s great knowledge, their abilities versus God’s priesthood power, their accomplishments against His mighty works.

Well, if you’re still interested, the rest is at education.byu.edu/edlf/archives/prophets/bewareofpride.html
 
I read it, it was good. It was good that he talked about pride in a sense that it also comes from those that are on the bottom looking up. Pride has no bounds, it cannot be contained into one box. Christ was not proud, he was meek. One is much stronger than the other, stronger not in the worlds sense, rather in Gods. In our Church there is no rightouse other than Christ to look to. We are a fallen people. Telling us that we are comes from Pride in a world’s sense. We know we are sick, this is why we come to Christ, to become part of His body, the Church. We are not built on another Church’s fall, we are built on our own fall. Built on the Rock, where our fall is broken by the Cross of Christ, His Mercy being our reward as Christians.
 
Glad you liked it, that’s considered to be one of the major addresses by the prophet in recent years. I always thought I was too poor to be proud but I guess I was wrong!
 
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catholic-rcia:
We as Catholic Apostolic Christians have a lot of treasures written on Pride. I think it would be good to share. It is a very good subject. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
C-RCIA,

I think pride - and humility - is an excellent subject for contemplation and, perhaps, conversation.

From a very earlier time in life, pride and lack of humility were giant obstacles for me to overcome: I was the ‘smart’ kid, intellectual endevours came to me easily and for at least 20 years I didn’t stop to either thank God for the gifts he had given me nor think that I would meet my intellectual match. I took my good grades, prizes and awards, academic accomplishments, etc., for granted. I felt that, given a few days to brush up on any subject I could make up my mind as to what was the ‘right’ manner of thinking and win any debate or argument on the subject (and woe be unto those who would argue against me in my areas of expertise!).

And then, after several years in seminary, I met not only someone who was very much my intellectual superior but also, alas, the man who became my confessor. I’ll only say that his name was Father Matthew and that he remained a friend until his death - and that he was not only the person who taught me humility through example and by penance (for he recognized my pride - it was something, it seems, that he had, too, to contend with yet none who knew him would have thought so). He was also my guide when I went through what was, for me, the tortuous decision to leave seminary.

I continue - as do many, I’m sure - with pride daily. But when I recognize that I am operating out of pride rather than legitimate and humble confidence, I now only have to take a moment for a silent prayer and I only think of the Mass, recall the manner in which I have sinned by my own fault, recall that I am worthy of Christ only because of His Sacrifice, and I am back to where I should be. It may sound as if it takes a long time for these thoughts to bring me back to reality, but it’s an almost instantaneous process now.

Overcoming pride can be a long process - I did not come to humility easily nor overnight - but the answer, I believe, lies in the Sacrifice of Christ: contemplating how He turned the shame of the Cross into the glory of His perfect Sacrifice. I would also note that on a somewhat more practical level simply placing yourself in the Presence of Christ regularly, whether that means daily Mass attendance, frequent Adoration, or even monthly retreats of silence and prayer, are sure manners for keeping pride in check. One cannot contemplate our Lord’s Sacrifice and maintain in a state of pride for long.

For those who have no recourse to the Presence of our Lord… I cannot speculate: only to proclaim my joy that Christ has made His Presence very REAL and very assessable to me, a sinner full of pride, and wholly unworthy of Him. Yet he calls me to His Banquet - who am I to refuse?
 
We certainly have a bond here, as you said the answer to overcoming it is the Cross, receiving the Eucharist and going to Confession. (LOTS OF PRAYER) As soon as I think I have overcome this pride I realize I have gone back to where I started. At times we do really feel the peace of Christ and leave ourselves behind. We can only imagine what it would be like to overcome pride forever. But we can be sure we have a Savior who did as a human because He was truly in the Grace of God. So what do we do? We climb aboard the Cross. Grace,….something we once were in but chose otherwise. I know that the LDS church sprung from pride. The difference is we as Catholics know that this is what got us in trouble in the first place and still does. Becoming Catholic was truly a discovery of a whole other level in these matters. When we come face to face with our pride we can see ourselves as sinners without the hope of ever being otherwise. But then we live and breathe within the Passion of Christ, we see light and it is very good and pleasing to that which is good in us. But are pride will always try to pull us out of this light and place us in our own light, that which is truly darkness and in the end death. We can never replace Christ in our lives for ourselves, but Christ has replaced Himself for us. Imagine a God who becomes one of us in order to come down and save us. Without pride all things are indeed possible.
 
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ben_dy:
For those who have no recourse to the Presence of our Lord… I cannot speculate: only to proclaim my joy that Christ has made His Presence very REAL and very assessable to me, a sinner full of pride, and wholly unworthy of Him. Yet he calls me to His Banquet - who am I to refuse?
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Amen
Ben
 
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