My Prayer Book_LASANCE - the Catholic Kingdom!
My Prayer Book_LASANCE - the Catholic Kingdom! My Prayer Book_LASANCE - the Catholic Kingdom!
ing of the life that now is. But is there not danger of vainglory in the pursuit of success? To this question St. Ignatius makes answer as follows: ILWhen a good soul thinks of doing something that may turn to the glory of God within the area of activity that the Church allows, and thereupon encounters some temp tation not to do it, the tempter alleging specious pretexts of vainglory, then the soul should raise its gaze to its Creator and Lord, and if it sees that the thing is not contrary to God's service, it ought to take the very opposite course to the course suggested by the tempter, and say with St. Bernard: I did not begin for you, and I will not have of for you." Besides, success in any profession is not attained except by hard work, and hard work is a wonderful cure for vainglory. Hard work crowds out thoughts of vanity. Work is hard, because we are weak. Hard work reveals our weakness, and humbles us. Real hard work is not work done with facility and zest, as when a healthy lad runs his mile. Real hard work is gone through in spite of reluctance and pain, and occasional inability to proceed: it is as the limping, hobbling gait of a lame man. The advantages that men are born with, or come in for without labor, or possess henceforth in comfortable security without further need of etfort, such are the advantages most likely to turn a man's head with vainglory. Still, labor as we may, some of us will never attain success in this world. -- God has His own way of treating every soul. Some He leads to heaven by the road of temporal success, but many by the way of failure, poverty, and humiliation, the same by which Himself, as Man, mounted to His heavenly throne. Never was there to human eyes such an utterly hopeless failure as Private Use Only
Why Deny Ydlf ? - Wmlh While Now 159 A d , found guilty, d condemned, dying the death of a felon and of a slave, deserted by His friends, mocked by His enemies, apparently forsaken by God, and His wonder-working powers taken away from Him -would He not have come down from the cross, if He could? -in this plight our blessed Saviour closed His eyes, beholding with His last glance what appeared to be the ruin of His work and the failure of His mission. After such an example, no Christian need be surprised at disaster. There must be other avenues to heaven than the way of the "prosperous gentleman." I will work hard to succeed in my profession; and if, with all my hard work, I fail and die r ruined man, still tkis ha* is stad up in my brad (Job six. 27), that my Saviour will love me the better for my failure, and that I &all be the nearer Him in that account in par&. - FR. JOSEPH RICKABY, S, J., in Ye Are Christ's. X m s deny ~ myself, because many of the things that I desire can not go together: to have one is to give up another. No great end in life is gained without a11 active and watchful resistance, now to one distracting impulse, now to another. The name for that repressive vigilance is self-denial. Self-denial is continually practised in view of mere worldly success. -4 good oarsman is made by self-denja a god marksman, a good musician, and a good scholar. It takes selfdenial to write even a novel of any merit. Self-denial, then, is needful because of the variety of our desires; and that variety arises out of the composition of our More Free Items at www.catholickingdom.com
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ing of <strong>the</strong> life that now is. But is <strong>the</strong>re not danger<br />
of vainglory in <strong>the</strong> pursuit of success? To this question<br />
St. Ignatius makes answer as follows: ILWhen a<br />
good soul thinks of doing something that may turn<br />
to <strong>the</strong> glory of God within <strong>the</strong> area of activity that <strong>the</strong><br />
Church allows, and <strong>the</strong>reupon encounters some temp<br />
tation not to do it, <strong>the</strong> tempter alleging specious pretexts<br />
of vainglory, <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong> soul should raise its gaze<br />
to its Creator and Lord, and if it sees that <strong>the</strong> thing is<br />
not contrary to God's service, it ought to take <strong>the</strong> very<br />
opposite course to <strong>the</strong> course suggested by <strong>the</strong> tempter,<br />
and say with St. Bernard: I did not begin for you, and<br />
I will not have of for you." Besides, success in any<br />
profession is not attained except by hard work, and<br />
hard work is a wonderful cure for vainglory. Hard<br />
work crowds out thoughts of vanity. Work is hard,<br />
because we are weak. Hard work reveals our weakness,<br />
and humbles us. Real hard work is not work done<br />
with facility and zest, as when a healthy lad runs his<br />
mile. Real hard work is gone through in spite of<br />
reluctance and pain, and occasional inability to proceed:<br />
it is as <strong>the</strong> limping, hobbling gait of a lame man.<br />
The advantages that men are born with, or come<br />
in for without labor, or possess henceforth in comfortable<br />
security without fur<strong>the</strong>r need of etfort,<br />
such are <strong>the</strong> advantages most likely to turn a man's<br />
head with vainglory. Still, labor as we may, some of<br />
us will never attain success in this world.<br />
--<br />
God has<br />
His own way of treating every soul. Some He leads<br />
to heaven by <strong>the</strong> road of temporal success, but many<br />
by <strong>the</strong> way of failure, poverty, and humiliation, <strong>the</strong><br />
same by which Himself, as Man, mounted to His<br />
heavenly throne. Never was <strong>the</strong>re to human eyes<br />
such an utterly hopeless failure as<br />
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