My one word for the year 2013 is RENEW because every area of my life needs exactly that. While raising and maintaining a large family is truly a blessing and joy for me, the daily logistics of it all has blocked the conduit of God's grace where it should be freely flowing. Yes, God has been baking me a big humble pie but I have been ignoring the aroma that has been creeping into my conscience. However, the timer has rung and I can no longer dismiss the fact that God is trying to get my attention.
So, I am praying the Litany of Humility everyday asking God to show me the areas that need renewing. It is truly a litany that will either bring you to your knees or your pride will not allow you to finish it. I am also meditating on one of the Stations of the Cross each day, as Fr. Cameron of the Magnificat magazine has so wisely suggested. Today is the Second Station, Jesus Bears His Cross.
I can only speak for myself, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I am not the only one who prays and asks God for humbleness. However, I do not want to be humiliated! One cannot be achieved without the other but pride always gets in the way. Meditating on the Second Station today clearly reminded me of Jesus' example of accepting the humiliations God has prepared for me from all eternity. I get easily irritated, hurt, indignant, or even angry at someone that God has placed in my path to humble me. To become humble, I need to recognize and accept the humiliations that God sends my way every day and submit to them patiently; it is this act of the will that leads to true humbleness and not a false sense of humbleness. St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi puts it so beautifully in her prayer to our Lord, "No one can acquire humility if he does not fix his gaze on You, O Word, on the Cross."
My ejaculatory prayer for the rest of Lent will be "O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine." Jesus is speaking about humility of the heart, because every virtue, every reform of life, if it is to be sincere, must come from the heart, out of which comes our thoughts and actions. I tell my children this quite often but I'm not sure they see me modelling it to well. RENEW. RENEW. RENEW.
That is amazingly insightful and something I had never considered. As I go through a series of "humiliations" following the agony of the death of my beloved husband, all of which seems to be more than I can bear, this post gives me a new light in which to view it. Thank you.
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