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MEDITATION:

Written by Christopher Hudson, a contemporary author and teacher. This is an excerpt from his book “Following Jesus.”

Humility? To most people, humility means weakness. It means admitting faults, then being humiliated in the eyes of the watching world. Or it means being a doormat and letting more aggressive people walk all over you and take advantage of you. Better to be strong, right? Better to “look out for number one” and “do unto others before they do unto you.” Not according to Jesus. At every turn Jesus both modeled and preached humility. He assured, “the last will be first and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16).  The real clincher is this: The opposite of humility is pride, which God says he hates. He promises divine favor only to those who know they’re empty. If you are full of yourself, how will you ever have room for God’s grace?

PRAYER:

From the Gallican Sacramentary, an historical version of Christian liturgy within the Latin church in the 1st millenium.om his work “Lectures on Haggai.”

Give me, O Lord, purity of lips, a clean and innocent heart, and rectitude of action. Give me humility, patience, abstinence, chastity; prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance. Give me the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, and of Thy fear. Make me ever to seek Thy face with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind; grant me to have a contrite and humbled heart in Thy presence–to prefer nothing to Thy love. Most high, eternal, and ineffable Wisdom, drive away from me the darkness of blindness and ignorance; most high and eternal Strength, deliver me; most high and eternal Fortitude, assist me; most high and incomprehensible Light, illuminate me; most high and infinite Mercy, have mercy on me. Amen.