humility

It's one virtue I am in short supply of. I'm the first one to say it. I've blogged about it here before.

There are some women who in the rivers around Pittsburgh yesterday got themselves "ordained." By some female "bishops." They have, by their actions, incurred automatic excommunication. They did it to themselves.
They say that they have the right to become priests. That the heirarchy is keeping them down.

What I think that people who openly dissent from Church teaching in ways such as this are really lacking is not freedom but humility, the very humility Our Lord is such a shining example of in His crucifixion and indeed in His Incarnation.

Folks who relish such open dissent have put themselves before Our Lord and His Bride, the Church (that's you and me, people-WE are the Church).

No good priest would tell you he had the right to be a priest. Indeed, most of them would probably tell you that they felt completely underqualified for such an awesome gift and responsibilty. As a priest friend said at his first Mass, God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

"I have the right to be ordained." That's like saying "I have the right to own a Mercedes." Yeah, like Dr. Z is just going to hand one over to me.

It all boils down to humility. It seems to me that Our Blessed Mother had it in spades. And she was conceived in her mother's womb without sin. Agreed to bear the Christ child with almost no questions asked. Not an apostle. Still glorified as the highest of all saints. That's what we Catholic women should aim for.

I'm not going to sit here at my keyboard and say that all the women who participated in this farce aren't humble. I don't know their souls. That is for God to judge. It seems their actions smack of pride.

All that matters is that they are our sisters in Christ and it is our duty to pray for them and for their re-conversion to the one true faith; the one true Church.

Litany of Humility

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...
From the fear of being humiliated ...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val