St. Clare washing the feet of her sisters ...
Humility.
fra Emanuele della Croce
(Fhilippe Audemard d'Alancon)
15 settembre 1943
30 giugno 1978
Searching online for something else, I came across an obituary for a friar I met in Naples. He corrected me for something - a trifle really - and I snapped at him uncharitably. I discovered today he died a holy death just a few years later. I have always lacked charity and humility ... always.
Fra Emanuele della Croce, forgive me. Pray for me. I went away sad, and you followed Jesus and him crucified. Pray for me for the grace of final penitence. Thank you.
Fra Emanuele with fra Egidio at the friary in Naples.
They are Frati Minori Rinnovati and
live in old train cars in this friary.
This is me with another friar at the Naples house,
probably on the same day I answered uncharitably
to fra Emanuele. As far as I know, the friars I met
have all persevered. Like the rich young man,
I went away sad.
Hey Terry,
ReplyDeleteI liked the new banner image. The image has much to looked at and find meaning in. It is good to be honest about our lack of charity and humility. I wonder how more awful I would be if I was not trying to be a faithful Catholic. I only overcome my many faulty be God's mercy and grace. God is Good.
Pax et Bonum,
Kate
Isn't the idea of St. Francis so little before the Holy Wounds magnificent?!
DeleteOne of the things I regret most was a harsh word and mocking laugh to a stranger in a supermarket almost twenty years ago. I resented him because a week before he told me, "You are one sexy dude" while waiting at the Safeway check-out. If he hadn't been fifty, swarthy and drunk I might have laughed it off, "Thanks, but no thanks." Instead I saw him a week later at Safeway with his kids or grandkids, and I gave him a full dose of mockery. Truly wicked.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a really great comment but signed out of goodgle rather than hitting publish. Oh well.
DeleteTerry, I think sometimes you are too hard on yourself. Scrupulousness is as much a sin as lack of charity, anger, or any other vice. Perhaps you were reacting to something altogether different from the correction.
ReplyDeletePray for me - all I see are my sins. It may be the result of my being sick with the flu. Pray for me.
DeleteOver the years I have learned that the qualities I fault others for are the very qualities I hate most in myself.
ReplyDeleteExactly. I have been asking myself who I thought I was.
DeleteConsider it done!
ReplyDeleteTerry,
ReplyDeleteI just read this, yes, you are being hard on yourself and yes, it is the flu, laying around thinking too much (as opposed to me, I just watch some crap on TV and yell at the screen for a while.)
But really Terry my friend, stop thinking so much (okay, its probably much easier for me then you!!!) and if your still that same weight as in the pic..eat a damn cheeseburger..your probably just hungry.
Hope your feeling better by now.
Ha! Thanks Mack. Even now I'm still sick - if I don't get better I will force myself to the dr. next week.
DeleteThanks for the encouragement though.
Oh - I wish I was as thin as that now. At one point I think my weight fell to about 130 lbs... and I thought I was fat. So my fasting was really vanity and not virtue.
DeleteI once read in one of Simon Tugwell's books that "part of the cross we carry is the fact that we carry it so badly." I once had a priest in confession tell me I was too hard on myself. I had to disagree with him because I knew I wasn't. You seem to me to be a man who knows himself well. That is a gift. Most of us are harder on others than on ourselves when it should be the opposite. I'll offer my rosary for you today.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mary Ann - I so appreciate that. You can't imagine.
Delete