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In a little-known but Church-approved set of
messages from the Blessed Mother at San Nicolás, Argentina, were these
interesting words: "Daughter, pride is a very serious sin, and like all
sins, is the work of Satan. Pride is evil against which I fight. I invite all
my children to banish it, to bury it, and they will please God." That was
on June 23, 1986, and reveals secrets to us -- one of which is the reason we so
frequently have trouble finding peace in our lives. Pride is not just an imperfection. It is
serious. We are told in Scripture that God gives "peace to those who find His
favor" (Luke 2:14) at the same time that He "resists the proud" (James 4:6),
as Mary at San Nicolás is saying. Our
time is the Era of Pride and Celebrity and Egocentricity. We have pride in our
clothes. We have pride in our cars. We have pride in our homes. We have pride in our education. We have pride in our
work. We have pride in our achievements (when nothing is a real achievement, but
through God). We have pride, sometimes, in our spirituality; we are proud that
we don't have pride.
Crucial it is to pray
with the heart to rid yourself of hidden arrogance and celebrate
God not self or others which is idolatry. When we are proud we judge instead of
praying in a fashion that has effects which is not with struggle or irritation or
impatience or anger or reluctance but for the subject of your concern to remove and lose whatever
bad, negative, or sinful traits and habits are causing the blocks and
resistance. If a person is greedy, pray that the person removes
this inclination toward selfishness. If a person is critical, pray that this
person is drained of that spirit of criticality. See it. If a person is himself haughty, pray
that he loses that haughtiness, or your prayers will bounce off. It is a very great plague in our time.
The Blessed
Mother said, "The world is condemning itself! Truth comes and is not heard;
there is great confusion in souls. All humanity is contaminated."
Be
humble. Until we remove the log in our own eyes we are confused and
don't have
the humility to pray that others be humble or lose whatever nullifies
the
effects of prayer. When a
person is contaminated we feel it and it may perturb or aggravate and
as a result we
often neglect to pray in the right way for the person due to
resistance and yet must
do just that: pray to
remove this contamination instead of butting up against it and
focusing on the insult or haughtiness or aggravation. See it -- any
bad thing -- flowing out of a
person. Here, you will find peace. Here, you will feel
love. In this way can you bless your enemies -- with the heart (which
exceeds the mind). Peace will come. Grace is your relief. If someone is
bothering you, pray for them in the correct manner
-- that is, for them to be delivered; pray for, not against. You need
them. We
are in it together and should seek to rise as inter-wound rings of
light. It is when we
focus on the negativity of a person and don't pray to remove it that
we
ourselves resist a person and thus prayers are not effective as oil
does not
mix with water because there is impermeability and resistance. Think
of
how many people you have tried to pray for and found difficulty in
doing so and now
during Mass go back and pray that they be delivered and healed of
whatever it was that blocked your previous (imperfect) prayers.
Powerful it
is to say, "I ask You Lord to bless everyone for whom I should have prayed
in a proper manner and grant
them benefit as if I had done so; please Lord, through a miracle of the Holy Spirit."
When
you do this, and feel no pride, you are imitating Jesus.
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