Humility of Maximilian: Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time (Malachi 3:13-20b; Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6; Luke 11:5-13)

This month’s challenge provided by Archbishop Lori, is a follow-up to the challenge in August.  In August we talked about Saint Maximilian Kolbe and the model his life provides for us in terms of surrendering our pride and growing in the virtue of humility.

Saint Maximilian Kolbe lived a life in opposition to the way of the world that calls the proud blessed and sees the evildoer prosper in material gain.  If we are being honest, too often we fall to the temptation to follow the ways of the world.

Yet, we should always strive to be more like Saint Maximilian Kolbe.  We should consistently and constantly pray with humility for God to have mercy on our sins.

The Catechism says that humility is the foundation of prayer, which means humility is a prerequisite to having a relationship with God and receiving His love and mercy.

True humility is not thinking of yourself as less than, but rather thinking of yourself less.  

Growing in humility means recognizing your strengths and realizing those strengths are gifts from God, and giving Him thanks for those gifts.  

Growing in humility also means recognizing your weaknesses.  Weaknesses do not mean we are less deserving than anyone else who may not have those weaknesses.  Rather, weaknesses are simply occasions to rely more on God.  Afterall, without the grace of God, we are nothing and can do nothing.

Ultimately, we are all sinners in need of Divine Mercy.  We must always renounce the spirit of pride when we recognize it in our lives and instead be confident in God’s love and providence.

Archbishop Lori asks the following questions:  Have there been times in your life when you pridefully compared yourself to others? Do you perform a regular and careful examination of conscience so as to remain humbly aware of your sinfulness? What other steps can you take to become more humble and less attached to sin and the material things of the world?

Archbishop Lori challenges us to pray five decades of the rosary every day, asking God for greater humility and mercy.  With each decade renounce the spirit of pride and with each decade announce the truth that the humility of Christ is your humility through the sacramental life.   With each Hail Mary, feel the pride releasing from your body and feel the grace of humility coming in to fill the void.

For truly, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who humbly ask him?  Blessed are they who only hope in the Lord?

Thanks be to God!