HUMILITY, MEEKNESS, and CHARITY -- A New Understanding and Two Definitions

1) HUMILITY

To begin with, there was a time when I was troubled by a phrase from my morning offering:  "O most holy and adorable Trinity, One God in Three Persons.  I firmly believe that Thou art here present, and I adore Thee with the most profound humility."

Do I really feel truly humble, or am I just repeating the words I learned?

It has nothing to do with how humble "I feel".  What is really meant here is to acknowledge firstly, God's presence and secondly, how insignificant and unworthy I am compared to God Almighty.

I now use this phrase at the beginning of much of my prayer time.

Next are two definitions.  I believe these may have come (to me) from listening to Father Chad Ripperger:  

2)  MEEKNESS

Meekness is power under control.

Think of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  He truly showed almost infinite meekness.  At any time during His passion and death on the cross He could have shown His glory and put a stop to everything.  Instead He was very meek, accepting the insults and blows, being crowned with thorns rather than gold, allowing Himself to suffer and die on the cross out of infinite love for us!

3)CHARITY

I often hear people (priests even) claim that love and charity mean the same thing.  

Here's the key difference:

Charity does not merely consist in love of God and love of neighbor, but in the

 

love of God and t.   (propter Deum). One’s

 

neighbor is not loved for his own sake but for the sake of God

   Topics on Tradition by Father Chad Ripperger - From Litera Reader

Always pray for and train yourself to practice charity, not just love for its own sake.  Do all things out of love for God.

Whether you are going to, say, volunteer at a food bank or pray for the holy souls in purgatory, learn to do so because you love God first.  A great sinner could perform selfless acts of love without loving God.  As Christians our first duty is always to love God above all created things.  Out of our love for God we perform acts of charity ... but we only love others BECAUSE we love God first.

Human Exceptionalism -- What God Has Done For Us Out of His Love

Just look at what God has done:

 

He created an entire universe out of nothing. He created time itself. All creatures come from His immense love.

 

And yet, out of all His creation, He created us, and only us, in His image.

 

He loves us so much that He wants our love in return. So that we can love Him He gave us the choice to follow Him or to follow our own desires. Unfortunately in the Garden of Eden we chose ourselves over our God.

 

God therefore picked the Jewish people to prepare a way for His coming. (He knew all this would happen beforehand, but that's not important here.)

 

God has so much love for us that He sent His angel Gabriel to earth to announce to the Virgin Mary that she was to become the Mother of God. The Holy Ghost used Mary's genetic material so that the Word of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, could become both God and Man. He did not simply appear on earth in a human guise, out of His great Love He actually became one of us! He loves us so very much that, for our salvation, He even became a human being.

 

His love led Him to walk this earth and prepare His Church, "the Body of Christ", and to finally suffer and die for our sins. Now that's a lot of love!

 

God loves us so very much that He sent His Holy Spirit upon the disciples at Pentecost. That same Holy Spirit has been passed down to us by apostolic succession. And we receive the Holy Spirit at Baptism, and again at Confirmation. What/who is this Holy Spirit? The Third Person of the Holy Trinity! That's right. God has so much love for us that He is willing to live inside each one of us, if only we allow Him.

 

We receive God almighty onto our tongues at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Once again God comes into us, this time physically, out of His sheer love for us.

 

When the God-Man Jesus ascended into heaven He ascended with His human body. God actually dwells in heaven with a human body. He must love us more than we can imagine.

 

He also loved His dear mother so much that her body was assumed into heaven along with her soul.

 

And God loves us so much that He is populating heaven with us. He created angels, but only humans partake in His Body and Blood. Only humans were made in His image. 

 

Yes indeed God loves us without end. We need to learn to love Him in return.

 

http://www.traditionalcatholicpriest.com/2013/04/15/traditional-church-architecture-tells-it-all/