prayers during lent: meditation on pride
"Pride is a denial of God, an invention of the devil, contempt for men. It is the mother of condemnation, the offspring of praise, a sign of barrenness. It is a flight from God’s help, the harbinger of madness, the author of downfall. It is the cause of diabolical possession, the source of anger, the gateway of hypocrisy. It is the fortress of demons, the custodian of sins, the source of hardheartedness. It is the denial of compassion, a bitter pharisee, a cruel judge. It is the foe of God, it is the root of blasphemy."
John Climacus, sevent-century monk
from The Cloister Walk
John Climacus, sevent-century monk
from The Cloister Walk
posted by angela at 12:45 PM
6 Comments:
hey there, very kewl blog and pictures too.interesting stuff you have got here keep up the good work.be in touch
regards Biby - Blog
i was looking through your previous posts. when i have a baby girl, will you make her little booties like the ones you posted on feb. 5th? those are so stinkin cute!
Good quote, Angela, though, I might quibble that pride is the only possible offspring of praise, though frequently it is. There is a sense in which praise can be appropriately given and received even laterally amongst us humans. Lewis addresses this in a famous passage on pride, as well as its many evils:
http://www.btinternet.com/~a.ghinn/greatsin.htm
The most oft-quoted part of this chapter is, "For pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense."
neil, i agree with you about the praise thing. he does say "the offspring" rather than "an"....
i like the lewis quote. that's a great book. i like the part in section 3 where he talks about "strutting about like the idiots we are." now that's funny, and true.
oops.
molly, of course i will. is this an undetermined "when" or are you announcing something?
funny! I come across this today after my post of yesterday! Little did I know...
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