KNOW THY SELF
HOLY FATHER
My every thought, reasoning, member, ability, love is a snare to me,
I can’t even look around without feeling envy for those above me and hatred for those I feel are beneath me.
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I crave the popularity and wealth of the famous and I am arrogant and uncompassionate to the hardship of others;
If I see something beautiful it is an enticement to lust, or to notice weakness stirs up loathing and pride;
How quickly hateful names, mocking remarks, and cruel comebacks creep into my heart!
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Am I attractive? What fuel for pride!
Am I unpopular? What an opportunity for a pity party!
Am I talented? I lust after attention!
Am I uneducated or uninformed? How I hate what others know!
Am I in authority? How likely to abuse my position, make my way law, exclude the insight of others, and serve my own betterment and desires!
Am I unskilled? How much I resent the talent of others!
Am I rich? How excessive I become!
You know that all these are snares brought on by my own perverseness and that my greatest snare is myself.
I grieve that my perceptions are dull, my thoughts are mean, my desires are stupid, my speech is crude, my life unbecoming;
Yet what can be expected of dust but foolishness, of corruption but perversion?
Keep me ever mindful of my natural state, but let me not forget my identity in Christ or of the grace that can cleanse every sin.