He lives three years with 12 fishermen, people of no education, without refinement or good breeding, and their want of manners did not anger Him; He never treats them with mortifying words, or an act calculated to give pain.
He suffers everything from them without making them suffer anything, without allowing to escape Him, with regard to even those whom He knew would deny Him, betray Him, or abandon Him, one word or one glance which would wound them.
He lives in the midst of them, less as their master than their servant, to teach us to be amiable even toward those who displease us by their character, by their wrong-headedness, of the vices of their heart.
And we who, in spite of all our faults, expect that others should be amiable toward us, by what right do we require that others should be without defects in order that we should be amiable towad them?
-- Hamon, Meditations
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
Jesus and the Poor
He is amiable toward the poor; He is born, He lives and dies in their condition . . . He takes from amongst them the chiefs of His Church to govern kings and nations here on earth, and to judge them at the last day as His assessors.
-- Hamon, Meditations
-- Hamon, Meditations
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Measuring Our Words
[N]ever a quick or angry word except against the profaners of the temple, against hypocrites and great men who abused the authority they possessed . . . Is it thus that we speak? Do we measure our words in such a manner as never to give pain to our neighbor, and to render him, on the contrary, happy in his relations with us?
Is our conversation equally removed from the affected elegance which is unpleasant, and from the frivolous language ill suited to a good Christian?
-- Hamon, Meditations
Is our conversation equally removed from the affected elegance which is unpleasant, and from the frivolous language ill suited to a good Christian?
-- Hamon, Meditations
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Christian Civility
He was faithful to the rules of courtesy and good breeding . . . making Himself little with the little, and knowing how to show His grandeur at the table of the pharisee.
-- Hamon, Meditations
-- Hamon, Meditations
