Prideful? Here’s How to Stop and Be Humble

before we get started I just wanted to take a minute and ask for your help so since 2014 Ascension has been producing YouTube videos and podcasts and articles free online in fact every week there are 18 different essential presents videos or podcasts that are offered to the world for free and in fact millions of people have been reached by the message of God's love while these podcasts and while this content these videos are free to consume they're not necessarily free to make and with the rising costs of everything um we're kind of in a little bit of a pickle we might need well here we are needing to ask for your help and your support if someone you love if you yourself have been blessed by the content that's been produced by Ascension would you prayerfully consider supporting this ministry by going to ascensionpress.com support or even following the link in the description below that's ascensionpress.com support and even if you're not able to support this ministry financially we are begging that you please support this ministry spiritually please pray for us pray for the entire Ascension team and ahead of time thank you and God bless shoot shooting patootie as they say hi my name is father Mike Schmitz and this is the center presents so what is it about the celebration of Thanksgiving that is not just good to do but is actually something necessary and the kind of thing that can set us free from one of the worst internal dispositions you probably possibly could have okay that sounds like a word salad here's what I mean there are some times when in your life or my life we recognize man I am so proud like I've not in a good way not in the way of liking hey I'm really proud like I did something good or I'm really proud of my country I'm really proud of my family I'm really proud of my my sister my brother whoever it is not like that that's that's a good kind of Pride but like the vice Pride right the kind of Pride that gets in the way it ruins your day ruins your life ruins your heart you know pride is called the mother of all the vices the book of wisdom says through the Envy of the devil death entered the world but that it was pride in some way that uh caused Satan to rebel against God and to reject God so we recognize in ourselves hey if you recognize pride in yourself that's a really really good thing because pride is one of those things that we can often recognize it in someone else and we don't necessarily recognize it very well in ourselves so if you recognize pride in yourself that's a really good first step and secondly if you don't like it you want to get rid of it that's a really good thing as well so in order to recognize pride and want to get rid of Pride we have to understand well what is pride so there's a couple definitions the Church offers the first definition the Church offers is pride is an excessive love of One's Own Excellence now let's highlight this pride is the excessive love of One's Own Excellence three things to note number one Excellence we should be striving for excellence right as human beings and as Catholic Christians in all things we should be striving for excellence I should strive to be an excellent human being an excellent Christian I strive to be an ex whatever your vocation is mother or father butcher Baker Candlestick maker doctor whatever the thing is We should strive for excellence in all things so striving for excellence amazing achieving Excellence remarkable well done good on you so that's a good thing we need to strive for excellence secondly excessive love of One's Own Excellence second word love here's the thing the problem is not is not loving one's self probably it's not loving the Excellence one has achieved that actually is necessary in fact it's kind of commanded we're kind of commanded to love ourselves remember the great Commandments first great commandment to love God with everything you've got the Second Great commandment to love your neighbor as yourself if that second great commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself there's an implication there right the implication is you actually love yourself if you're gonna love your neighbor as yourself and that's a good thing then we should actually love ourselves so here's the definition of love as you probably have heard a thousand times love is willing the good of the other so if I love the other I live well they're good if you love yourself you're willing the good of yourself that's that's in some ways you say all that it means maybe that's the heart the kernel the the core of what it means so love is willing the good of the other so we should describe for excellence yes we should have some degree as Catholic Christians as Disciples of Jesus there should be a degree to which we actually love ourselves that's very important sometimes it's really hard to do but it is kind of a command so we have to strive to love ourselves the problem is that first word pride is the excessive love of One's Own excellence that it's no longer ordinate right it's no longer appropriate it's come to the place where leads to the second definition second definition with it but it basically is the excessive love of One's Own Excellence that leads a person to reject the fact that they are subject to God because if I'm self-satisfied right if I if I'm like no I am the answer to everything I'm preoccupied with my own world not only does that world become so small because it becomes only the size of myself not only is that we're World become so small it becomes drab it becomes a battle to continue to be worthy of the excessive love that I've already given myself as opposed to having that appropriate love of self and then being able to rejoice in humility that's the thing because humility is the remedy for pride so humility is remedy for Pride so all these definitions today I apologize but here's the definition of humility C.S Lewis started it in the Pastor Rick Warren kind of finished it um where C.S Lewis pointed out that humility is not thinking less of yourself right humility is does not consist of a attractive person think they're unattractive or of a smart person thinking they're not smart or if a kind person thinking they're not kind like that's not that's not true that's not humility so Pastor reborn said humility is not thinking less of yourself humility is thinking of yourself less so it's that sense of I realize okay I'm not the star of this show not the center the prideful person they have to be the center the prideful person even if they think poorly of themselves the prideful person puts themselves in the center because they're constantly occupied with themselves and that can lead to what it leads to rejecting the fact that I'm subject to God so how do I become humble in order to kill Pride do I just start thinking humble thoughts great question camper I think there's an easier way I think there's a more straightforward and direct way and that way is gratitude that path is Thanksgiving here's what I mean the prideful person they're preoccupied with themselves the prideful person looks around and says their excessive love of One's Own Excellence here's all that I've done that leads me to reject the fact that I'm subject to God that that there's others in this world who actually give me things that I don't deserve gratitude has is the ability the capacity to acknowledge the fact that I have gifts that don't come for me that are that are gifts that you know my parents or my country or my friends or strangers or on top of the the charts God himself has given me and he's acknowledging those gifts and saying thank you to the one who is the author of those gifts so that means thank you to those parents to those friends or to that country or to that God see gratitude gratitude is the best way to grow in humility because we look around this incredible world looking at your life whether your life is in a in a in a slump in life is in a tragic place even there we recognize that there are always things that I can be grateful for because there's always gifts as long as I have life as long as I have breath in my lungs there's something to be grateful for it's basically looking for the source of that gift and simply saying thank you when that happens I become humble because I realize there is so much in this world that I didn't deserve that I continue to receive when I'm humble there's no room for pride so here's my invitation we sometimes wait for gratitude to happen we sometimes just like wait I'll wait till I feel grateful so I feel thankful that's not bad it's okay I would invite you to be intentionally grateful what I mean by that is something like this every morning I think of three or five things every night I think of three or five things that I've received that I didn't deserve that just were gifts to me and that could be the fact that I can get up out of this chair and walk there could be the fact that I open my eyes and I can see it could be the fact that um I know how to read they have to give you the fact that um you have people in your life that actually care about you it could be the fact that you have work that you find meaningful whatever that thing is to be able to pause to note the gift and then thank The Giver of the gift I'm telling you that will not only increase humility which kills Pride it will also increase Joy because gratitude does so much in our lives it destroys that Pride it destroys that small life it opens us to have a heart and a life that is so much bigger because it's full of not just myself it's full of all of these people all of these beings including the being right God himself that I get to thank life not only becomes Freer not only do I become more humble but also more joyful and more filled with that great gift that we call life anyways that's my invitation for all this here to Center presents my name is father Mike God bless [Music]

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 208,291

Keywords: Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Presents, Ascension Press, Fr. Mike, Ascension, Ascension Youtube, Father Mike Schmitz, Fr. Mike advice, Father Mike advice, fr. mike schmidt, fr mike, catholic advice, ascension press, father mike schmitz, fr mike advice, pride, prideful, struggle with pride, vice of pride, antidote to pride, growth in virtue, virtues and vices

Id: Hkgn18pZOq0

Length: 9min 48sec (588 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 23 2022