I am thinking this morning of two priests I once knew. One of them was an old hermit with a very great reputation of holiness. People used to call from all over Ireland to meet him and having their confession heard by him. Not only had the reputation of being holy he looked very holy, silvery white hair and a very gentle, kind, listening demeanour. Everyones favourite grandfather figure. Also with a real charisma, very attractive, However having met him I instantly was tempted to kick him on the backside and did so at once by trying to tease him. After a while I was able to identify him as being really very, very full of the worst kind of pride, spiritual pride. Yes thousands of people, maybe 99% of people who ever met him would have had a very high opinion of him, but none of them would ever have had as a very high opinion of himself than himself. :wink: In addition to this he was a profoundly selfish man which he showed in a million little ways. However if you were just to visit his hermitage for a visit you would never spot this. So he was kinda like a little butterfly stuck in amber. The amber of Spiritual Pride. Not only did he have a very, very high opinion of himself, everybody he met had a very high opinion of him, in fact he was regarded as a saint.On top of this , because he lived on his own there was little ways the Holy Spirit could break in to his delusion, break the amber and let the butterfly within fly fee. Husbands and wives for instance will naturally puncture each others balloons and may even enjoy doing so. Religious in communities will spend most of their lives bringing each other down to earth. Folks at work endlessly hit off against each other. But for him as a hermit the only folks he ever saw pretty well fell down on their knees to him. Another priest I knew, a monk had quite a widespread reputation for being a miracle worker. Like the hermit he had an intense aura of holiness . I know of one case were I'm pretty sure a miracle was worked around him. A lady and her husband came calling because the gynaecologist said she would never have a child. Shortly after calling and him praying with this priest she became pregnant, The Consultant said publically that this was a miracle, that it was physically impossible for this to have happened. The last I heard of this priest he was in prison doing five years for molesting children. There was about this guy too this air of being a fly in amber, totally entrapped in the amber of his own spiritual conceit. It was maybe of this kinda stuff Saint Paul says: Philippians 2:12b-13 "...work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" So humble is Paul that he does not even judge himself: "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but He that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God." *** I Corinthians 4:3-5 I was reminded of this listening and watching this minister here: ....and to think the scariest thing of all might be to wake up in hell with a shock and to find yourself there without even knowing you were sliding down the road. To wake up in hell with devil laughing at you saying, 'Surprise, surprise!!'
Padraig, This is the scariest man I have ever seen. God spare us from spiritual blindness and especially from spiritual pride. Mary
Yes Mary he even LOOKS funny. :shock: Did you notice how uncomfortable some of the crowd looked with the 'prayer' event? They are not happy with 'religion' even when it gives the nod to abortion. Still, its maybe a sign of desperation that they use ministers like this as a cover. Maybe a sign things are getting to their concience http://www.rcrc.org/
