The Twelve Stages of Humility
Episcopal Diocese of Washington
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Bishop Mariann’s Blog
The Twelve Stages of Humility
Thursday, December 15, 2011
-- John McQuiston II
David Shaw
The word 'misgiving' caught my attention here. A word I never carefully considered before. A gift that missed the mark, a gift that was not needed or did not help. Could it be that the best gift is one that is withheld despite our desire to give it?
Mariann Budde
I look forward to it. Thanks so much.
Kathy Jankowski
I'd like to suggest that every moment is not ours, we are being lived, and that is why for me gratitude is the starting point. You may like this poem. Thank you for sharing your conversation. ---------------------- Thanks Listen with the night falling we are saying thank you we are stopping on the bridges to bow for the railings we are running out of the glass rooms with our mouths full of food to look at the sky and say thank you we are standing by the water looking out in different directions. back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging after funerals we are saying thank you after the news of the dead whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you looking up from tables we are saying thank you in a culture up to its chin in shame living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you over telephones we are saying thank you in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators remembering wars and the police at the back door and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you in the banks that use us we are saying thank you with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you with the animals dying around us our lost feelings we are saying thank you with the forests falling faster than the minutes of our lives we are saying thank you with the words going out like cells of a brain with the cities growing over us like the earth we are saying thank you faster and faster with nobody listening we are saying thank you we are saying thank you and waving dark though it is ~ W.S Merwin, from The Rain in the Trees
John Trumbo
Hello! I have been reading along with you this Advent, and noted the 3rd and 4th stages of humility: "... to accept our limitations, even to death" and "... to maintain a quiet mind, even in the face of inequity, injury, and contradiction... and accordingly to be thankful even for injuries." My 89-year-old father fell and broke his wrist this past week and we are both learning to stop and be patient, both with the limits of our respective bodies as well as with each other as caregiver and care-receiver. Not an easy task for either of us, I'm afraid, but a beneficial Advent gift nonetheless!
Terry
Full of sanleit points. Don't stop believing or writing!
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Carlyle Gill
The night before I was ordained a priest I read a great article, "Because Beset With Weakness" by Michael Buckley. It really speaks to humility for all of us. I will send you a copy.