Sirach 27:30-28:1
"If I speak in the tongues of angels and of men, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I can prophesy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not selfish, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad of injustice, but rejoices in the truth."
1 Corinthians 13:1-7
"Worldly pride is easier for us to perceive. We see it clearly in the self-proclaimed elite of our time. But less obvious perhaps is the spiritual form of pride, that reduces us into an insidiously distorted order of things. Spiritual pride blinds us to our own faults. But even worse, it leads us to magnify and fix ourselves upon the faults of others.
In doing so we seek to magnify our own imagined achievements, and at the same time dismiss our bad treatment and low regard for others. There is no person who is spiritually proud whose heart will serve as a home for the Holy Spirit, the spirit of humility, and mercy, and of love. They are too full of the law, and harsh judgement, and the trappings and ornaments of worldly observance, and of themselves.
Spiritual pride leads to a lingering spiritual death. It turns the living being into a living tomb, all bright and polished on the outside, proudly ornamented with scrupulous attention to detail, and ostentatious adherence to the letter of the law— but inside full of corruption, and festering foulness. This is all too common among those whose love is directed to the rituals and the forms of religion, but wanting nothing to do with the human realities of it, the acts of mercy to others which are the second great commandment. It is a sickening romance with the self, unto death."
Jesse, Being Human, 20 August 2017
O Lord, pierce our hardened hearts, enlighten our blindness, and break the chains of our pride and self-deception, so that we may choose the fullness of life in your loving and sacred heart.
Stocks ended largely flat today, after the usual up and down wash and rinse cycle.
The Dollar was a bit lower.
Gold and silver rallied, and finished near the highs.
There will be an FOMC rate decision this Wednesday afternoon.
Have a pleasant evening.
