The beautiful autumn season is upon us. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote, “I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying inside.” Let the humility of everything around us be instructional: the trees being stripped bare due to falling leaves, petals from flowers falling to wilt and decay, and the falling temperatures. These are to serve as a reminder for our spiritual lives: to fall down onto our knees in adoration to Our Lord and be humble. Praying the Litany of Humility is a great discernment tool on how far along the road we are to (or away from) humility:
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me. From the desire of being esteemed, “Deliver me, Jesus.” From the desire of being loved… From the desire of being extolled … From the desire of being honored … From the desire of being praised … From the desire of being preferred to others… From the desire of being consulted … From the desire of being approved … From the fear of being humiliated … From the fear of being despised… From the fear of su!ering rebukes … From the fear of being calumniated … From the fear of being forgotten …
From the fear of being ridiculed … From the fear of being wronged … From the fear of being suspected … That others may be loved more than I, “Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.” That others may be esteemed more than I … That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease … That others may be chosen and I set aside … That others may be praised and I unnoticed … That others may be preferred to me in everything… That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…
Like the tree’s bare branches laid out in the open, let’s be open to God’s transformative graces. Echoing the spirit of St. John the Baptist’s words: may Jesus increase in each of us, while we decrease, including whatever fault(s) we have so that we can become humble images of Our Lord to our own selves and to everyone. This is a critical path for us leading into the Advent season, but not just that, but for the remainder of our earthly lives.