Maria called while sitting in her car waiting for her mother in law to come... they had decided to leave a day early for Georgia as icey roads are predicted today... the wind is howling outside the house, and I am praying and thinking about Maria, and her little family, and Gail, her wonderful mother in law... as they put in a big day to attempt to arrive at her wonderful home away from home near Ft Benning, Georgia. So with them on my heart... I am using pictures taken the day before they left for Wisconsin, and Therese's 3rd birthday... Friday the 18th.
The theme of today's morning prayer following after the Gospel - "The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Matt 23: 1-12... The term "self- abasement" comes across many times today- and it is just this that Christ is telling us - "Humility consists in both acknowledging our real nothingness and acknowledging God's infinite greatness." See http://www.magnificat.com/
Sometimes that is a very real and hard and right in your face thing - we are humbled by the situations in our lives and we are "down" on ourselves... we see without a shadow of a doubt that we are "nothingness" of ourselves and that we NEED God to make us good servants - willing to do all the things that are needed to stay close to Him - prayer, frequent use of the sacraments, almsgiving, fasting, good uplifting and informative reading to fill us with Truth and Knowledge of the Church! 
When we are on top of the world and full of our pride in the things that we are doing and accomplishing... we tend to not look to Him and drift away! I think of Susan/Little Sister Hallel... she came from home from living in the Discrenment House for a year... living with us for the summer as she asked the Lord to show her His Path for her... Every morning she would go into the empty and dark church for a Holy Hour and would sit in front of the 10th station of the cross... I knew that this was the Humility station - "Strip us of the garments of pride.." So I asked her if this is why she sat there every day. "It was the last pew with kneelers and I didn't want others to know that I was crying." Her silent bearing of the cross of uncertainty and in her mind maybe failure was a true self abasement! 
I will never forget the time that my mother first introduced us to the litany of Humility! We were going through a very hard time as a couple with a huge occurance that had totally humiliated and devastated us.... she sent this to us, and I could hardly believe as I read it that anyone could truly pray this and in their hearts be asking Christ for HUMILITY! I have shared it before, but I will once again...as I need to be reminded just what true self abasement is asking of us!
Litany of Humility
Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930),
Secretary of State for Pope Saint Pius X
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 suffering 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..."
There are communities that pray this litany,and among them is the Missionaries of Charity - Blessed Teresa of Calcutta's order... Just thinking about this in the context of the first reading in mass today from Isaiah 1: 10 , 16-20 "Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become as white as snow... If you are willing, and obey.." How when we abase ourselves - realizing our nothingness and coming to Him in the sacrament of reconcilliation... we are washed clean! Lord, help me to walk away from my foolish pride and to embrace my nothingness! 
I marvel at how Maria has raised her kids to be humble and to know that they are not entitled and spoiled and priviledged just because they are amazing gifts of life from God! Therese is now 3 and has been formed with a firm yet loving hand of discipline and less rather than more. She finds delight in a little homemade book that Nancy made for her, and not in all the latest toys. As Ruth said of Therese... "She will be in kindergarten, and the teacher will ask her if she would like a cupcake - "No, I am happy with this crust of bread." She would say it and mean it! At times it was a hard thing for grandma to watch, yet the results of smallness and beauty is a sight to behold! We don't need to spoil and indulge our children! It does not help them in life! More siblings and less things! That is our motto! 
Yet, she did adore her unicorn pillow-pet that she got from big cousin, Mary! I heard that she slept on it all night before she left on Saturday! 
Jesus, there is such a lesson for us as we prepare to come before you during this Lenten season, and lay all of our sins at your feet in the confessional! May we truly hold nothing back - realizing that those things that we are most ashamed of... are the things that have worked their way deepest into our lives, and are wanting to continue to be there, and keep us from you! We want to find that place of nothingness, and to come to a true humility and yes... ask on bended knee for that humility....may it become deeply rooted in our lives, so that we embrace the cross, and follow you on our path to eternal life! Be with Maria and her family as they travel ever closer to a life of FAMILY in the . Help us to understand, and always support them with prayer and Love! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb"What difference do our human conditions make to God? Our pretentions, our positions, our superior advantages: what does he care about such things? Poor little gnats, strutting about, despising other gnats because their wings are a little less sleek and their feet not quite so thickly furred: of what consequence is all that to him? Whether we are great of small, in his eyes our conditions are equal, and since no one of them corresponds to his nature, did not his honor demand that he should choose the lowest? Only thus could he manifest his indifference. By identifying himself with the negation of our glories, he would show that he is sufficient unto himself. One can hardly imagine how, in the presence of Nazareth, these thoughts assert themselves. The human condition of the Savior becomes so apparent there that the divine point of view is dazzingly clear. And this poverty, freely chosen, draws in its wake, before the minds eye, the eternal magnificence. And this nothingness is the best pedestal from which we can lean upward toward the infinite... All is great from the viewpoint of him before whom everything is small; and since his heart inclines him to abase himself, he is exquisitely happy and proud to abase himself lower and still lower."
Fr Antonin Gilbert Sertillanges, O.P.
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