Mtr Taylor Devine

Good morning,

Today’s readings have had me pondering humility. The Gospel comes right after Jesus making a blind man see with mud and spit. Now the Pharisees are questioning him further about his Sabbath-day healing, and spiritual blindness, the blindness of pride, has come up in the conversation.

“I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you are blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘we see,’ your sin remains.” (John 9:39-41)

We can’t see the whole picture in many parts of our lives, but based on my own life I can hazard a guess that pride and selfishness has come into the picture at some point. In a form of self-examination in the Saint Augustine’s Prayer Book there is a lengthy explanation of the ways in which pride “puts self at the center and is not willing to trust or obey God; it holds oneself above or away from others and refuses to see oneself within the larger human family” (p. 122).

Taking a step toward a life less self-oriented may start with prayer and lead to repentance and amendment of life. Here are two prayers that might help. The first seems like a strange recommendation, “For Quiet Confidence,” but Confidence in who God is and whose you are is not pride, it makes way for humility and the recognition that all good things come from God, not our own impressive striving. The second prayer is a simple reminder of that reality, and a pattern by which God might shape our souls.

A Prayer for Quiet Confidence:
O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: by the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray you, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(p. 832 in the Book of Common Prayer)

A Prayer from the Sarum Primer,
God be in my head,
and in my understanding.
God be in my eyes,
and in my looking;
God be in my mouth,
and in my speaking;
God be in my heart,
and in my thinking;
God be at my end,
and at my departing.

(Included in Saint Augustine’s Prayer Book, p. 67)

In Christ,
Taylor