Welcome Brothers to a new season

Welcome Brothers to a new season. Summer is unofficially over with the coming of Labor Day weekend, School is starting, the nights are getting cooler and we are looking at a the Autumn racing towards us. There are many things in life that signal a change in our routines, birth of a new child, death of a family member, a new age-related ache we just noticed. How many of us recognize when God is calling us to a new life? How many of us are able to see God in our day-to-day events, in the people we meet, in our own family? As most of you know, Cynthia and I have three Children, Matthew, Sean and Amy and each of them is embarking on a new life, starting now. Matt just left, heading back to Western university to finish up his Degree, Sean, who just finished this spring is hoping for a call back on one of the applications he has submitted for a new job and Amy is heading off to start Grade 12. Wow, I distinctly remember being the young couple in the parish with a 20 month-old Matthew and a brand-new baby (Sean). Now, I’m just past my 62nd Birthday and all pretenses at being a young man, given my many aches and pains, are gone.

OK God, No Fair! I wasn’t looking. I wasn’t ready! I clearly missed that one. What am I supposed to do now? How am I supposed to behave? In the Sunday Gospel for 22nd Sunday (Sept. 1), we read a few things about how we should be living. In the First reading, Sirac 3:17 I read “My child, conduct your affairs with humility”. In the psalm (ps: 68), I read “The Father of orphans and the defender of widows is God”. The second reading tells us to keep our eyes on the things of Heaven and finally, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells us that we should place ourselves last so that our Master can honour us.

So, When I look on my life as it stands now, How do I live those things? I see quite a few places where I still have a ways to go to live up to those guidelines. I really do like being recognized and I do find myself doing things in the hopes that others will see how much work I put in, or what a good person I am. I need to remember that I am a good person only as God enables it, and God can only enable me to be good if I cooperate with him, if I conduct myself with humility and not seek the glory and recognition of others. As a Knight of Columbus, I need to seek ways to help in the good works we do for the sake of the Body of Christ. With Christ guiding my gaze, I can more confidently step out to accomplish all he asks. If I forget Christ I may also be forgetting the graces He can bestow on me when I cooperate with him.

A good friend brought to my attention a prayer for humility. You can find it on the EWTN website at
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/litany-of-humility-245
I suggest you look up the prayer and repeat it often.

Here are a select few lines. Wherever I cut a few lines out, I replaced them with an ellipsis (…).

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,

Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others,
Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being approved,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated,
Deliver me, O Jesus.

That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

Vivat Jesus!

Michael Mombourquette
Grand Knight

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