Posts Tagged: Ave Maria Press

DTEB, The Sinner with a Capital T”

On February 24, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

My wife and I are reading through a book entitled Set Your Heart Free.  It is part of the 30 Days with a Great Spiritual Teacher series, which is published by Ave Maria Press.  Set Your Heart Free is a modern paraphrase of selections from St. Francis de Sales.  Good stuff, which I heartily recommend!

Day twenty-four says (in part) the following: “Whenever your spirit is troubled, take some advice from St. Augustine: ‘Make haste, like David, to cry out: “Have mercy on me, O Lord,” that he may stretch forth his hand to moderate your anger or whatever it is that troubles you.’” (p. 82)

All through the day, the reading encourages us to pray, “Have mercy on me, O Lord.” (p. 83)

My mind immediately went to the prayer of the publican in Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, in Luke 18:9-14.  The tax collector knew, beyond any shadow of doubt, that he was a sinner.  No, not simply a sinner!  The Greek has the definite article before the word “sinner.”  The tax collector cried out, “God, be merciful to me the sinner!”

Nowadays, there is a lot of anger in our world.  Political divisiveness seems to be magnified by our social media.  I must confess that I sometimes wonder if it should be called anti-social media.

What would help to diminish the anger, at least a bit?  I wish I knew.  But I can tell you what works for me when I actually practice it: The realization that I am the sinner, that I am the one in need of mercy—this makes it difficult for me to maintain an angry attitude toward others.

So, when I am inclined to be angry with the Democrats or the Republicans (I take turns on that), or with the conservative media or the liberal media (I take turns on that, too), then I need to remember that I am the sinner.

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