Getting Started

Let me respectfully remind you:
Life and Death are of supreme importance.
Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost..
Each of us should strive to awaken.
Awaken! Take heed!
Do not squander your life.

— traditional Zen Evening Gatha

The Third Kind of Humility is the most perfect kind. It consists in this. If I suppose the first and second kind attained, then whenever the praise and glory of the Divine Majesty would be equally served, in order to imitate and be in reality more like Christ our Lord, I desire and choose poverty with Christ poor rather than riches; contempt with Christ laden with it rather than honors. Even further, I desire to be regarded as a useless fool for Christ, rather than to be esteemed as a wise and prudent person in this world. So Christ was treated before me.

— Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises, paragraph 167

In a footnote to the above text from St. Ignatius, editor George Ganss, S.J. writes: “A person whose attitude is that of the third way of being humble (1) has indifference and (2) is speaking in the language of love. His or her attitude is, “I love Christ and want to be as like to him as possible, no matter what the cost.” ….Lovers are willing and sometimes even desire to labor or suffer for the beloved, because by such labor or suffering they manifest their love, or increase it, or prove it. They choose the suffering, not as if it were a good or end in itself, but as a means to a higher good.”

Please pay attention to the dates — things changed after December 30, 2020.