CWCO: Morning Prayers to Share, Day 2

Day 2: Pride

“The proud man counts his newspaper clippings, the humble man his blessings.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen

“The only way to become a better writer is to become a better person.” Brenda Ueland


Today (May 3) is my son’s First Holy Communion. When we became his foster parents in 2002, Craig and I knew we were going to change the lives of Christopher and his sister … But we didn’t realize just how much they were going to change us.

Our leap into parenting was less like an invigorating dive into a pool than a hapless blundering into a steaming-hot shower. In Raising Up Mommy I observe that all my impurities rushed to the surface, pride being chief among them. The vocation of motherhood is full of opportunities for humiliation, and humility is the primary antidote for pride. Oh, how I needed it!

Today as we begin the conference, I’d like to encourage you to take stock of the stumbling block of pride, and its holy antidote, humility. In the life of the writer, this unseemly vice can come out in a variety of ways, even before the first contract is signed. How do you respond to “constructive criticism”? Do you strive to do the best work possible, regardless of how many people are going to read your efforts? Do you get so engrossed in your own creativity that you tune out everything else going on around you – including the friend that needs a silent listener?

Mother Mary, yours was a calling largely hidden from the world: to carry the Word made flesh underneath your heart. Pray for us, that we when people look at us, they would see Jesus.

Please join me: Hail Mary...