Saturday March 13, 2021 - Third week of Lent - Today do not close your heart, but listen to the voice of the Lord - Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 18, 9-14

"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." Jesus never ceases to teach us humility. He challenges us that our prayer can condemn us if we do not do it with love and humility; our prayer must be humble like the prayer of the tax collector quoted in the Gospel: he recognizes his sins: "My God, have mercy on the sinner that I am"; and even stood at a distance. This is the prayer that pleases God and recommends us to do. While the kind of prayer that we should avoid, according to Jesus, is the prayer full of hypocrisy and selfishness like that of the Pharisee: a prayer that turns to oneself, listing every fault of others and praising the merits of oneself before God.

Jesus' teaching is clear, it is not by justifying ourselves, by believing ourselves to be better than others that we will please God, but by acknowledging ourselves as a sinner humbly and asking for his grace. Also, let us ask God for the virtue of humility so that we can serve others with a heart full of love.