Becoming Perfect

A quote from Catherine:

No one becomes perfect at once; but as from little faults we fall into great,
so by the practice of lesser virtues we ascend to the heroic.



Today's gospel is about the unmerciful servant, the one whom the king relented his debt, but then he went out and throttled someone who owed him little. As great was his debt, one would think that his forgiveness of another would be great as well. Unfortunately that is not the way human nature works. We need time to reflect and assimilate what happens to us before we can also follow in those footsteps. That is why we need to practice virtues, even isolate them and concentrate on them one at a time in order to become good at them.

Some virtues take a long time to assimilate. For instance for me, it is patience. I have great patience for little children and very little for adults. I think I have two value systems in place. If only I could see all people as God's children, I think I could get a better handle on this.

Another is forgiveness. For some reason it is easier to forgive some people than others. I wonder why that is? How is it for you?

Catherine says that we need to practice the lesser virtues in order to arise to the great-maybe the greatness that lies latent in ourselves that we do not know we possess. If we do not practice at all, then when the need arises, we may not be able to rise to the occasion.

Well, for today I am going to practice listening. I think I do not fully listen to the other before speaking. It's a discipline I probably have needed for a long time. What can you practice?

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