Thursday, June 07, 2007

When another's words disturb our peace

The reading in the Divine Office on Monday was from St. Dorotheus. This reading had an important point to make. That is, that there are times when the words of another have no impact on our peace, and there are times when the impact is very strong. The Saint wishes us to consider that a strong reaction to another's words comes from a root cause, that we do not examine our own conscience and accuse ourself. To explain; the words of another that upset us, reveal more to us about ourselves than they do about the other, for if we really were at peace, another's words would not disturb our peace; that we are disturbed, should indicate to ourselves that we were deluding ourselves, and that we are not at peace as we thought we were. Thus, the one who disturbs us is doing us a wonderful favor, one without which we would fail to grow in our spiritual life. We should be grateful that the Lord in His Providence sends us these (often unpleasant) helps.

the full text of the reading is here

We are commanded to love our neighbor; it must be remembered that our neighbor is the person we will spend eternity with in heaven, should we get there. This is a truth which, combined with the above, should strengthen our peace.

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