Unless you are careful, praise from
others may harm you greatly, for when once it begins it never ceases, and
generally ends in running you down afterwards. This usually takes the form of
telling you that you are more holy than others and suchlike flattering
speeches.
For the love of God, I implore you
never to find your peace in such speeches for you might come to believe them,
or think you had done all you need and that your work was finished.
Remember how the world treated our
Lord Jesus Christ, yet how it had extolled Him on Palm Sunday! Men so esteemed
St John the Baptist as to mistake him for the Messiah, yet how barbarously and
for what a motive they afterwards beheaded him!
Always struggle within your own
heart against these dangerous flatteries, then you will go forth with deeper
humility.
May God of His great bounty, give us
light.
(Conceptions of
the Love of God, 1913: 2:13,14)
