Come Holy Spirit, living in Mary.
Make me pure in body and spirit and help me to die to myself.
But (Maximillian Kolbe's) purity was not just of the body. For there's another kind of purity: purity of intention. A person practices purity of intention when he directs his thoughts, words, and actions not to himself or another creature but to a divine purpose or mission, and ultimately to God.
Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC
33 Days to Morning Glory
A white crown.
A red crown.
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Nevertheless, temptations are very profitable to man, troublesome and grievous though they may be, for in them a man is humbled, purified, and instructed. . . Many seek to flee temptations--and fall worse into them. We cannot conquer by fight alone, but by patience and true humility we become stronger than all our enemies. He who only declines them outwardly and does not pluck out their root will profit little; nay, temptations will sooner return, and he will find himself in a worse condition.
By degrees and by patience you will, by God's grace, better overcome them than by harshness and your own opportunity. . . Inconstancy of mind and little confidence in God is the beginning of all temptations. For as a ship without a helm is driven to and fro by the waves, so the man who neglects and gives up his resolution is tempted in many ways.
Thomas a Kempis
"Of Resisting Temptations"
Imitation of Christ (Book 1, Chapter 13)
16 Why do you recite my commandments and profess my covenant with your mouth,
17 Though you hate discipline and cast my words behind you?
Psalm 50:16-17
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