O God, you have spoken your Word of love,
your Son,
into our world’s deafness.
Open our ears to hear;
open our hearts to heed;
open our will to obey,
that we may proclaim the Good News with our lives.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
"Pride is too great admiration of oneself.
The ultimate stage of pride is to make oneself his own law,
his own judge, his own god. In the modern world, pride disguises itself under the prettier names of success and popularity....
The more important the egotist feels himself to be, the more irritated he becomes when he does not receive worship; those who flatter him are called wise—those who criticize him are condemned as fools."