Of contempt of all temporal honour
“My Son, make it no matter of thine, if thou see others honoured and
exalted, and thyself despised and humbled. Lift up thine heart to Me in
heaven, and then the contempt of men upon earth will not make thee
sad.”
2. O Lord, we are in blindness, and are quickly seduced by vanity. If I
look rightly within myself, never was injury done unto me by any
creature, and therefore I have nought whereof to complain before Thee.
But because I have many times and grievously sinned against Thee, all
creatures do justly take arms against me. Therefore to me confusion and
contempt are justly due, but to Thee praise and honour and glory. And
except I dispose myself for this, namely, to be willing that every
creature should despise and desert me, and that I should be esteemed
altogether as nothing, I cannot be inwardly filled with peace and
strength, nor spiritually enlightened, nor fully united to Thee.