Devotion of the day: the perfidious friend of my own love

He is a wicked friend. No one can forbid us a regulated love of ourselves, which moves us to love life and to adorn ourselves with virtues; but self-love is unregulated and becomes selfish when it makes us think only of ourselves, we love only us and we yearn for others to take an interest in us. If we speak, we want to be heard; if we suffer, be sorry; if we work, praise us; we don't want to resist, contradict us, disgust us. In this mirror don't you recognize yourself?

Irregularities of self-love. How many defects arise from this vice! For the slightest pretext, one gets indifferent, rises up against the others and makes them bear the weight of his bad mood! Where do the whims, the impatiences, the resentments, the aversions arise? From self-love. Where do the melancholy, the distrust, the despair come from? From self-love. Whence the murmurs the anxieties? From self-love. If we won it, how much less harm would we do!

It corrupts the good done. The poison of self-love of how many good deeds steals our credit! The vanity, the complacency, the natural satisfaction that is sought there, kidnaps the merit, in whole or in part. How many prayers, alms, communions, sacrifices will remain fruitless, because they originate or are accompanied by self-love! Wherever it mixes, spoils and corrupts! Won't you make every effort to chase him away? Won't you keep him as your enemy?

PRACTICE. - Love your good regularly, that is, as God wants it and as long as it does not harm the rights of your neighbor.