Today's Gospel March 21 with comment

From the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Luke 18,9-14.
At that time, Jesus said this parable to some who presumed to be righteous and despised others:
«Two men went up to the temple to pray: one was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee, standing, prayed to himself thus: O God, I thank you that they are not like other men, thieves, unjust, adulterers, and not even as this publican.
I fast twice a week and pay tithes of what I own.
The tax collector, on the other hand, stopped at a distance, did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven, but he beat his chest saying: O God, have mercy on me a sinner.
I tell you: he returned home justified, unlike the other, because whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted ».

Saint [Father] Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968)
cappuccino

Ep 3, 713; 2, 277 on a Good Day
"Have mercy on me a sinner"
It is essential that you insist on what is the basis of holiness and the foundation of goodness, that is, the virtue for which Jesus explicitly presented himself as a model: humility (Mt 11,29), inner humility, more than external humility. Recognize who you really are: nothing, most miserable, weak, mixed with defects, capable of changing good for bad, of abandoning good for evil, of attributing good to you and justifying yourself in evil, and for love of evil, of to despise the One who is the supreme good.

Never go to bed without first having examined in conscience how you spent your day. Direct all your thoughts to the Lord, and consecrate your person and all Christians to him. Then offer to his glory the rest you are about to take, without ever forgetting your guardian angel, who is permanently beside you.