Lord, I confess to you that I have a greedy heart and I am asking for grace to change it. You know that I lack pure contentment in my life and that I am guilty of avarice. I have done things for the sake of my own benefit regardless of who I have hurt, and my lust for money and position and power drives me to do things that I know are against your will.
Lord, not only do I lack pure contentment in the material world, but my greedy heart has hurt my spiritual life in many ways. What I have done to advance myself in profit, honor, prestige, and power, has caused damage to my relationship with you and those I am called to love.
My efforts to gain mastery of myself through riches have not shown good fruit. It has not made me more holy, righteous, or virtuous. On the contrary, my works have caused a wake of destruction in my personal life. This is because I failed to put you first, about all else; I have also failed to love the people you have given me. I lack pure contentment because I lack an intimate relationship with you that is humble, obedient, and loving. This has gravely affected my ability to have a substantial and meaningful relationship with my family.
I confess that my pride makes me want things so that others may honor me and value me as a person of merit. I live for things, for power, for money. I am always seeking to advance myself. I seek material things so that I may be envied by others and treated with respect. My greedy heart is rooted in pride and vainglory, because I see my value through the way others see me and not through your eyes. It makes me dishonest and untrustworthy. Those closest to me know I cannot be trusted due to my avarice. Help me see what you see. Help me find a way out.
Lord, I want to change my heart’s desires. Please help me be humble and have fear of offending you, so that I might live my life longing for God, and not for the things of this world. Jesus, you love me unconditionally, but it is my duty to love you back and to obey all that you have taught me. I do not want to betray you for money as Judas Iscariot did. My greedy heart is causing me deep regret, and I’m in despair for having chosen love of money over God in my life.
Please forgive me and help me amend my life so that I can put you above all else and serve you in obedience, humility, and if necessary, poverty. Lord, you are my pearl of great price, and I am willing to give up my greedy heart to follow you. Please give me a heart of pure contentment so that I may serve you and follow you all the remaining days of my life.
AMEN.
The tenth commandment forbids greed and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit. It forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. It also forbids the desire to commit injustice by harming our neighbor in his temporal goods:
When the Law says, “You shall not covet,” these words mean that we should banish our desires for whatever does not belong to us. Our thirst for another’s goods is immense, infinite, never quenched. Thus it is written: “He who loves money never has money enough.”
Change My Greedy Heart to One of Pure Contentment
Concerning Avarice [Abridged]
by St. Hildegard von Bingen
Avarice desires earthly things and not heavenly things. It does not cultivate honesty in its will. And it loves foulness better than its own beauty, because it does not rejoice in the prosperity of others, but is terribly envious. With indiscreet desire, it takes worldly concupiscence into itself and then searches for more. It pillages with harshness and bitterness and uses its strength to kill others for their possessions to please its own desires.
Avarice walks and plunders ferociously, sparing nothing when it pillages, taking whatever riches it can, either justly or unjustly, without even asking where they are from or who they belong to. Avarice plunders spiritual men with jealous pretense, but when it is in the company of worldly ones who bear earthly cares, it pillages even more and directs its conscience to act only according to its own will.
A tree stands in the presence of avarice that is rooted in Gehenna. Avarice looks at the things of this world cleverly and draws them to its open mouth without any moderation, for men serving this fault are never free from care and do not trust in God, but they immerse themselves violently in difficult things.
Avarice is beleaguered by the indescribably and monstrous deeds of the devil. These serpents make a lot of noise and commotion with their tails in the darkness since they cause a lot of noise and disquiet in the darkness of unfaithfulness with the power of their evil. They do not allow anyone to have any peace and quiet. They do this through wicked men, just as a fish does when it stirs up the water with its tail. When they have been strengthened by the perversity of the depraved works they have done, they then disturb the purity of good knowledge in blessed men so that they take away their things and give them to themselves.
Pure contentment resists this fault and confidently warns the faithful that God’s gifts should be sufficient for them; it tells the faithful that if they follow avarice, they will run into the bitterness of unhappiness.
Jeremiah also gives witness to the ones who choose this fault, when he says: “Where are the rulers of the tribes and those who rule over the beasts on earth, who play with the birds of heaven, who hoard the silver and gold men put their trust in? There is no end to the possessions of those who forge silver and are stirred up, nor is there a trace of their works” [Baruch 4:16-18].
This means the following. Where are those who oppress tribes with their tyranny, and what rewards do they receive? Clearly they live in the squalid places they have built for themselves on earth with their own work, and they receive punishments as their rewards since they do not obey the legal precepts, since as despots they have made themselves like gods to rule over the people, and since they have consumed people’s possessions with their avarice. They have put their households in charge of the wild animals that live in the wilderness since they know only the bestial on earth. They use their power to control these animals, as if they had made them, not knowing that God created these animals for the service of people.
As a result, they abandon the height and width of the highest rewards since they only act according to their own will. They do not lift up their mind to God, but only serve avarice. Therefore, they receive bestial rewards in the worst darkness. They also fill up their own will with playful things, as if they were birds of the air. Abandoning the harmony of the Holy Spirit that should cause them to rejoice in the precepts of God, they turn their joys to the ways of the birds and play improperly in various ways. Therefore, they will suffer great punishments because they do not serve God.
Liber Vitae Meritorum, The Fifth Part, 33
Week 34 of the Virtue Meditations Series
Change My Greedy Heart to One of Pure Contentment
Reflection:
We all struggle with having material wants in this life. I think it is part of the human condition to want things we don’t have. But when do the things I want become a sin that separates me from God?
When we lack understanding of who we are in Christ it causes us to seek our identity through the opinions of those around us. Our sense of self becomes attached to the praise and criticisms of others and this drives us to prove our worth on the world’s stage. So we strive to make something of ourselves at all costs to counter the criticisms and to increase the praises of those in our orbit.
This way of living causes us to value things over people and self over God. Ultimately it becomes a living lie, because we seek to hide things from others so that we remain in their approval and are not criticized. We can’t handle being critiqued. All our energy goes into being above our critics and proving they were wrong about us. This mentality fuels our pride and avarice, and is the reason we lie to ourselves and deny the truth.
Reflect on How Much You Really Love God
We should reflect honestly about whether or not we have loved God more than any material thing or person in this life. He is more worthy of our love than any other thing because of his greater goodness. He has given you your life. He has provided you with countless grace over the course of your life so that you might know and love and follow him. What should matter to you most is whether God approves of your doings. If God is with you, then who can possibly be against you? The humble man can receive criticism well, whether it be just and honest or an attack on his character. This is because the humble man loves God above all else and he lives to serve God and not man. If God uses a man to correct him justly, he will accept with gratitude. If a man attacks him unjustly with false criticisms then he is able to receive them in silence knowing he is justified in God’s eyes.
How have you responded to God’s love for you? Are you able to accept just criticism humbly? Can you ignore false accusations in silence knowing that God sees the truth? This is the beginning of having pure contentment in God.
Take a moment to reflect on all the ways he has given you grace so that you could come to know him, love him, and worship him as he desires. Ask him to reveal to you his love through the memories of your life. Acknowledge these memories. Do they move your heart toward love of God? Do your memories reveal his infinite goodness? If you have not responded to his grace with love in the past and you have not confessed this sin to him already, take some time to repent. Tell the Lord you are sorry for the times you received grace but did not return his love with love. Tell him you want to change your greedy heart to one of pure contentment. This might be prayed in writing. You may want to take some time this week to write a letter to God professing your gratitude for all the graces you have been given throughout your life and then offer a promise to him for the remaining days of your life.
Changing My Greedy Heart to One of Pure Contentment
Now ask the Lord to give you the grace to overcome your greedy heart.
Ponder this verse:
“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” [Matthew 13:16-17].
Offer God a moment of gratitude from your heart right now. God has blessed you with the ability to see what you see and hear what you hear. He has given you grace to convert your heart. If you desire to change and desire to love God then the Holy Spirit is already at work in you. Can you see what God sees in you? Can you hear what God is saying to you? Put your hand on your heart. Feel love for God and let that love radiate from your heart to his heart. Say thank you to Jesus for this moment.
How Our Path Toward God Gets Disrupted by Greed and Avarice
If we are honest with ourselves and wise in the way we see the secular world around us, it is easy to see that when Christ is made absent in a place darkness and destruction follows. Jesus Christ is the light of the world, and when the light of Christ is not shining brightly, people make themselves their own gods and are consumed by their own greedy hearts. We know that our efforts are necessary to establish and keep ourselves in communication with Christ. [Matthew 13:18-23].
St. Hildegard of Bingen tells us that God’s gifts are sufficient for us. We need no material thing in this life to have pure contentment. We see this in the lives of the desert monks, like St. Paul of Thebes. When his brother-in-law threatened to turn him into authorities for having converted to Christianity, Paul the First Hermit, fled to the desert at age 22 and lived out the rest of his life in solitude until he died at age 113. St. Paul the First Hermit gave up everything for an inner life of the spiritual and it led him to asceticism. He was visited by St. Anthony and St. Athanasius.
Going Further:
If you would like to go deeper, you may want to read Matthew 13:44-50. Ponder in quiet reflection what you will gain when you surrender your life to Christ and give him the authority to direct your path.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth” [Matthew 13:44-50].
Let us Pray:
Now that we understand the virtue of pure contentment, let’s begin with a prayer of petition for it.
Virtue of Pure Contentment
Prayer of Petition
Eternal Father, I am the work of your creation, made in your image and likeness but too weak to conquer the devil by my own power. I ask you for the grace to grow in virtue, surrendering all my thoughts, words, and deeds to you. Please help me resist the devil and all his tricks. Jesus says that whoever believes in him will do the works that he does and that whatever we ask in Jesus’ name he will do so that You may be glorified. Heavenly Father, you sent us your Son to show us what it means to have perfect virtue in life. Jesus is fully human and fully divine and has perfect virtue. Father, have mercy on me and please give me the grace I need to grow in the virtue of pure contentment so that I might grow in holiness and imitate Christ in my thoughts, words, and deeds. AMEN.
Now let’s contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels. Slowly meditate on the following passage, reflecting on the virtue of pure contentment. Take your time. Pause over a word or phrase that speaks to your heart. Reread the passage again, and then ask Jesus to show you how you can imitate him in his inner love of the spiritual and better overcome your greedy heart and the worldly attachments you struggle with. Choose a word or phrase from this passage to write in your journal, and add your thoughts. Go back and prayerfully re-read it throughout the week.
Virtue of Pure Contentment
How the Greed Of Judas Iscariot Led to Betrayal
from the Gospel of John Chapter 12:1-9, Luke 22:1-6
Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him. Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Then Judas the Iscariot, one [of] his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, “Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to the poor?” He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions.
So Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
The Conspiracy Against Jesus
Now the feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was drawing near, and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to put [Jesus] to death, for they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered into Judas, the one surnamed Iscariot, who was counted among the Twelve, and he went to the chief priests and temple guards to discuss a plan for handing him over to them.
They were pleased and agreed to pay him money.
He accepted their offer and sought a favorable opportunity to hand him over to them in the absence of a crowd.
Let us Pray:
Jesus, I thank you for the countless ways you have come to me to give me grace and show me how much you love me. I thank you for the people you have given me in this life and entrusted to me to love and serve and honor for your sake. Let me be a seed that takes root and grows in good soil.
Jesus, let me choose you over money all the remaining days of my life. Show me a path that is pleasing to you. Help me mend what has been broken due to my greedy heart and sins of avarice. Let me have perfect contrition and an obedient heart of love for you.
I do not want my greed to take me down a path that is irrevocable, as Judas Iscariot did. I want to walk with you, Lord, and communicate with you Lord, and live in pure contentment as the desert fathers did.
AMEN.
Virtue of Pure Contentment
A Prayer for an Increase in Virtue for Others
Lord Jesus Christ, you say that when two or more are gathered in your name, you are with us. Jesus, in your name I lift up every person who has joined this prayer challenge or will join it in the future. I ask you to give us all the grace we need to grow in virtue and holiness so that we may love and serve you in our lives and through the people we love and care for. Help us in our thoughts, our words, and our actions. Guide us all by your Holy Spirit and give us the strength to overcome every temptation from the evil one. We ask all this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.
Together as a group we will pray for each other and strive to make good resolutions and keep them. Remember, it’s your heart that God wants to capture. Your efforts are out of love for him and a desire to imitate him as best you can in holiness.
If you fail, do not quit trying. Be merciful to yourself and learn to love the process of striving to be more like Jesus every day. Just take it one day at a time, and stay in the present moment with Jesus.
Being virtuous is a process. No one is perfect, so just start anew every time you fail.
How do I Practice Virtue?
You’ve learned about the 34th Virtue, and you’ve prayed for God to give you grace. Now what? Let’s take a look at the Catechism for some guidance on how we can make Week 34 a successful effort.
On coming into the world, man is not equipped with everything he needs for developing his bodily and spiritual life. He needs others. Differences appear tied to age, physical abilities, intellectual or moral aptitudes, the benefits derived from social commerce, and the distribution of wealth. The “talents” are not distributed equally.
These differences belong to God’s plan, who wills that each receive what he needs from others, and that those endowed with particular “talents” share the benefits with those who need them. These differences encourage and often oblige persons to practice generosity, kindness, and sharing of goods; they foster the mutual enrichment of cultures:
"I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others. . . . I shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a living faith to that one. . . . And so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another. . . . I have willed that one should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me" [Jesus to St. Catherine of Siena, Dial. I, 7].
Making Resolutions
pureTake a moment to reflect on the virtue of pure contentment. What are the ways you can freely practice this virtue this week? Ask the Lord to give you opportunities, and when you feel the Holy Spirit prompting you, take action. Write down your resolutions for this coming week in your prayer journal. Remind yourself to complete these resolutions daily for this entire week, and as the Spirit prompts you, feel free to write about your experiences with this virtue throughout the week.
In My Thoughts:
Jesus, this week I promise to take time daily to conform my thoughts by… (make your intention).
In My Words:
Jesus, this week I promise to take time daily to conform my words by… (make your intention).
In My Actions:
Jesus, this week I promise to take time daily to conform my actions by… (make your intention).
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