The Dignity Of Service
And a dispute arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. Jesus, however, said:
“The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their oppressors are styled Benefactors. But with you it must not be so. No, let the greatest among you become like the youngest, and him who leads like him who serves. Which is the greater—the master at the table or his servant? Is not it the master at the table? Yet I myself am among you as one who serves. You are the men who have stood by me in my trials; and, just as my Father has assigned me a Kingdom, I assign you places, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and be seated upon twelve thrones as judges of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Peter’s Fall Foretold
“Simon! Simon! listen. Satan demanded leave to sift you all like wheat, but I prayed for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. And you, when you have returned to me, are to strengthen your Brothers.”
—Luke.
Self Mastery
Our desires are bonds, fettering us as well as others. It is only when we get to the point of letting the bird out of its cage that we can realize how free the bird has set us. Whatever we cage, shackles us with desire whose bonds are stronger than those of iron chains. I tell you, Sir; this is just what the world has failed to understand. They all seek to reform something outside themselves.
But reform is wanted only in one’s own desire, nowhere else, nowhere else!
We think that we are our own masters when we get in our hands the object of our desire—but we are really our own masters only when we are able to cast out our desires from our minds.
—Rabindranath Tagore.