Renunciation

To keep out of obvious sin, to avoid the obviously wrong because they are shameful and degrading, and to act in a respectful way because it is required by human dignity is only to be a human being and is only the beginning of renunciation. To plan a strategy for fighting obvious vices which includes self examination, resolutions and penances is the beginning of renunciation. Fighting the deep and unconscious vices is much more difficult because the plans, resolutions and meditations all may strengthen the very vices being fought. The fasts and disciplines of a proud person are imposed by his own vanity and belief in himself. Self initiative is almost always useless because the self is blind to its own most secret vices. When a one's greatest strengths are seen a insufficient, one's strongest virtues are hollow, there is nothing on which to rely and nothing to support the self, it is then one learns if one lives by faith. In renouncing the deep and secret selfishness and abandoning one's self to God's will in spite of one's own failures and weakness one is made strong.