My 'goodnight' thought for the night was the following:
Courage does not come as a ready-made package or grace from God. Rather God provides us with opportunities to become courageous. One of the plagues of Salesian community life is precisely this: lack of courage. Lack of courage of confreres to be able to call a spade a spade. This plague infects early on in years of initial formation. It is mostly for fear for what if the other turns back, at some other time and points out to me some drawback of mine? So rather than risk that 'payback time', let it go! We conveniently compromise!
What is required is courage: to be able to stand and say the truth. It is something required of both - the one who is offering the observation and the one receiving it! That's precisely because courage is the twin brother of humility. Only when I am humble enough to know or receive corrections will I have the courage to make observations or corrections.
Courage does not come as a ready-made package or grace from God. Rather God provides us with opportunities to become courageous. One of the plagues of Salesian community life is precisely this: lack of courage. Lack of courage of confreres to be able to call a spade a spade. This plague infects early on in years of initial formation. It is mostly for fear for what if the other turns back, at some other time and points out to me some drawback of mine? So rather than risk that 'payback time', let it go! We conveniently compromise!
What is required is courage: to be able to stand and say the truth. It is something required of both - the one who is offering the observation and the one receiving it! That's precisely because courage is the twin brother of humility. Only when I am humble enough to know or receive corrections will I have the courage to make observations or corrections.
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