55 Love is not jealous these lines, you won’t be great in your own eyes. After all, what you should rather be thinking about is what you lack, instead of what advantages you have. As for what you have, be careful you don’t lose it; as for what you haven’t got yet, pray hard that you may get it. It’s on all the ways in which you fall behind others that your thoughts should dwell, not on all the ways in which you excel them. I mean, if you’re thinking how much better you have done than the other person, beware of getting a swollen head. But if you’re thinking how much you’re still falling short, you start groaning; and when you groan, you are worrying about yourself, you will be humble, you will walk more securely, you won’t tumble over a cliff, you won’t be puffed up like a balloon. And if only we could all just let our thoughts dwell on the one thing, charity! It’s the only thing, you see, which both surpasses all things, and without which all things are worth nothing, and which draws all things to itself, wherever it may be. This is the thing that is not jealous. SAINT AUGUSTINE († 430) is called the Doctor of Grace.
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