Pio Site

Here is a present to you: http://www.padrepiodevotions.org/
As you are able to tell by the site name, it is a St. Padre Pio web site. I love Padre Pio. He was such a down to earth man, yet a most heavenly priest. On the site's "Padre Pio's Words" page, I ran across these two quotes:

You must not be discouraged or let yourself become dejected if your actions have not succeeded as perfectly as you intended. What do you expect? We are made of clay and not every soil yields the fruits expected by the one who tills it. But let us always humble ourselves and acknowledge that we are nothing if we lack the Divine assistance.
Our Lord sends the crosses; we do not have to invent them.

I need to look to the Lord, ask to be more receptive to the graces given and focus on the tasks assigned rather than myopically honing in on the nonsense of self. In no way is it humble to put aside yourself in order to say, "Oh, look at my humility." I'm not saying that I do that, but to a lesser degree, I wonder, do we do it, even just a little bit, when we consciously take on a task for spiritual development that didn't come seamlessly? If not given by God, don't we tend to evaluate how we are doing at the task? However, when we just take things as they come - not see a need and fill it, but feel a need and allow it to be filled - later on, maybe four things down the road, in a passing glance, we are blessed by a vision of God's hands in our lives. One of those moments has to easily be worth, at least, 20 of the managed tasks.
I'm not sure that I'm being clear. I'm not saying we shouldn't consciously do for others; rather, I'm saying that it shouldn't be a "task" to do for others with some artificial goal. If it is a task, then we are more likely to see our individual hand in the situation which might not only obscure our view of God's hand in the situation, but also cause us to lose true humility that might otherwise be available. Okay, I think that I've said quite enough without saying anything. Enjoy the Padre Pio site! Peace.