Lenten Improvement - Are You Envious?

The following is taken from Improve:Now is the Acceptable Time! distributed by the Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers.

Note: Fr. Lester has kindly permitted me to use these excerpts daily. Please click HERE to learn more about the Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers and to consider joining them as a member.

"If you like to see other people happy, you are one in a million according to
one journalist. Everybody is seeking happiness, but rarely is anyone
enthusiastic about another being happy. It is so very easy to let envy chisel
the edge off the happiness of others...

Another mother's son has higher grades on his final report than your son. Your only comment is 'The teacher is playing favorites.' You are not glad that the boy and mother are happy.

Mrs. Chasey is elected president of the Christian Mothers, a very great
privilege and responsibility. On the way home from Church one mother is
overheard saying: 'That's the only way Father could get her to come to all the
meetings.'

Husband and wife pass the beautiful soft lawn of their neighbor. The wife turns to her husband and says: 'Their grass wouldn't be that way if he had to cut it himself...'

Walt and Mary become Mr. and Mrs. and make a very lovely couple. The lady next door finds a loophole. It began as a whisper from the lips of a mother whose daughter is still a Miss. 'Mary was not after Walt near as much as she was after Walt's wallet.'

She is the cheerful witty type, easy to get along with a pleasant smile for everybody. But someone has another angle. 'That's just a front. I heard that she and her
husband ought to soundproof their home because their arguments disturb the
neighbors.'

A young mother walks down the street with her twin daughters fitted out in new summer dresses. A curtain sways in the late afternoon breeze and deadens the words. ' I wonder what she would do if she had my five instead of just those two?'

Envy makes people small. Envy undermines happiness. To crowd out envy the human heart must be filled with love. 'Charity does not
envy.'

May no one in the world be less happy or less good because of
anything said or done by a Christian Mother."