The sixth conference of the retreat focuses our attention on those experiences of life in which we know ourselves to be inadequate, imperfect, and incomplete which inevitably evoke the emotion of shame and the myriad of unhealthy instinctive reactions to which it tempts us, including disappearing, blaming, doing violence to oneself, and shamelessness as well as to the capital sin of pride which is simply the other side of the same coin as shame. It invites consideration that the fully human antidote to shame is the virtue and practice of humility which is defined as allowing others to see us as we truly are and allowing them to make the choice to accept us in love or to reject us, with trying to influence that choice.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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