• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe

Humility cometh after a fall

October 15, 2018
By Rita Buettner
Filed Under: Commentary, The Domestic Church

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

It’s Saturday evening, and I decide to go grocery shopping. No one else will be there, and I can get in and out of the store without crowds.

At the store, I sail into a parking spot right near the door. I’m feeling relaxed and more than a little bit impressed with my cleverness. This is going to be the easiest shopping trip ever.

I walk through the doors and head toward the deli. All of a sudden my feet fly up in the air, my shopping cart lands on top of me, and I’m flat on my back on the floor.

While I’m still trying to catch my breath and figure out what happened, another shopper comes over to check on me.

“Are you OK?” she asks. “The floor is wet. I saw a man mopping it just before you walked in. Do you need help getting up?”

As I get back on my feet, I’m relieved, but I’m also shaken and confused. As I drive home, I keep thinking of how often I take my health for granted. I live each day assuming I will have the ability to serve my husband and children and the strength to balance working a full-time job with raising growing boys. I expect to be able to think and write and plan and carry out those plans. I don’t have time for being sick or injured. No mother does!

It suddenly occurs to me that if I had hit my head harder, it might have been a different situation. I would not have been driving myself home to tell my husband the story. He would have been scrambling to pull children out of bed to come and get me.

What if I were really injured? How would he figure out the computer passwords I’ve never written down and barely remember myself? At work, how would my colleagues understand my notes on projects?

I have no illusion that I am some kind of superhero. But I don’t like to acknowledge that I am weak. I try to be many things to many people. I am the kind of person who says yes more than no. I prefer not to ask for help. I just want to handle what I can on my own.

But that’s a dangerous place to be. It’s so difficult to remember that our strength comes from God and that he gives us our talents, too. We need to rely on others in our lives. And we need to place our trust in our Father in heaven.

Slipping and falling – whether literally or figuratively – always forces me to come face to face with my pride. My fall at the grocery store certainly wasn’t as dramatic or transformative as the one St. Paul experienced on the road to Damascus, but it forced me to recognize just how much of my life is not within my control. It also compelled me to come face to face with how much I need to grow in humility.

“There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge in the world,” St. Teresa of Avila said.

The journey toward greater humility might not be one that comes easily or without significant challenge. It might not even be one I want to pursue. But it is necessary if I’m going to grow in my relationship with Christ.

And, I suppose, the good news is you can be humbled at any moment of the day – even at the grocery store.

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Rita Buettner

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

Our faith is not afraid of questions

Artificial Intelligence, wholeism and prayer

Question Corner: Does reception of the Eucharist replace confession?

A butterfly lands on a flowering bush with purple blossoms

A Miracle for a Baby in Rhode Island (and for all of us)

Kids need lots of people who love them

| Recent Local News |

Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9

Driver arrested after crashing into entrance of Esperanza Center

Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program
  • Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options
  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary
  • LA archbishop, joined by business leaders, starts fund to help families affected by ICE raids
  • FBI surveilled SSPX priest amid probe of suspected neo-Nazi’s plans for violence
  • Poland’s ‘living memorial’ to St. John Paul II marks 25 years of transforming lives
  • Our faith is not afraid of questions
  • Catholic ‘American Ninja Warrior’ fights world hunger, one obstacle at a time
  • Parishes need to launch ‘revolution of care’ for the elderly, pope says

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en