Professional Documents
Culture Documents
HOLINESS
WEEK 4 INTEGRITY
DAY 1
Prayer:
Jesus you are the truth. Help me to respond to your call today. Help me to obey
you as you speak to me in all the circumstances of my life today that you may
lead me to the complete truth.
DAY 2
Prayer:
Lord help me to clarify my thoughts today. Let no untruthfulness cross my
thoughts today. Grant me the grace to admit when I go wrong and think of
wrong things and evil thoughts and direct me to the right thoughts. Help me to
be true to you, myself and others and especially not to deceive myself and others
for you cannot be deceived.
DAY 3
A person’s actions must be true. That is they must conform to or agrees to the
Principles he upholds and the faith he professes. Truthfulness in conduct means that a
person acts and lives in conformity with his thoughts and words. Holy Scripture speaks of
those who belong to God “ to do the truth “, “to walk in the truth” and to obey it. The
meaning of these expressions is to live in faithfulness to God’s laws and in accordance to
the demands of faith.
Truthfulness demands that a man be able to face up to disagreeable situations
without evading them. It requires submitting to criticism of others without yielding to
strong dislike and desires of retaliation or even killing as pertains in our country. The
truthful man- a man of integrity – takes the opinion of others seriously and is ready to
acknowledge his own errors and mistakes.
Untruthfulness are all actions which contradicts the recognized truth and the
convictions of a person’s faith. Opposed to truthfulness is HYPOCRISY which imitates
virtuous behaviour in externals deeds whiles the real motives are different. Christ
condemned the Pharisees for this. He reproached them for practicing their piety and good
works, such as alms giving, fasting and meticulous observance of the law, not for the
sake of God and the needy neighbour but in order to receive praise from men
(Mt 6:1-8; 23).
Every Christian must bear witness to the truth by our thoughts words and actions.
It is our obligation.
Prayer:
Lord help me to able to face up to the criticisms of others and to admit that I
could be wrong in my thoughts words and deeds. Lord, remove hypocrisy in my
life and purify my motives.
DAY 4
The words we speak are in some ways expressions of our knowledge or what we
know. Whatever we speak or comes out of our mouths should agree with what we are
thinking and what we know. Justice, reverence and love require that we speak the truth.
To do otherwise means to tell lies and lies deny the truth to another but in addition
induces him to believe in what is not true thus leading him to error. When we tell lies to
our neighbour he accepts facts and relies on securities which in reality do not exists. If he
acts on this basis he will suffer harm himself or cause harm to others. Reliance on the
truthfulness of the statements and assertions of others is an essential condition for
beneficial coexistence, fruitful cooperation and efficiency of work.
Fraternal love obliges us to help others in their needs and also obliges us to share
the truth with them. Every lie treats the other as not worthy of the truth or not entitled to
the truth. This offends against the dignity of the other as a person of equal value and
right. Intellectual and moral fellowship can only thrive where the truth is respected.
Truth has to be acquired and acted upon by each person individually. And since it
is the highest social good, we cannot be true in our thinking, words and actions unless we
committed to speaking the truth. It is the responsibility of us all to bring about the best
way for the search of truth and for its communication. We should therefore not condone
lies in our communities.
Prayer:
Lord help me to respect all men as of equal dignity and right as myself and help
me to speak the truth to them and endeavour to share the truth with them at all times
for our mutual growth in Jesus.
DAY 5
Even though there is an obligation to be always truthful in ones words, one is not
obliged and often not even permitted to impart all the truth one knows. A man of integrity
must also be a man of discretion. Christ was absolutely truthful but he proclaimed the
mystery of God only gradually to men and not to all. He warns us not to throw our| pearls
before swine” (Mt 7:6)
Speech must be community-forming and community-sustaining. This forbids us
to use truth and to reveal it in a manner which possibly or certainly will prove detrimental
to others, unless values of a still higher order justifies this. Every word of truth must be
guarded by discretion and prudence. The person in possession of the truth must prudently
weigh whether its revelation will be truly edifying, bridge over differences, build
community and contribute to the greater glory of God; or on the contrary whether it will
create confusion, divide and prove destructive.
Even the sincere and upright man must conceal many things because of
consideration for his neighbour and the need to protect himself and others against abuse.
Prayer:
Lord grant me the grace to know when to speak and when to keep quiet. Help
me always to build up people and communities and not to destroy.
DAY 6
Fidelity is that virtue by which a person remains true to his convictions word and
promise. In a special way fidelity or faithfulness obliges one to fulfill the promises which
a person explicitly or implicitly has made. Truthfulness is the man who is faithful to God
and his neighbour. Truthfulness of speech obliges a person to keep harmony between his
words and thoughts. Faithfulness bids him to keep his deeds in harmony with his words
Man’s faithfulness to God is a fundamental moral duty. Faithfulness to God
necessary includes and demands faithfulness to men. The more intimate a personal
relation, the more must it be characterized by fidelity, such as filial and parental fidelity,
conjugal fidelity, fidelity in friendship.
The chief characteristic of fidelity is the element of stability in a person’s actions.
Fidelity in relation to others is an essential foundation of mutual trust and personal and
social security. These are important preconditions for the happiness of life, the
fruitfulness of common work and the safe development of the individual as well as the
society. In this regard fidelity resembles truthfulness. Infidelity on the other hand
undermines mutual trust, destroys solidarity and rends the bonds which assure mutual
assistance and good will
Fidelity proves itself most especially in the fulfillment of the promise a person has
made.
Prayer:
Lord we live a world of deceitfulness, where we have decided to be unfaithful to
one another and therefore our society is crumbling down. Children and parents are not
faithful to each other, husbands and wives are not faithful to each other. Friends
deceive and kill each other. Lord help me to be faithful from today onwards and to
fulfill all the promises I make as far it is humanly possible.