We read reams of news releases about deadly diseases that afflict minds and bodies. What’s rare? A cure for the diseased soul. When the soul is ill, the mind and body are susceptible to infections.
Souls are hurt by by Spiritual disorders. Pride, Envy, Greed, Gluttony, Anger, Lust, and Sloth sum up all that goes wrong with souls.
A new spiritual disorder has been identified. DFP begins slowly. Then, it spreads rapidly through the mind, paralyzing neural connections that would otherwise keep the mind open to Healing by The Great Physician.
If the deadly DFP virus is caught quickly, it is more easily cured. How do we diagnose Desire For Praise? We analyze the words we use, seeking to improve our “Pronoun Ratio”.
There are over a million words in the English language! Of a million words, ten words provide an incredible 25% of the words most of us use! The top ten words we use? “the,” “be,” “to,” “of,” “and,” “a,” “in,” “that,” “have,” and “I.”
Those suffering from Desire For Praise use the ten most popular words in frequent conjunction with each other. “I”, “have”, and “a” are often found next to each other. “I have a . . .”, or “I have an. . . .” are about as commonly used “I want the . . .” or “I want that . . .” or “I have the . . .” or “I have that . . .” We see how often the most frequently used words are combined by those suffering from Desire For Praise.
Pronoun Ratio Analysis shows that those infected with Desire For Praise can use as nearly half of the top ten words in a single, short sentence! “I want to have that _______.” and “I want to be that _______.” uses almost HALF the most commonly used words in a virtual verbal orgy of self-congratulation or Desire For Praise.
Amazing! For those suffering from Desire For Praise, all of time and space described by a million words shrink to the tininess of “I” and “Me”!
A person suffering from Desire For Praise uses “I”, “me”, “my” and “mine” too frequently. To cure DFP, we watch our words. When we try to cure ourselves of vanity, we begin by seeing how often we use the DFP words.
DFP is also diagnosed by descriptions of our activities. Sentences that begin “I bought _____ .”, “I collect _____ .”, “I wear _____ .”, I drive _____ .”, I have _____ .”, “I own _____ .” “I like _____ .”, “I went to _____ “, “I went _____ing.”, “I hate _____ .”, “I bought _____ .”, “I sold _____.”, and “I want _____ .” precede a statement that indicates an object or activity that symbolizes Desire For Praise, spoken or unspoken, from the listener.
How are we to respond to such Desire For Praise announcements? “Congratulations!”, or “Good for you!”, or “I’m proud of you!” is what we’re “supposed” to reply, and most of us do, though we may be thinking, “How long will this vanity continue?”
When we use fewer words that describe our self-centered Desire For Praise, we actually stop thinking so much about ourselves. We erase errors of ego from our soul. Vanity is reduced. We begin to see the Desire For Praise for the shallow sickness that it is. As we replace Desire For Praise with love and service of God and neighbor, we no longer shut ourselves off so completely from God and our neighbors.
So, we’ve seen something new, self-help for the soul swollen by vanity. What’s really rare? A cure for the diseased soul. We have found one!
Catholics have an advantage in curing the deadly Desire For Praise. The Church is an immense Humility Clinic, demanding humble obedience. Those in denominations invented by ambitious men have a harder time escaping the vanity that has taken a denominational form that separates goats from sheep.
