If anybody has any recommendations for sermons or texts that teach humility, I'd be glad to receive them.

You should pray the 15 decade Rosary everyday.

You also need to convert from your schismatic rejection of the Dimond Brothers.  They are actually right about what they say, and they are not proud at all.

You also need to reject these things, if you hold them:

baptism of desire
baptism of blood
invincible ignorance
Vatican II antipopes (embrace sedevacantism from John XXIII on to our day)

I'm sorry I forgot to say I'm not sure I understand your situation correctly.  You wrote:

I'm a neophyte and I've been putting off attending a Church while trying to decide just where I stand on the crisis

Are you newly confirmed?  A neophyte is someone who has recently been received into the Church.  

I'm sorry I forgot to say I'm not sure I understand your situation correctly.  You wrote:

Quote

I'm a neophyte and I've been putting off attending a Church while trying to decide just where I stand on the crisis

Are you newly confirmed?  A neophyte is someone who has recently been received into the Church.  

Sorry, I ought to have said that I'm a catechumen.

Cantarella, thanks for the suggestion. It's on my Kindle now.

You should pray the 15 decade Rosary everyday.

Yes. I've done this a few times, and on others I only managed 5 decades due to lukewarmness. I've felt humbled and closer to God every time I've prayed the Rosary though, so I'll resolve to pray the 15 decades every day (starting today).

God bless.

Keep reading the saints' lives and never give in to discouragement. Pray the rosary every day, meditating on the mysteries, and looking for lessons in them.

What you describe is very common in neophytes. God shows us the condition of our soul to the degree that He knows we will not get discouraged. We must always trust Him. Be grateful when you see your faults, and immediately ask for help. Don't expect the sacraments and sacramentals to change you permanently, or instantly. They do change you, of course, but the change isn't always sensible, or the kind that we were expecting. See your faults as proof of the truth of the Faith. Never be vexed by them. That's a kind of pride - expecting perfection from ourselves. It's very important never to get discouraged.

Thank you for your kind advice, MariaCatherine, God bless you. I've noticed change already, but what's impeded my progress is my pride. I've been failing to attribute the graces that I've received to God by falsely attributing them to myself. You're right about expecting perfection; I think it is due to impatience as well as pride. I have stupidly expected myself to be made a Saint overnight, and have been really impatient with God by asking him for graces that I am not humble enough to receive, and that would surely be my downfall if I received them in my current pride. I think part of the problem is that I've spent too much time online trying to figure things out in regards to the Crisis in the Church, after deciding that I wanted to be made a Catholic. This search for answers has slowed me down a bit, and in the process of hearing about how the Church has been infiltrated by modernists, communists, freemasons, sodomites, etc., I've allowed the Devil to puff me up with pride, imagining myself as some kind of Elias figure, destined to restore the Church. I haven't even received my first Holy Communion and I already suffer from pharisaical delusions of religious pride. I couldn't give a basic sermon without stammering and yet I entertain pictures of myself as a booming, fire-and-brimstone preacher in the order of Elias. Vanity of vanities. I've also noticed that I have developed a sweet-tooth for spiritual sweetness. I've read a passage from St. John of the Cross where he describes this malady as "spiritual gluttony". To summarize, I need to spend more time in a Church absorbing a sense of my own littleness, and less time on the mind-warping pseudo-reality of the internet where you are your own God with a world at your fingertips.

I've been tempted to go to the Novus Ordo Church that is nearby, as the nearest traditional chapel, an SSPX chapel, is 1.5 hrs away. On the other hand, why should I handle something as important as religion so carelessly? Surely I owe it to God to seek out correct instruction in his Faith and the form of worship pleasing to Him. I've been to that Novus Ordo church (a beautiful old cathedral) once, and on the way out I overheard the priest saying to an anglican woman who had stopped by for the service that there was no real difference between the Catholic & Anglican churches, which is not encouraging for somebody who is looking for the ancient, dogmatic Catholic religion (and what is frustrating about the situation is the people who talk about how they needed to modernize the Church in order to attract young people to it; obviously these unfortunate idiots are unaware that the main attraction of the Catholic Church for an outsider is that it's the only institution that dogmatically claims to have the Truth amidst a society filled with liberal, sceptical, "there is no truth, only different points of view" institutions. I went to said SSPX chapel the other day; unfortunately the Priest that was offering Mass that day was not one of the usual priests that goes to that chapel, and so I was unable to talk to him about arranging catechism and being confirmed in the Church. I'm thinking of ringing the SSPX (which I have done once before, where the Priest advised me to come down to the nearest chapel and see what it was like) and asking them to arrange catechism for me, so that I can be joined to the Church and start receiving the blessed sacraments already (which I'm sure will be a great step forward in progress; especially considering I have 21 years of an irreligious, atheist life's worth of sin to repent for, as, unfortunately, I think that the baptism I received as an infant in the Church of England was valid, so I don't think that I can have my sins washed in that less humiliating fashion ). Yeah, I think this mortal sin lingering in my soul might just be an impediment to receiving graces from and friendship with God, maybe; perhaps you veteran Catholics can tell me whether or not I'm correct.

One great book is 'True Devotion to Mary' by St. Louis Marie de Montfort. Another is 'Introduction to the Devout Life' by St. Francis de Sales.

I've bought a Kindle version of St. Louis' True Devotion, but I'm thinking of setting it aside for the time being for the reason that it involves a serious religious devotion that I don't think I would be able to honour properly as yet.

I just read your new post and am hoping someone can address your "delusions of grandeur". I don't think this is entirely unnatural or even sinful, especially for a man and a new convert. Perhaps you can mold it into the virtue of magnanimity.

Are you actually judging people or are you just noticing their sinful behavior?

Definitely judging, because it is accompanied by feelings of resentment: not for the sin, but for the person. Even when people have not being doing anything at all sinful I would see them at a glance and condemn them for the sins that I imagine them to commit.

There's a difference between the two. The world likes to blur this line and make people believe it's one and the same, noticing the sin and judging the person. This is because the world doesn't want anyone even to notice sin. They want to whole concept of sin to disappear. So they try to make people believe that they can't even notice sin or they're Pharisees. But this is not true. As Catholics we have formed consciences and we can't help but realize when actions are sinful (or potentially sinful). It's engrained in us. That's good!!

I agree. There's nothing wrong with simply seeing sin (as long as you are doing your best not to look for it in others), if you maintain charity and a hope for their conversion. I have some of the principles in my mind, you see; I'm just slothful about practicing them, and this leads me into hypocrisy. You know, I think it's possible for a person to be made worse by religion. Not by religion itself, because religion itself is good (I'm speaking of true religion, Catholicism), it's that a proud man can turn religion into something truly wicked - that is the accomplishment of the Pharisee, whom we know Our Lord abhorred above all men. But yes, a proud man without religion is probably less harmful than a proud man who has a pharisee distortion of religion. I have hope that I will be humbled and corrected though. Like I have said, I think part of this disease is due to my not yet spending enough time in church.

What you do after noticing is what makes or breaks you. Do you truly think you are better than them? Or do you experience some sadness, perhaps anger (where just anger is due), and say a prayer for them? Do you realize in the depth of your soul that were it not for God's grace, you would be the same or worse? In fact you could actually be the same or worse, just in a different way!

I think probably worse. Your assessment about the proper reaction to seeing sin in others I feel is correct.

When considering your own objectively superior lifestyle, do you realize that God has given you those graces so you could pray for them? Compare your spiritual wealth to material wealth. It's never given to us for us to hoard all to ourselves. It is meant to be given away and shared with those less fortunate. People who hoard their material wealth while others suffer will pay greatly for abusing the responsibilities God gave them. Same with spiritual wealth. It is not meant for you. You have a responsibility to pray and sacrifice in union with Our Lord to gain graces for others; to empty yourself for them. That in itself should take your attention off yourself and put it on your fellow man which will help you exercise humility.

Focusing on how proud we are can sometimes be a little trick of the devil because it seems humble but... who are we focused on? Ourselves. So while it's good to know and realize just how proud and sinful we are, it's not good to dwell on it too much. Offer it to God. And if it bothers you that you are proud and sinful, offer that too! If it bothers you that it bothers you, offer that too!! Pride turns round and round and round, chasing its own tail, until you can't tell the beginning from the end. It will make you dizzy and disoriented if you pay too much attention to it. It is a very unique sin, one that we literally cannot root out alone because once you cut off one head, 7 more spring up and they're all chasing their tails! I don't know why but we are literally powerless against this one and the ironic thing is that it takes humility to realize that and to stop fussing about it.

Just ask God to root it out and then trust that He will; but also know that it will take time and patience.

These are valuable lessons. I've been listening to a sermon that teaches the same. Here it is: http://www.audiosancto.org/sermon/20090809-Conquer-Your-Inner-Pharisee-With-Humility-and-Meekness.html
A great sermon.

lso note, Pharisees hold different standards for themselves as for others. If you hold yourself to the same standard as you wish others would hold, you are not a Pharisee. You might be proud or have other weaknesses, but you're not a hypocrite. You seem like you might lack patience with yourself and your own failings which makes sense that you might lack patience with others as well. Same standard. Not the correct one, but not hypocritical either. That's also a line many people blur but if you realize the difference it helps keep your own mind straight.

Yes, it's important to be precise with terms. I blundered earlier with the term neophyte, for example.

God bless.