In John Donne's 'Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions'

Every human being of this world values a set of virtues. One of these virtues is humility, which is a modest or low view of one’s own importance, not believing one person is better than another. To develop the virtue of humility, a person must be open minded to the world around him, put others before himself, and be aware of his actions in order to better himself. One way a person can display humility is through being aware of their world and surroundings. John Donne, author of Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, teaches and sheds light upon this subject. In his “Meditation 17”, he expresses his concern for the world and his surroundings. For instance, he states that when “a child [is baptized in the Catholic Church], that action concerns

An example of this is in Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions by John Donne. In this piece, he focuses on a bell which symbolizes a call for prayer, a person in despair or a person close to death. In this meditation, he also states that “every man is a piece of a continent” and “all mankind is of one author, and is one volume” (308). Each man goes through hardships, trials and tribulations. Another example of this is a post by Demi Lovato on the social media platform Instagram. Her post tells the story of being stuck in traffic, and feelings fatigued, irritated, annoyed and hungry. As she began to research the cause of the traffic, she discovered that a critical accident occurred earlier in the day. As she rode home, she pondered over her pervious feelings and felt guilty for being selfish and annoyed. She realized that she should be grateful that she herself or anyone she knew took part in that accident. She closes her post by stating, “Let us pray that whoever was hurt in that accident will heal and let’s take a minute to thank our God for what we have today”. Instead of continuing to be selfish and irritated, she realized the error of her ways and realized the dangerous situation the stranger was being put through; for all she knew, that stranger could possibly be hanging onto life by a thread or taking his last breath. She was humble enough to

An example of this is from Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. Under the virtue of humility, he instructs himself to “imitate Jesus and Socrates” (Franklin 332). In other words, he examines the characteristics of Jesus Christ and Socrates and uses them as role models to become conscious of his actions. By doing so, he trusts that he will live just as they did, perfect and admired by many. Although he failed to become the perfect human he strived to be, his daily efforts to better himself and improve mentally and emotionally by practicing humility, along with other virtues, displays his dedication to be humble towards others and strive to show equality between himself and other humans of the world. The final example of this is a person admitting and owning up to his mistakes. For instance, in a church service, an assigned choir member gives the organist a signal to let her know whether a hymn is over or to repeat the chorus by saying, “Finale!” or “Chorus!” However, he says the signal too late, which causes the performing organist to mess up. Instead of blaming it on the organist, he communicates with her after the Worship Service and tells her, “I’m sorry, it was my fault. I was concentrating on something else and not paying attention”. By doing so, both of them understand that making mistakes is acceptable. By comprehending this, a person is able to accept their limitations,