Memorial of the Cistercian Martyrs of Atlas: The unredeemed ego—also known as the false self—readily co‑opts even spiritual gifts and graces to prop up its fragile and ever‑anxious sense of identity. It treats gifts as possessions, using them to secure worth rather than to serve love. By contrast, the redeemed ego—the self whose true identity is hidden with Christ in God—is freed from this grasping. Rooted in Christ rather than in self‑assertion, such a person can allow the gifts received from the Spirit to also become gifts for others. We see the dynamics of the unredeemed ego in those early Christians who sought to impose the Mosaic Law upon Gentile converts. Their insistence revealed an inability to share freely the very gifts they themselves had not earned. How different the example of Jesus, who tells his disciples: I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. There is no hint of exclusivity here, no fear that sharing the Father’s gifts might somehow diminish him. Our Cistercian brothers of Atlas sought to imitate their Master. They shared their spiritual gifts—and ultimately their very lives—with Christian and Muslim alike. Long before their brutal execution, they were already laying down their lives for their friends through daily acts of presence, hospitality, and fidelity. Through their intercession, may we be granted the humility and love that allow God’s manifold gifts to overflow from our lives into the hearts of those around us, and so build up Christ’s Body in love.