Envy, as a daughter, follows Pride, her mother, and hinders our thankfulness to God for His mercies. Comparing our own things, or times, with those of other men, or times, instead of giving thanks for what we have, we are apt to repine that it is not with us as it was, or is with others. While our eye is thus evil, because God is or has been good with others, we shall neither have tranquility of mind nor thankfulness of heart. Let us rather look on our own things, and remember that what we have, comes of His unmerited bounty, and what we have not, may either have been justly forfeited by our sins, or mercifully withheld for our good, to keep us from that entire contentment in this life and this world which might prevent our pursuit of a better world and a life to come. It may also be well for us to compare ourselves with those who have less, and to remember that the very poorest and most desolate may serve to us as a glass wherein to discern God's greater bounty to us, and as objects for our sympathy, tenderness, and as we are able, our charity. And as for past times, we shall do well to consider how many of God's children there have been, in our own and other countries, who would rejoice and sing if they enjoyed a small part of that prosperity in outward things, and that liberty of serving Him, and confessing Christ in His Church, and Sacraments, and sacred ordinances, which we have. Godliness with contentment is great gain.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp