Freedom and small daily acts of self-denial

Unselfishness, which makes men free, is attained only through the patience of small daily acts of self-denial. By this daily passion, which alone reveals to a man in how many ways he is enslaved by his own ego, by this daily passion and by it alone, a man’s eyes are slowly opened. He sees only to the extent that he has lived and suffered. If today we are scarcely able any longer to become aware of God, that is because we find it so easy to evade ourselves, to flee from the depths of our being by means of the narcotic of some pleasure or other. Thus our own interior depths remain closed to us.

Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), 1969 radio address

I try to practice daily self denial (emphasis on try). Thinking of it as a "daily passion" is something new, which elevates it beyond my usual routine.