Prayer for Humility

"O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, cure me of my pride, make my heart humble, infuse a little of Your profound humility into my soul.  Since You know me better than I know myself, how could I, with my proud will, make my heart humble?  A poor man cannot give wealth to himself, nor can a proud man give humility to his heart.  Only Your infinite goodness can heal pride.

'This is the remedy to fix my gaze on You, Incarnate Word, hanging on the Cross.  As soon as You see a humble soul looking at You in this way, You are quickly moved to look at it, and the effect of Your divine glance is like that of a ray of sunshine on the earth:  it warms it and prepares it to bring forth fruit.  This is the way You act, O divine Word, who by the light of Your glance, drain my soul of all its pride and consume it in Your fire.  No one can acquire humility if he does not fix his gaze on You, O Word, on the Cross.' (St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi)"  quoted in Divine Intimacy, pp. 328-329.

You know not what you ask

"Let us imagine our confusion when we appear before God and understand the reasons why he sent us the crosses we accept so unwillingly.  The death of a child will then be seen as its rescue from some great evil had it lived...loss of money the means of saving your soul from eternal loss.   So what are you worried about?  God is looking after us and yet we are full of anxiety!  We trust ourselves to a doctor because we suppose he knows his business...Yet we are unwilling to treat God the same way!  It looks as though we do not trust his wisdom and are afraid that he cannot do his job properly... 

"If we could see all that he sees we would unhesitatingly wish all he wishes.  We would beg him on bended knees for those afflictions we now ask him to spare us.  To all of us he addresses the words spoken to the sons of Zebedee:  You know not what you ask - O blind of heart, your ignorance saddens me.  Let me manage your affairs and look after your interests.  I know what you need better than you do yourselves.  If I paid heed to what you think you meed you would have been hopelessly ruined long ago."  -- St. Claude de la Colombiere, quoted in Magnificat, p. 100-101.

Mercy and Our True Measure

"If  you wish always to press forward on the path of virtue without stopping, you should pay great attention to things which may serve as chances for acquiring virtue, and never let them slip out of your hands.  Therefore those are ill-advised who do everything in their power to avoid any kind of obstacles in the path of virtue, in spite of the fact that  these might have helped towards success in their progress.  For example, if you wish to grow in patience, you should not avoid the people, things and circumstances that particularly try your patience...

You should adopt the same attitude towards any work which displeases you...you must not avoid it but, on the contrary, must undertake it without digging in your toes, and must do and finish it through, as though it were the most welcome work, never letting your heart be troubled by it...You will never ...find the true peace that you seek by running away from such things; for peace does not dwell in self-indulgent hearts.

I advise you to do the same in relation to the thoughts which at times invade you and trouble your mind with memories of human injustices...Do not stifle them or drive them away, but let them leave of their own accord, not through your opposition,but through the patience with which you endure them."  -- Fr. Lorenzo Scupoli, quoted in Magnificat, p. 78-9

Forming our minds

"Now most of us have Catholic wills, but not many of us have Catholic intellects.  When we look at the universe, we see pretty well what other people see, plus certain extra features taught us by our religion.  For the most part, the same influences that form other people's minds, form ours -- the same habits of thought, inclinations, bodily senses, indolences, worked upon by the same newspapers, periodicals, best-sellers, films, radio programs.  So that we have not so much Catholic minds as worldly minds with Catholic patches.  Intellectually, we wear our Catholicism like a badge on a lapel of the same kind of suit everyone else is wearing."  --from Theology and Sanity, by Frank Sheed, as quoted by Fr. Michael Keating in his presentation at Christ the King, and by Fr. Ed in his talk at the Parish Mission on Tuesday.

Ointment for our wounds

"True humility, however deep it may be, neither disquiets, nor troubles, nor disturbs the soul;  it is accompanied by peace, joy, and tranquility...It enlarges it and makes it fit to serve God better."  On the other hand, false humility only disturbs and upsets the mind and troubles the soul..."

"Distress and lack of confidence lessen our capacity for loving and the devil's aim is to hold back souls on the road to love.

"To be wanting in confidence in God's mercy, even after a grave fall, is never a sign of true humility but of insidious pride and diabolical temptation. ..Humility is the virtue that keeps us in our place; and our place in God's sight is that of children who are weak and miserable, yes, but confident children.

"When we fall into the same imperfections after so many good resolutions;  when after many efforts we still do not succeed in correcting certain faults or in overcoming certain difficulties, and we find ourselves in one way or another far beneath what we ought or would like to be, let us have recourse to the infallible remedy of humility.  "Humility" says St Teresa of Jesus is "the ointment for our wounds" (Int Cas III,2).  Even if we seem to have used up all our strength, if we feel unable to do anything and see ourselves always prostrate, powerless to rise, there is still one possibility for us: to humble ourselves.  Let us humble ourselves sincerely and with confidence; and humility will supply for all our miseries;  it will heal all our wounds because it will attract divine mercy to them."  --Divine Intimacy, p. 322.

Knowing Yourself

"To insure an orderly and progressive growth in the spiritual life, we must know ourselves... This knowledge of our interior state is obtained through the examination of conscience.   The examen considered in this way becomes one of the most important exercises of the spiritual life, since its object is to help the soul to rid itself of everything that might obstruct or delay its journey to God...  the examination of conscience attains its end when the soul who has faithfully practiced this exercise can say to itself:  these are the inclinations which I must watch more carefully to avoid falling into sin;  these, the weak points which I must strengthen;  these are the virtues that I must practice most of all.  In this way the soul will be able to formulate practical, firm resolutions which will then become the special subject of its subsequent examinations." (p. 303)

"Instead of trying to seek our all the faults it has committed, the soul living an interior life...should fix its attention on the degree to which its faults have been voluntary, even in the case of slight imperfections, because it is these deliberate faults that present the greatest obstacle to spiritual progress and to union with God.  The soul must carefully investigate the cause of and the motive for these failures.  It must realize that while its exterior faults are of various kinds,...all of them, nevertheless, have one and the same cause, one common root which may be, for example, pride or sloth.  It is precisely against this root of our sins and imperfections that we must direct our efforts, not simply to lessen it by mortification, but rather to fight it directly by the increase of the opposite virtues in ourselves.  In other words, we must struggle against our dominant passion or fault;  this is very important, for by aiming to destroy evil at its root, we eliminate at the same time many actual faults." (p.304) from  Divine Intimacy

Imperfections

"While venial sin always consists in a more or less slight transgression of one of God's laws, imperfection is the omission of some good act to which we are not obliged by any law, but which charity invites us to do.  To illustrate:  when I am aware of the possibility of performing a better act suited to my state, in accord with my actual capabilities, in harmony with my duties, and for the accomplishment of which I may reasonably believe that I am inspired by the Holy Spirit, I cannot deliberately refuse to do it without real actual imperfection.  In this case, my refusal to perform a better act cannot be judged to be good, not can it be justified by the thought that I am free to omit this better action since no law or commandment obliges me.  This would be an abuse of that liberty which was given me by God for the sole purpose of making me capable of adhering to the good, uninfluenced by my passions.  In fact, in the last analysis, my refusal to perform the better act always implies a lack of generosity, motivated by a little selfishness, laziness, meanness, or fondness for my own comfort, all of which are evidently contrary to perfection...

Every kind of imperfection in fact always comes from a want of effort, energy, and fervor in the spiritual life.  It is always selfishness which, in one way or another, takes something away from God to satisfy the ego.  We are too calculating, afraid of giving too much, and so selfishness clips our wings and keeps us from reaching full union with God."
  --Divine Intimacy, pp. 300-301