When God lays His heavy hand upon us, we have an excellent opportunity of exercising the virtue of humility, and of making great progress in it. There is nothing like a good knock-down blow for teaching us our own nothingness, and for schooling us in submission to God. If we take the chastisement well, and do not allow ourselves to rebel against the will of God, but rather make it an occasion for humbling ourselves the more in His sight, we shall acquire more grace from God and advance more in perfection in a day than in months of prosperity and spiritual consolation. How do I bear the trials God sends--well, or ill?

When the time of darkness is upon us and the gloom seems almost intolerable, there is no harm in praying for release from our misery or that God may avert some threatened blow, but the petition must always be accompanied by an act of humility. "Not my will, but Thine be done!" If we are patient, God will certainly send us speedy relief; just when we least expect it, peace will be restored to our souls.

Those trials are intended by God to cleanse our souls, and to root up the pride that still lurks unnoticed by us. The best prayer for us to offer under them, and indeed at all times and at all seasons, is to cry out to God: Humble me, O God, and I shall be humbled. Burn out of me now in this life all that displeases Thee, that I may not have to endure the burning of the life to come! Happy those who in all trouble can offer this prayer!

O God, who resistest the proud, and givest thy grace to the humble, grant me that true humility of which thy adorable Son has left us the example. Notwithstanding the powerful obstacles which my natural inclinations oppose to this virtue, I ardently desire to learn of Him to be meek and humble of heart. I am filled with confusion, O Lord, when I reflect on my inordinate love of esteem and applause, my extreme fear of contempt and humiliation, my independence of spirit, my attachment to my own ideas and opinion, my secret satisfaction in success, my latent mortification at seeing others preferred, my insatiable desire of praise and honor. O Lord, I should despair of the cure of maladies so numerous and grievous, did not I know that thou art an Almighty Physician, to whom nothing is impossible. Cast on me, O my God, a look of compassion, and have mercy on me. Grant that I may know thee, to love thee alone ; that I may know myself, to comprehend the depth of my miseries.

May I never forget the many motives that urge me to the practice of humility, the sins of my past life, my inclination to evil, my inconstancy in virtue, my tepidity in thy service, my ingratitude towards thee, my daily infidelities, and the innumerable defects which, notwithstanding my pride, I cannot disguise from myself. May I at length do myself justice, by sincerely believing myself to be the last of all creatures; may I henceforth shun praise as sedulously as I have hitherto sought it; may my only aim be to please thee, my only desire to be forgotten by the world; may the remembrance of the account I shall have to render of Thy graces, prove a perpetual stimulus to the practice of humility in the use of them. If by thy grace I am ever capable of doing any thing to promote Thy honor, I will refer the glory to thee alone; I will think of the voluntary humiliations of my Savior; I will take Him for my model, that by attaining resemblance with Him, I may deserve to be one day ranked among His elect in the kingdom of heaven. Amen.