It is not easy to be humble when we are praised and flattered. Our self-love sucks in with eagerness the words of compliment. We think they must be partly true, or at least we are tempted to exult in the high opinion that others profess of us. Such occasions are very perilous to humility. We should do well to think of Herod when the people listened to his oration, and shouted out: "It is the voice of a god and not of a man." We read that because he took the glory to himself instead of giving it to God, he was smitten down by the Angel of the Lord and died miserably. (Acts xii.)

Yet we cannot help being pleased when others speak kindly of us, and we ought to be pleased when our superiors commend us. But we must observe certain precautions. (1) We must take care to rejoice rather in the kindness of others than in their praise. (2) We must strive and forget ourselves, and raise our heart to God, and offer Him our success. (3) We must make an act of humility at the thought that if those who praise us saw us as God sees us, they would despise, not honor us.

If we find that we are puffed up by praise, this is a fresh proof of our imperfection. The Saints disliked and dreaded praise, and when they were blamed unjustly, thanked God and took it as a mark of His love and favor. Father Lancicius used to consider unjust reproaches as pure gain, because they had no drawback of self-reproach or regret. Which do I accept most gladly, undue praise or undeserved blame?

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.