To have to recognize defects in ourselves is always painful to human nature. We should like to think ourselves perfect, or at any rate free from any very serious faults. But in spite of all our efforts, the fact of our many imperfections and blemishes thrusts itself upon us, and the difference between the man of good-will and lover of self is that the one turns himself with all his energy to cure his defects, and the other seeks to palliate them and excuse them, and hide them as best he can from himself and others.

One of the best means of getting rid of our faults is to be told of them by others. Here again another signal difference is seen between the proud man and the humble. The one is grateful for the correction, and turns at once to avail himself of it; the other resents it, and is more inclined to think how he can revenge himself on his reprover than how he can remedy his own defect. Judged by this test, am I among the proud or the humble? Is my first impulse when reproved vexation and anger, or sorrow and a wish to amend?

There is a closer test still. The proud sometimes avail themselves of reproof and correct their faults by reason of it. But they seek to conceal from their reprover the fact that they are following his counsel; they will not acknowledge that they are being guided by him. But those who are truly humble rejoice in letting others see that they are adopting their advice in submitting themselves to reproof with gratitude as coming from God and as a favor bestowed on them. Can I stand this test?

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.