How are we to know whether we are humble? If we think that we are humble, we may be quite sure that we are not really humble at all. There is no more certain sign of pride than not to be aware of its existence in ourselves. What Saint ever lived who did not acknowledge and lament his pride and self-love? A Saint who should believe himself to be thoroughly humble would be no Saint at all. How far do I recognize in myself an ever-running sore of pride, making me foul and unsightly before God, who hates the proud and gives grace only to the humble?

If I find that I take with patience and good humor disparaging remarks, attacks, and contradictions from others, it is a good sign, but not a certain sign that I am humble. Pride that apes humility often renders a man proof against what others think. He wraps himself in his cloak of pride, and looks down on their opinion of him. Nor is indifference to the praise and honor of those around a certain sign, for this too may come from pride and a spirit of contempt.

But if any one (1) recognizes himself as full of pride; (2) dislikes the idea of being honored and praised; (3) desires humiliations and prays for them; (4) thinks himself to deserve the worst of everything and the lowest place, then he may hope that he has begun to walk the road which in the end may through God's grace produce in him the virtue of humility. Examine yourself on these points, thank God for any signs of progress, and lament over still remaining defects.

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.