Some Saints excelled in one virtue, some in another, but all were pre-eminent in humility. The heroes of the Church of God, whether under the Old or the New Dispensation, were marked oft from the heroes of paganism by their humility. Thus Abraham described himself as dust and ashes. Job, in the presence of God, expressed his abhorrence of himself. David, when visited by the hand of God, thanks Him for having humbled him. Daniel declares that to him belongs shame and confusion of face. If, even without the example of Jesus and Mary before them, these Saints were so humble, what ought you to be!
The Saints of the New Testament are still more conspicuous for their humility. St. Paul believed and declared himself to be the chief of sinners. St. Bernard expressed his astonishment that God should work miracles by the hands of one so vile as he. St. Dominic, before entering a city, used to pray that he might not bring down judgments upon it for his sins. St. Philip Neri used to invent ingenious methods of drawing down ridicule upon himself. Compare the humility of these Saints with your own pride, and humble yourself before God.
The Saints were not exaggerated in their sentiments. They said with truth that if God had given to the greatest of sinners the graces given to them, they might perhaps have been far holier than they. Think of the graces given you. How often you have abused and rejected them! If the Saints could lament over graces lost, how ought you to humble yourself for your ingratitude.
Prayer To Obtain Humility
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.