The Importance of Humility
Humility is not only important to the welfare of our souls, but it is absolutely necessary in order to obtain grace from Almighty God. He resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. Pride is an insuperable bar to the entrance of grace into the soul, and as we can do nothing good in the sight of God without the assistance of His grace, we must have at least some degree of humility before we can do anything pleasing to Him. In proportion to our humility will be the grace given us, and the supernatural virtue to which we shall attain. The first thing I must do if I wish to please God more is to humble myself more.
Humility is not only necessary to the obtaining of grace, but without it we are the enemies of God. He resists the proud; that is, they have God fighting against them, and regarding them as His enemies. How awful a thing to have God for our adversary. It was this that rendered the devils for ever accursed. It was the humility of their subjection that in one moment confirmed the holy Angels in the love of God, in perfect happiness to all eternity. If I wish God to fight for me, not against me, the first condition is humility.
Humility is a necessary condition of entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. "Unless you become as little children," says our Divine Lord, "you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." He loves the humble, and no one who has in his heart the spirit of humility need have any fear of death and judgment. O my God, am I really-humble? Is there not still in me, alas! a spirit of pride hateful to Thee? Drive out from me all pride and fill me with true humility, that I may be fit for Thee and fit for Heaven.
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.
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