QUOTATION: Humility

God takes an especial delight in the humility of those who believe that they have not yet begun to do good.

--St. Philip Neri

QUOTATION: Women in the Gospel

If you read the Gospel, women play a very secondary role. Even the Holy Virgin is mentioned very rarely and speaks very little. The very moment that you put on supernatural lenses you are going to come to the strange conclusion that it is a privilege to be a woman. It is a privilege precisely because, to be in the background, from a secularistic point of view, to be humiliated, which often happens, is a tremendous supernatural advantage.

--Alice von Hildebrand, “The Secular War on the Supernatural.”

QUOTATION: How to Keep from Sin

One of the most efficient ways of keeping ourselves sinless is to have compassion for those who fall due to frailty, and never to boast of our rightness, but with real humility acknowledge that if we are in a state of grace, it is by the mercy of God.

--St. Philip Neri

QUOTATION: Humility

If pride is the great human obstacle to faith, it follows that, from the human side, the essential condition of receiving faith is humility. Humility is not an underestimation of what we are, but the plain, unadulterated truth. A man who is 6 feet tall is not humble if he says: “No really, I am only 5 feet tall.”

--Fulton J. Sheen, Preface to Religion

QUOTATION: Humility

Pay very great attention, daughters, to this point, which I shall now tell you; for at one time it may be humility and virtue to consider ourselves to be bad, and at another time it may be a very great temptation; and because I have experienced this, I know it to be true. However great our humility may be, it does not disturb or disorder the soul, but brings peace, delight, and calmness. Should anyone, seeing herself to be wicked, clearly understand that she deserves to be in Hell, and can scarcely dare ask for mercy, if this be true humility, this grief has a certain sweetness and satisfaction attendant upon it, so that we would not wish to see ourselves without: it does not disturb nor straiten the soul, but rather enlarges her, and disposes her for serving God the more fervently. But the other kind of grief troubles and disorders everything, and quite throws the soul into confusion, and is very painful. I believe the devil tries to make us think we have humility, and at the same time (if he can) to make us distrust God. When you find yourselves in this state, avoid, as much as you can, thinking on your own misery, meditate on the mercy of God, and how He loves you, and how much He suffered for you.

--St. Teresa of Avila, Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer

QUOTATION: Humility

To be taken with love for a soul, God does not look on its greatness, but on the greatness of its humility.

--St. John of the Cross

QUOTATION: Humility

Not by humiliations alone will you obtain humility; but above all by prayer and by attaining to self-knowledge.

--St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Conferences and Instructions

QUOTATION: Jesus' Life of Humility

Jesus Christ, by choosing for himself so humble a birth, so despicable a life, and so ignominious a death, has ennobled and taken away all bitterness from contempt and opprobrium. It is for this that the saints in this world were always so fond and even desirous of being despised; they seemed not to be able to desire or seek for anything but to be despised and trodden underfoot for the love of Jesus Christ.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Incarnation, Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ 

QUOTATION: How to Protect Chastity

Humility is the safeguard of chastity. In the matter of purity, there is no greater danger than not fearing danger.

--St. Philip Neri

QUOTATION: The Humble Person

We can never tell how patient or humble a person is when everything is going well with him. But when those who should co-operate with him do the exact opposite, then we can tell. A man has as much patience and humility as he has then, and no more.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Progress in the Spiritual Life

Do not think you have made any progress unless you esteem yourself inferior to all.

--Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

QUOTATION: Think of What God Has Done for You

Assuredly, nothing so tends to humble us before the compassion of God as the multitude of His gifts to us; just as nothing so tends to humble us before His justice as the multitude of our misdeeds. Let us consider what He has done for us, and what we have done contrary to His will, and as we review our sins in detail, so let us review His grace in the same.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Agreement

The saints were so completely dead to themselves they cared very little whether others agreed with them or not.

--St. Jean Vianney, the Curé of Ars

QUOTATION: Prayer Request

It's surprising, people often request healing from me, but rarely humility or the spirit of faith. And yet they are so important!

--St. Andre Bessette, as quoted in Frère André disait souvent... Recueil de paroles de Frère André rapportées par ses amis.

QUOTATION: Humility and Pride

Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.

--St. Vincent de Paul

QUOTATION: Humilty

There are certain psychological and spiritual conditions which are essential for the discovery of truth, and the most important of these is the virtue of humility. Humility is not a want of moral force; rather humility is recognition of the truth about us. To explore the Truth in all its complexity there must come moments when we confess ignorance, when we frankly admit that we are mistaken or bigoted or prejudiced. These admissions are painful, but they actually enrich character just as much as all approximations to falsehood forfeit it. If we are proud, covetous, conceited, selfish, lustful, constantly wanting our own way, it is far better to come face to face with our own ugliness than live in a fool's paradise.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Way to Inner Peace

QUOTATION: The Humble Person

A humble person, whether he is laughed at or esteemed, or praised, or blamed, whether he is honored or despised, whether people pay attention to him or pass him by, it is all the same to him.

--St. Jean Vianney, the Curé of Ars

QUOTATION: Humility

Humility repulses Satan and preserves us in the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit. For this reason all the saints, and especially the King of Saints and His Mother, ever honored and cherished this virtue above all others.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Christ's Example of Humility

The Heavenly Father says to you: " I have given you My Son in this state of Eucharistic annihilation in order to show you how much He loves you and abases Himself for you. Return to Him what He has done for you. Humble yourself. Espouse His humility which He has not willed to renounce even in His glorified state!

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Humility

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.

--St. Augustine