humility

The Imitation of Christ, Book II, Chapter 2
HUMBLE SUBMISSION
Do not worry about who is for you or who is against you; rather see that God is with you in all that you do. If you have a clear con¬science God will defend you, and whomever God chooses to help no man's malice can harm. If you suffer in calm silence you will, without doubt, experience God's help, and since He alone knows the hour and the manner of your deliverance, place yourself in His hands. Truly, God desires to help you and to rescue you from your troubles. Many a time it is to our benefit if others know our defects and even reproach us because of them for they thus help us remain humble.

2. When a man humbles himself because of his faults, he read¬ily becomes pleasing to others and reconciles himself to those he has offended. God protects and defends the humble man; He loves and comforts him. God favors the humble man, showers His abun¬dant grace upon him, and after he has been brought low raises him up to glory.

To the humble man God reveals His secrets and sweetly draws and invites him to Himself. Even after having accepted his shame the humble man lives in peace, for he relies on God and not on the world's opinion. You will make no progress in the interior life un¬til you regard yourself as lower than everyone else.


Dissension, disunity and bitterness infect and destroy. In humility God saves us. [Anon E. Moose]

Man must breathe humility and reverence for God as ceaselessly as he inhales and exhales the air. [Celtic Christianity]

Humility is the land where God wants us to go and offer sacrifices, even our lives. [Lakota Christianity]