(from the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, #1306)
O humility, lovely flower, I see how few souls possess you. Is it because you are so beautiful and at the same time so difficult to attain? O yes, it is both the one and the other. Even God takes great pleasure in her. The floodgates of heaven are open to a humble soul, and a sea of graces flows down upon her.
O how beautiful is a humble soul! From her heart, as from a censer, rises a varied and most pleasing fragrance which breaks through the skies and reaches God Himself, filling His Most Sacred Heart with joy. God refuses nothing to such a soul; she is all-powerful and influences the destiny of the whole world. God raises such a soul up to His very throne, and the more she humbles herself, the more God stoops down to her, pursuing her with His graces and accompanying her at every moment with His omnipotence. Such a soul is most deeply united with God.
O humility, strike deep roots in my whole being. O Virgin most pure, but also most humble, help me to attain deep humility. Now I understand why there are so few saints; it is because so few souls are deeply humble.
“The person who does not feel indebted to God remains entangled in restless inclination toward self. But to the heart of the truly humble believer, the Lord reveals His presence, His sovereignty in saving power, His justice in the infinite greatness of His mercy.” –Pope Saint John Paul II
Sirach 10:6-18 (RSV, 2nd Catholic edition)
Do not be angry with your neighbor for any injury, and do not attempt anything by acts of insolence. Arrogance is hateful before the Lord and before men, and injustice is outrageous to both. Sovereignty passes from nation to nation on account of injustice and insolence and wealth.
How can he who is dust and ashes be proud? for even in life his bowels decay. A long illness baffles the physician; the king of today will die tomorrow. For when a man is dead, he will inherit creeping things, and wild beasts, and worms.
The beginning of man’s pride is to depart from the Lord; his heart has forsaken his Maker. For the beginning of pride is sin, and the man who clings to it pours out abominations. Therefore the Lord brought upon them extraordinary afflictions, and destroyed them utterly. The Lord has cast down the thrones of rulers, and has seated the lowly in their place. The Lord has plucked up the roots of the nations, and has planted the humble in their place. The Lord has overthrown the lands of the nations, and has destroyed them to the foundations of the earth. He has removed some of them and destroyed them, and has extinguished the memory of them from the earth.
Pride was not created for men, nor fierce anger for those born of women.
