gift of God, as is a high degree of prayer. Our Lord Himself," says St. Teresa, "supplies (acts of humility) in a way very different from that by which we could acquire them by our own poor reflections, which are as nothing in comparison with that real humility arising out of the light Our Lord here gives us1." God Who infinitely desires to give Himself to us will certainly not reject our prayer, if we beg of Him to take away the chief obstacle that is opposed to His action in our souls. Let us often beseech God for that spirit of reverence which is the very root of humility and is one of the most striking characteristics of our Holy Father's spirit: Confige timore tuo carnes meas. Let us beseech Him to show us, in the light of His grace, that He is all and that without Him we are nothing; one ray of Divine light can do more in this way than any reasoning. Humility might be called the practical reflexion of our intercourse with God. A soul that does not frequently enter into contact with God in prayer cannot possess humility in a high degree. If, even once, God gave us to perceive, in the depth of our soul, in the light of His ineffable Presence, something of His greatness, we should be filled with intense reverence for Him; the groundwork of humility would be acquired and we should only have to guard faithfully this ray of Divine light for humility to be developed and kept alive in us.

Let us often give ourselves up to the consideration of the Divine perfections, not in a philosophic manner for the satisfying of the mind, but in a prayer and contemplation. "Believe me, says St. Teresa, “we shall advance more (the Saint is speaking of humility) by contemplating the Divinity than by keeping our eyes fixed on ourselves, poor creatures of earth that we are... I believe we shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavouring to know God, for, beholding His greatness we are struck by our own baseness, His purity shows our foulness 3. This is so true! The consideration of our own misery may produce a passing sense of humility, but the virtue, which is an habitual disposition, does not consist in this; reverence towards God is the one cause that can beget the virtue, and above all render it stable 1.

1. Life by herself. ch. xv, translated from the Spanish by David Lewis. 2. See what we said above, p. 224 on the religious character of Benedictine spirituality. 3. The Interior Castle, first Mansions, ch. 2. Translated by the Benedictines of Stanbrook, p. 10. 4. To keep our soul in the lowliness of humility, it is undoubtedly useful to consider what we are the sight of our misery, our deficiencies, our faults is well calculated to put us in our right place and bring us back to the reality. However the consideration of God and His perfections is a more limpid and fuller source for maintaining our humility. D. Lottin, L'âme du culte, la vertu de religion, p. 43.

We monks find in the liturgy a great means of knowing God's perfections. In the Psalms, which form the groundwork of the Divine Office, the Divine perfections are displayed to the eyes of our soul by the Holy Spirit Himself with incomparable wealth of expression. We are therein at every moment invited to admire God's greatness and plenitude. When we say the Divine Office well, our soul little by little assimilates these sentiments expressed by the Holy Spirit on the perfections of the Infinite Being.

Finally, one of the most important means is the contemplation of the humility of Christ Jesus, and through faith, our union with the dispositions of His Sacred Heart. The great monk Blosius writes, that "this contemplation is the most efficacious means for healing the wounds of pride 1.' Blessed Angela of Foligno says that when she saw the state to which Jesus was reduced as to His Manhood, she had an inkling for the first time of the greatness of her pride 2.

More than once, in the course of the chapter that he consecrates to humility, St. Benedict recalls the example of Jesus Christ he tells us to consider Him that we may find in Him the model of this virtue. Let us then contemplate our Divine Saviour for a few moments. In Him humility was rooted in the reverence that He had for His Father. The soul of Jesus, bathed in heavenly light, saw the Divine perfections in their plenitude, and this sight gave rise to intense and perfect reverence. Isaias says "the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, and you know how Our Lord applied to Himself this passage of the Prophet: Et requiescat super eum Spiritus Domini. But when he comes to speak of fear, the Prophet uses a more powerful expression: Et REPLEBIT eum Spiritus timoris Domini: He shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord 3. this fear that filled the soul of Christ Jesus? terror; for it could not be question of the fear of chastisements Neither was it the fear of offending God: Christ, enjoying the Beatific Vision, was impeccable. What then was this fear? Respect and adoration towards the Divine Majesty. And even now, although the Manhood of Jesus reigns in

What is It was not

1. Nullo alio efficaciori remedio ulceribus superbiae medeberis quam si humilitatem Salvatoris tibi ob oculos animi ponas. Neque enim ipse sine causa dixit: Discite a me quia mitis sum et humilis corde. Canon vitae spiritualis, c. 7. Saint Teresa said the same : (l. c.) " By meditating on His humility we find how very far we are from being humble. See also S. Bernard, In Epiphania, Sermo 1, 7. 2. The Book of Visions, 13, 1, ch. 30. 3. Isa..

X, 2-3.

gloria Patris, His soul remains lost in perfect_reverence. Christ is and remains the great, the only perfect adorer of the Blessed Trinity. His Humanity is that of a God, but this Humanity was created, and as a creature it ever humbled Itself before God in infinite reverence.

It was likewise to expiate our pride and to show us what our humility ought to be, that Christ descended to the lowest depths of humiliation. Christ does not tell us to learn humility from the Apostles, nor from the Angels; no, He tells us to learn it from Himself. In proportion to the height of His Majesty is the depth of His humility. "He gave Himself unto us as an example of humility... when He said Learn of Me for I am meek and humble of heart. ...Look deep down into the depth and usefulness of this doctrine and regard the sublimity and worth of this instruction 1. "

X.

If we frequently contemplate Christ Jesus in His Passion, if we are united to Him by faith, we may be assured that He will make us participate in His humility, His reverence towards His Father, and submission to His Father's Will.

Neither let us forget this profound truth that the Sacred Humanity had its motive power only in the Word to Whom It was united. Its actions were truly Its own because the Human Nature in Jesus was perfect, but their value was derived only from the union of the Humanity with the Word. The Humanity referred to the Divinity the glory of all Its actions which were admirably holy.

It ought to be the same for us in the domain of our spiritual activity. We can do nothing of ourselves; let us humble ourselves in beholding the Divine perfections and penetrate ourselves with reverence. We should next place all our confidence in our union with Jesus Christ through faith and love. In Him, through Him, with Him, we are the children of the Heavenly Father. That is the source of this confidence in which our lowliness finds its counterpart, and without which it would be but imperfect humility and an occasion of discouragement. To imagine that, even with Christ's help, we are incapable of good actions, is to lose sight of the greatness of Jesus' merits; it is to lay open our soul to spiritual distrust and despair which are the fruits of hell. By

1. Bl. Angela of Foligno, L. c., ch. 63, translated by a Secular Priest. All this beautiful chapter should be read.

as of

true humility we have no confidence in ourselves, ourselves" Non quod sufficientes simus cogitare aliquid a nobis QUASI EX NOBIS; our power comes from God Who, naturally and supernaturally, gives us being, life and move. ment: Sed sufficientia nostra ex Deo est... 1 In ipso enim vivimus, movemur et sumus 2. And this power extends to all things, because we have boundless confidence in the merits of our Divine Head, Christ Jesus.

The proud who claim to draw their power from themselves, commit the sin of Lucifer who said: "I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God... I will be like the Most High. "3 Like Lucifer they will be overthrown and cast down into the abyss: Qui se exaltat, humiliabitur. But what do we say? That without Christ,

we can do nothing as He has Himself declared: Sine me nihil potestis facere. We declare that it is through Jesus, with Jesus that we can arrive at holiness and enter into Heaven; we say to Christ: "Master, I am poor, miserable, naked, weak, of this I am daily more and more convinced; if Thou hadst treated me, at certain hours of my life, as I deserved I should be under the feet of devils. But I know too that Thou art ineffably powerful, great, and good; I know that the Father Thou lovest so much hath given all sovereignty into Thy hands. I know that He hath placed in Thee all the treasures of holiness that men may desire; I know that Thou wilt never reject those who come to Thee. Therefore, whilst adoring Thee in the deepest recesses of my soul, I have full confidence in Thy merits and satisfactions; I know that altogether miserable as I am, Thou canst by Thy grace shower Thy riches upon me, uplift me even to the Divinity, that I may be made like unto Thee and may share in Thy Divine Beatitude!"

It is the Father's supreme desire that His Son be glorified: Clarificavi et iterum clarificabo 5. Now, we never glorify Our Lord so much as when we acknowledge by our whole life that He is the sole Fount of every grace. Only true humility can render this homage to God and to Jesus, for humble souls alone feel the need of Christ's merits and have faith in them. Pride and false humility cannot nourish such sentiments. Pride looks for everything from itself; it does not feel the habitual necessity of having recourse to Christ. As to false humility, it declares itself incapable of everything, even in presence of grace; by this it does a wrong to the

2. Act. xvII, 28. 3. Isa. XIV, 13. 4. Luc. XIV, II.

merits of Jesus: it casts down the soul without glorifying God.

Christ Jesus said one day: Ego si exaltatus fuero a terra omnia traham ad meipsum1. When I shall be lifted up from the earth, upon the Cross, My power will be such that I shall be able to lift up to Me those who have faith in Me. Those who looked upon the brazen serpent, in the desert, were healed; thus those who look upon Me with faith and love will be drawn to Me, despite their sins, their wounds and their unworthiness, and I will lift them as high as Heaven. I, Who am God, consented for love of thee to hang upon the Cross as one accursed. In return for this

humiliation I have power to raise with Me even to the heavenly splendours whence I descended, those who believe in Me. I came down from Heaven, I shall ascend thither taking with Me those who hope in My grace. This grace is so powerful that it can unite thee to Me, and unite thee so indissolubly that no one can snatch out of My hands those whom My Father has given Me, those whom I have, through pure mercy, redeemed with My precious Blood 2.

What a perspective full of consolation for the humble soul is that of one day sharing in the exaltation of Jesus, owing to His merits! St. Paul speaks to us in sublime terms of this supreme exaltation of Our Lord, the counterpart of His abasements. "Who being in the form of God emptied Himself... For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth: and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father": Semetipsum exinanivit... propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum3. It is because Jesus humbled Himself to suffer the ignominy of the gibbet that God has exalted His Name to the highest heavens. Sublime is the glory, sovereign is the power which the Man-God enjoys seated at the right hand of the Father in eternal glory. And this incomparable triumph is the fruit of an incommensurable humility.

We here find again the whole teaching of our Holy Father. He too tells us that in order to arrive at that exaltatio caelestis where the soul is absorbed in God, it is necessary to pass through humiliations. Here below, humility leads us from the renouncing of sin to the fulness of charity: Mox ad caritatem perfectam perveniet. In the measure wherein the 1. Joan XII, 32. -2. Cf. Joan. x, 29. 3. Philip, 11, 7 and 9.