ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

The Pharisee, we remember was condemned for being an hupocrites, a word that means play-actor, pretender, dissembler. Humility means setting aside the mask…. We present ourselves to others transparently, in all our imperfection and vulnerability. We depend on their goodwill for acceptance and love, not on the success of our efforts at self-promotion. MICHAEL CASEY, OCSO A Guide to Living in the Truth: St. Benedict’s Teaching on Humility  

Vatican II tells us that man is a being in dialogue, someone who does not know who he is until another reveals it to him. For man is that being to whom God speaks. By speaking, God reveals not only his own being to man; in a real way, he also reveals man to himself. SAINT POPE JOHN PAUL II 

Begin by knowing yourself, for it would be futile for you to consider others while neglecting yourself. Even if you are wise, your wisdom is lacking something, if it does not enlighten you about yourself. What does it lack, then? In my view, everything. You could know all the mysteries, have explored the surface of the world, the heights of the heavens and the depths of the sea, if you do not know yourself you are like someone who builds without a foundation; it is a ruin that you build, not an edifice. Everything that you do not construct on yourself as a basis is like a heap of dust that the wind will scatter. The person, therefore, whose wisdom does not extend to himself is not wise. The wise man will be wise about himself, and he will be the first to drink the water of his own well. SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX 

The main aim of all rational creatures, defined by many philosophers as the greatest good, is to become like God. Actually this is not so much a discovery of the philosophers as something derived from Holy Scripture. The book of Genesis illustrates it when it describes the original creation of the human race in the words: ‘God said, “Let us make human beings in our image and likeness.” So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.’ Notice that it says: ‘God created human beings in his image’ and says nothing about likeness. This means that the human race received the dignity of God's image at the beginning of its creation, whereas the perfection of God's likeness is reserved for the end. Human beings must achieve it by imitating God in his works. The possibility of perfection is there right at the beginning by virtue of the image. In the end, human beings will reach perfect likeness by means of their works. T...

The human being, who conforms to the model of the Son, gives glory to God because of having been made by the Father by means of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the whole person is like God and not just a part: the whole person, soul and body, receives the Spirit of the Father. This is the perfect human being. When the Spirit is united with the soul and with the body, then we have the spiritual person, the perfect person, the human being in the image and likeness of God. If, on the contrary, the soul does not have the Spirit, we would have a carnal and imperfect being. Such a person in having been created would be in the image of God, but would have no likeness to him. Likeness to God comes only from the Spirit. IRENAEUS Against Heresies, 5, 6  

In every worthy human endeavor there is an ideal that calls us forth. And there is the reality of the here and now: our very real human weaknesses and struggles. The danger is that we cling to the ideal, not accepting the real, and never settle, or we let go of the ideal and settle for the present “real,” going nowhere—a very stagnant and disheartening way to live. The exciting challenge is to cling to the ideal, letting it ever call us fourth, even as we embrace the real and bring it lovingly and gently toward the ideal. M. BASIL PENNINGTON The Monastic Way

Have patience in persevering in the holy exercise of meditation, and be content to progress in slow steps until you have legs to run and wings with which to fly. Be content to obey; which is never a small thing for the soul who has chosen God as his portion, and resign yourself to be for now a small hive bee able to make honey. Be always humble and loving in front of God and men, because God talks to those whose heart is humble in front of Him, and enriches them with His gifts. SAINT PADRE PIO