Humility: Meditations For Every Day in the Week - Paperback

by Paul Segneri S. J. (Author)

Humility: Meditations For Every Day in the Week by Fr Paul Segneri, S.J. (Preacher to Pope Innocent XII) Excerpt from Introduction: NO virtue is more suitable to man's nature, than humility: a body formed out of dust, and a soul out of nothing, do but afford very mean matter for aspiring; and yet so it is, that nature never is more sensibly checked than by humility. The antient moralists were so entirely strangers to this virtue, that it was not so much as named amongst them; and though the Son of God came to plant it upon earth, which he carefully performed both by his doctrine and example, watering it with his most precious blood, yet it finds man's heart so stubborn, and improper a soil, that it takes very small root. The deplorable state of sin which we are subject to by nature, and which of itself is a proper argument of humility, has a contrary effect. For though we find ourselves shamefully mastered by the Devil's yoke, which presseth heavily upon us, yet at the same time we are nourishing an inward pride insupportable even in a conqueror. I can imagine nothing to be more the occasion of so unaccountable a behaviour, than the want of being acquainted with our own demerits. We are easily induced to despise others, because we often, and willingly, entertain ourselves with their imperfections. The same method will assist us in not being so very well pleased with ourselves. I put this little treatise into thy hand, devout reader, as a glass which will not flatter thee in that respect, but tell thee sincerely what thou art. A glass gives thee the resemblance of thy outward figure; this will discover thy inward man; and with due attention, prove a means of rectifying thy judgment, and help thee to distinguish betwixt the gold and what has only its appearance. And to speak without metaphor, and what the thing really is. Here thou mayest be fully instructed in the wisdom of the saints, which is a perfect in-sight into thy own nothing: a business certainly of greatest consequence, seeing it has God immediately for a teacher, and upon this account is reduced by divines to that gift of the Holy Ghost called understanding. Thou wilt find that as humility is the foundation of all other virtues, so it is built upon the knowledge of ourselves. In a word; he that is fully possessed with a sense of his own misery, is neither unwillingly dis-esteemed, nor does he repine at the evils which befall him, as knowing them to be his due. It is not to be questioned but God has so great a regard to man's conversion, that he takes his measures from it, in all other occurrences which have a relation to the spiritual good of his soul. An instance whereof is found in the children of Israel, whom he detained in the slavery of Egypt, and afterwards gave them a trial of forty years adventures in the desert, to the end they might be brought up with a more lively idea of their wants, and misery. In the same manner God often appears slow in bringing about a sinner's conversion, suffering him to wander in a repeated circle of vanities, that being thoroughly convinced of his inabilities, he may for the future rely entirely upon God's mercy and assistance. But if in imitation of the incorrigible Jews, the sinner will not be informed of his own nothing; God can make use of a more violent method to make him bend, and bring him to reason, as he usually does find a time to humble those that are proud and refractory. For God has appointed to humble every high mountain, and everlasting rocks, Baruch. 5. v. 7. And to this end he frequently permits sinners to plunge themselves into several miscarriages, especially such as are more scandalous, that as the person in the gospel born blind, had his eyes opened by applying a little earth, so the sinner has his understanding opened by his sordid practices.