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If we hope to find God, the road is sure; we must acquire humility of heart and a simple spirit, remembering that only those who fight gain the victory. Bust courage, we shall not lack grace nor help from the Heart of God who wishes us all to be saints.

Virtue does not consist in apprehensions and feelings of God, however sublime they may be, or in any similar experience. On the contrary, it comprises... deep humility, contempt for themselves and all things. All heavenly visions, revelations, and feelings are not worth as much as the least act of humility. Consequently souls should not look for their happiness in these supernatural apprehensions.

The proud person is like a grain of wheat thrown into water: it swells, it gets big. Expose that grain to the fire: it dries up, it burns. The humble soul is like a grain of wheat thrown into the earth: it descends, it hides itself, it disappears, it dies; but to revive in heaven.

I have understood that the thing that separates me most from God is my pride. I propose to be humble. Without humility the other virtues are hypocrisy. ... Humility gains us similarity to Christ, peace of soul, holiness and intimate union with God.

This is the first and principal benefit caused by this arid and dark night of contemplation: the knowledge of oneself and of one’s misery.

The sorrow which casts us down is the hurt to our self-love...To brood gloomily over our own imperfections paralyzes our soul.

Believe me, in the presence of Infinite Wisdom, ...one act of humility is worth more than all the knowledge of the world.

God stoops down to our nothingness and transforms that nothingness into fire.

I understand very well why St. Peter fell. Poor Peter, he was relying upon himself instead of relying only upon God's strength...Before Peter fell, Our Lord said to him: 'And once you are converted, strengthen your brethren.' This means: Convince them of the weakness of human strength through your own experience.

God refuses only the person who does not admit his own weakness; He sends away only the unhappy proud person. You must "hold him" well and strongly, with a poor spirit, with a poor heart, with a life entirely poor...The life of a soul who seeks true happiness clearly and indisputably depends on this: that those who seek their joy in God are the ones who give joy to God.

Finally, misguided joy in their own works "makes them incapable of taking counsel and of receiving reasonable instructions" about what they ought to do. "Such souls become very slack in charity toward God and neighbor for the self-love contained in their works makes them grow cold in charity."

quoting St. John of the Cross

Many of these beginners will make numerous plans and great resolutions, but since they are not humble and have no distrust of themselves, the more resolves they make the more they break, and the greater becomes their anger.