Untitled - Saints' Books

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As
308 Material for Instructions. [PART n.
the prayers of the humble. The
himself shall pierce the clouds, . . . and
the Most High behold, 1
prayer of him that humbLeth
he will not depart
till
But, on the other hand, he rejects
the petitions of the proud: He resisteth the proud. He
looks at the proud as from a distance. The Lord . . .
looketh on the low, and the high He knoweth afar off? When
we see a person at a distance, we know him not; thus
God feigns, as it were, not to know nor to hear the
proud when they pray to him. They call upon him, but
he answers: Amen, I say to you, I know you not? In a word,
the proud are hateful to God and to men. Pride, says
Ecclesiasticus, is hateful before God and men." Men are
sometimes compelled by necessity to pay external honor
to the proud; but in their heart they hate them, and
censure them before others. Where pride is, said Solo
mon, there also shall be reproach?
Praising the humility of St. Paul, St. Jerome writes:
the shadow follows him who flies from it, and flies
from him who pursues so it, glory follows them who fly
e
from it, and flies from them who seek it." Our Lord
says: Whosoever shall exalt -himself shall be humbled, and
he that shall humble himself shall be exalted? A priest, for
example, does a good work; he is silent about it, but
as soon as it is known, all praise him. But if he goes
about proclaiming
it to others, in order to receive ap-
1 "
Oratio humiliantis se nubes penetrabit;
. . . et non discedet,
donee Altissimus aspiciat."
Ecclus. xxxv. 21.
2 "
Excelsus Dominus, et humilia respicit; et alta a longe cognoscit."
Ps. cxxxvii. 6.
3 "Amen dico vobis, nescio vos." Matth. xxv. 12.
4 "
5 "
6 "
Odibilis coram Deo est et hominibus superbia." Ecchis. x. 7.
Ubi fuerit superbia, ibi erit et contumelia." Prov. xi. 2.
Fugiendo gloriam, gloriam merebatur, quse virtutem quasi umbra
sequitur, et, appetitores sui deserens, appetit contemptores." Ep. ad
Eustoch.
se humiHaverit.
7
"Qui
autem se exaltaverit, humiliabitur; qui
exaltabitur." Matth. xxiii. 12.