In the word of blessed Gregory: “Gathering virtues without humility is like carrying dust in the wind.” Pride is the beginning of all sin, and equally, humility is the foundation of all virtue.
You must refer all good to God and none to yourself, remembering that it is not you own power and the strength of your own hand that has obtained for you this wealth – for he made us, and not we ourselves. This realization totally destroys such pride as would claim: “Our own hand won the victory, the Lord has nothing to do with it.” Such was the pride that shut Lucifer out from the glory of heaven. Disregarding the knowledge that he came from nothingness, concentrating instead on his own beauty and splendor, and seeing that every precious stone was his covering, he was exalted by the pride of his heart. And since humiliation follows the proud, he was immediately hurled from the throne of his glory. Whether in angel or in man, only humility is pleasing to God.
Saint Bonaventure –
+1274. Doctor of the Church.
