The practice of Humility - 2

Develop a profound awareness of your nothingness and make this grow constantly in your heart, despite and in contempt of the pride prevailing in you. Be intimately convinced that there is no more vain and ridiculous thing in the world than the desire to be esteemed for some gifts you have borrowed from the Creator; he has lent them to you gratuitously and generously.  As the Apostle says, “If you have received them, why are you boasting as if they were your own?” (1 Cor 4:7).

J. Pecci (later Pope Leo XIII)