How to avoid these dangers

This poison, that is, these dangers, should not keep from politics any of you who have this specific vocation, which is always a professional work. The necessary antidote for this poison lies in the ascetical means available to all God’s children in his Work, who seek sanctity in the middle of the world, in the street. These means are the spirit of poverty, true detachment from temporal goods, and the spirit of humility, detachment from human glory and power. These are the savoury fruits of a contemplative soul in professional activity.

Humility

I insist particularly on the spirit of humility. You know, since I repeat it untiringly, that self-love and pride are much more insidious for the soul than the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes (1 John 2:16), which are dangers much easier to discover and to combat. That is why I ask my children to be vigilant and not allow themselves to be seduced by vainglory, by the fumes of pride that fill the air of public life. See what St Paul tells us: Nemo se seducat. Si quis videtur inter vos sapiens esse in hoc saeculo, stultus fiat ut sit sapiens (1 Cor 3:18). Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.