Humility

Let us be humble and seek nothing but the glory of God. Our life of silent and hidden self-surrender should be a constant expression of humility. Humility is the foundation of our life, the means and condition for our effectiveness. Pride and vanity might make attractive to us the vocation of a Chinese lantern that shines and sparkles for everyone to admire, but which, in reality, lasts only one night and then goes out, leaving no trace behind.

Rather, you should seek to burn away somewhere in a corner, like those sanctuary lamps that accompany the tabernacle in the half-light of an oratory, effective in God’s eyes. Without making a show of it, try also to accompany the people around you – your friends, your colleagues, your relatives, your brothers or sisters in the Work! Accompany them with your example, your teaching, your work, your serenity, your cheerfulness.

Personal and collective humility

Vita vestra est abscondita cum Christo in Deo:¹⁰ live your life facing God, not facing men. That has always been and will always be the ambition of the Work: to live without human glory. And do not forget that at the outset I would have been pleased if the Work did not even have a name, so that its history would be known only to God. But since we hate secrecy and always work within a country’s laws, we could not go without a name.

Each of you should also have this aspiration, my children: to pass unnoticed, to imitate Christ, who lived in obscurity for thirty years as the carpenter’s son (Matt 13:55). Imitate Mary, who, though being the Mother of God, liked to call herself his slave: ecce ancilla Domini.¹¹