Humility is not only sweet and pleasant to others; it is beautiful in itself. Humility is the primary means to attain a likeness to God since His image in us cannot be perfect as long as there is any vestige of pride present in our hearts. When humility has driven out the opposing vice, we then become indeed like to God. We share the Divine beauty and are the object of the admiration of the holy Angels, and even of God Himself, who then speaks to the soul in the words of the Divine Lover in the Canticles, "Thou art all fair, my beloved, and there is no spot in thee."
Humility is also beautiful because it is the root whence all other virtues spring. We may say of it that it has in itself the combined beauty of all. If we find a man humble, we know that he must needs be patient, charitable, unselfish, generous, obedient, and we cannot help admiring and loving him.
Might not my deficiency in these virtues be due to my lack of humility? O my God, plant this most indispensable and most attractive virtue firmly in my heart!
Nothing will so quickly render us conformed to the Divine beauty of the Son of God as humility. "Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart." If we desire to draw men to us and to attract them, to be efficient in moving their hearts and influencing them for good, we must first learn this lesson of humility from Him whose Soul was beautiful beyond that of all the sons of men, because none had humility like His.
- text from Humility, Thirty Short Meditations by Father Richard Frederick Clarke, SJ