No one of all the children of Adam ever approached the Blessed Virgin Mary in humility. What had she to make her humble? She had no sin or imperfection for which to humble herself before God. Yet the greatest of sinners never humbled himself as did Mary. How was this? It was because no one save she ever recognized her own nothingness in God's sight. This is the surest basis for humility. We are so wanting in humility because we do not recognize our utter insignificance and the absence of any good in us save what is the gift of God.
Thus, it was that, because Mary had a right to the highest place, she always sought the lowest.
This is the law that everywhere prevails. Those who deserve the lowest place seek the highest, and those who deserve the highest seek the lowest. The enemies of God do not like to come down. His friends recognize the lowest place as the place most suitable for them. Am I in this respect one of God's friends or one of His enemies?
Mary's humility was also the result of her desire to be like to her Divine Son in all things. When she saw Him stoop from the highest Heaven to earth, she longed to stoop to the very dust. She placed herself in spirit beneath the feet of all, and would have placed herself lower still if it had been possible. For what humiliation could even Mary endure that was in any way comparable to that of her Son? If Mary, then, is my Queen and Mother, I will seek to imitate her in this. If the Immaculate Mother of God loved to humble herself, how much more should I, who am but a miserable worm of earth?
- text from Humility, Thirty Short Meditations by Father Richard Frederick Clarke, SJ