3244 Self-knowledge.... Psychological work.... Grace.... Humility....

September 4, 1944: Book 42

The human being is at greatest risk if he indulges in self-satisfaction, if he deems himself psychologically highly developed and does not know himself. For he lacks humility which he, however, will have to demonstrate to God if he wants to receive His grace in order to continue maturing. Only someone who deems himself small will strive to ascend, only someone who feels weak will appeal for strength, and if he humbly approaches the heavenly Father in prayer strength can be given to him.

The human being should constantly work at improving himself and he can only do so if he considers himself imperfect, if he is aware of his faults and weaknesses and tries to discard them. Every step towards perfection must be laboriously fought for, since fighting one's own faults and weaknesses requires fighting against oneself, against one's cravings, one's leaning towards the world, towards material possessions, against one's evil instincts which make it difficult for the soul to release the spirit.

And this battle is an easy one as long as the body still makes demands which impede his psychological maturity. But first of all the human being must recognise himself; he must know what God wants and to what extent his will is still in opposition to God's will; he must know that God requires a complete transformation into love, and he must contemplate what this change into love means.... that no evil thought should arise in the person and thus no evil deed may be carried out, that every movement of the human heart must be virtuous and gentle, that all bad habits should be fought against and that the human being must train himself to become gentle, peaceful, patient, compassionate and humble. He must constantly observe himself, and time and again he will find weaknesses and flaws if he takes his work of improving himself seriously.... he will not be satisfied with himself as long as he lives on earth, for he will not become so perfect on earth that he would have nothing to criticise about himself anymore. He must strive for perfection as long as he lives, and he will only do so as long as he is aware of his imperfection as a result of his stringent self-criticism and as long as he is absolutely determined to take the path of ascent.... And thus he has to remain profoundly humble and consider himself and his work small and even more sincerely request the gift of grace so that God's strength will flow to him and enable him to carry out the work of improving his soul, because God giveth grace to the humble....

Amen

This proclamation is used in the following themebooks:

Themebook	Title	Download
31	Self - denial Part 1	ePub   PDF   Kindle
57	God Gives His Grace to the Humble	ePub   PDF   Kindle

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