“I have this from the all-holy eyes of God that see the good and the evil everywhere. For those blessed and all-holy eyes have not seen among sinners anyone more vile or insufficient than I am. And so in order to do that wonderful work which He intends to do, He did not find on earth a viler creature, and therefore He chose me, for God had chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God had chosen the base things of the world and the despised to bring to naught the noble and great and strong, so that all excellence in virtue may be from God and not from the creature…” St. Francis of Assisi (12th-13th centuries)
“I have resolved never to hesitate when an opportunity presents itself of humbling myself and of letting people see me as I am and know me as I have been. This will not be difficult if God gives me the grace to remember that the less we are esteemed by men, the more we are esteemed by God, and it is He alone I desire to please.” St. Claude de la Colombiere (17th century)
“O my God, what a great and awful difference is there between what I am and what I ought to be!” Bl. John Henry Newman (19th century)
“How can a soul as imperfect as mine aspire to the possession of the plenitude of Love? O Jesus, my first and only Friend, You Whom I love UNIQUELY, explain this mystery to me! Why do You not reserve these great aspirations for great souls, for the Eagles that soar in the heights? I look upon myself as a weak little bird, with only a light down as a covering. I am not an eagle, but I have only an eagle’s EYES AND HEART. In spite of my extreme littleness I still gaze upon the Divine Sun, the Sun of Love, and my heart feels within it all the aspirations of an eagle…” St. Therese of Lisieux (19th century, Doctor of the Church)
“I prefer simply to recognize, like a true daughter of the Blessed Mother, that Almighty God has done great things for me, and the greatest of all is to make me conscious of my own littleness, my own incapacity.” St. Therese of Lisieux
“God chose the most ignorant one. If there was anyone more ignorant than I am, God would have chosen him instead of me.” St. Andre Bessette (19th-20th centuries)
“And should I be misunderstood, criticized, and judged unfavorably, I will try to rejoice in remembering our divine exemplar, and I will seek to be of no consequence in the esteem of others, I who am in fact so poor and little in the eyes of God.” Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur (19th-20th centuries)
“Pray for poor Father Solanus – who like all poor sinners needs the grace of God to be fully converted.” Ven. Solanus Casey (19th-20th centuries)
“In the fullness of time Jesus has been pleased to call me also to extend His kingdom and to have some share in the work of the apostles. He took me, a country lad, from my home, and with the affection of a loving mother He has given me all I needed. I had nothing to eat and He provided food for me, I had nothing to wear and He clothed me, I had no books to study and He provided those also. At times I forgot Him and He always gently recalled me. If my affection for Him cooled, He warmed me in His breast, at the flame with which His Heart is always burning. His enemies and the enemies of His Church surrounded me, set snares for me, dragged me out into the midst of the world, into the mire and filth, and yet He has preserved me from all ill, He has not allowed the sea to swallow me up…and He still cares for me without respite, day and night, more than a mother cares for her child. Yet after all this, in return for so much tenderness, He asks me anxiously one thing only: My son, do you love Me? Lord, Lord, how can I answer You? See my tears, my throbbing heart, my trembling lips, and the pen that slips away from my fingers…What can I say? ‘Lord, You know that I love You’.” Pope St. John XXIII (19th-20th centuries)
“When my pride, profiting by some moment of inattention, starts to build its castles in the air, and tries to make me soar aloft, I will make it a rule to think of these three places: Gethsemane, the house of Caiaphas, Calvary.” Pope St. John XXIII
“Listen. God made all things. His creation includes the stars and the humblest domestic utensil. I belong to the second category…If I were to attribute to myself what belongs obviously and exclusively to God alone, there could be no other answer: I should have to be either mad or a thief.” St. Pio (19th-20th centuries)