examination of the heart 508 MEDITATION XI ON RELIGIOUS HUMILITY 1. Consider that humility is a peculiar and, in a certain way, natural virtue of any Religious. As the instruction of our holy Father248 teaches you, it stands out as the most important thing, both of your religious vocation and of your perfection. Now concentrate your mind upon its exercise. 1) Remember, therefore, that characteristic of humility is to truly and not fictitiously believe oneself to be inferior and more despicable than all creatures; and on the contrary, wanting to be placed above all is characteristic of pride. 2) The marks of a humble spirit are: engaging in rather commonplace tasks; being content with things spurned by others; shunning from recognition; avoiding self-praise or attributing praise solely to God; wishing to be spurned. You should never want it to be recognized that you accomplish something out of humility nor to be considered humble; instead, you should rather endeavor to have ascribed to a divine arrangement, and not to your humility, all things that the others believe you have said or done out of humility. 3) In short: humility consists in an open, honest, genuine, and sincere spirit, and in similar actions [f.167r]. For humility (as a certain Doctor teaches on the basis of the observation and revelation of St. Teresa) is nothing other than the truth.249 For, if out 248 The words: “our holy Father” probably referred to St. Joseph Calasanz (d. 1648), whose cause of beatification had been initially considered in 1650 and was introduced in 1667 in part with the help of Fr. Papczyński (cf. Positio, pp. 72-74). It is no wonder that Stanislaus, once a Piarist, had a great affection for the Order of Pious Schools and retained calling St. Joseph Calasanz “our” Founder. St. Joseph Calasanz gave to those in formation this Instruction on the necessity of humility for progress in religious perfection, in his letter dated June 13, 1648 to Fr. John Dominic Franchi. Cf. Giuseppe Calasanzio, Epistolario di San Giuseppe Calasanzio, Ed. Leodegario Picanyol, SP, vol. VIII, Editiones Calasanctianæ, Roma 1955, p. 434 (n. 4557). [Hereafter Epistolario di San Giuseppe Calasanzio will be abbreviated as EGC.] 249 St. Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, in: CWTA, vol. 2. ICS Publications, Washington, DC, 1980, 2012, p. 420 (6th Mansion: Ch. 10, § 7): “Once I was pon-
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