"The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it. Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying." (St. Vincent de Paul)

Today, as we celebrate the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul, I thought I would share and reflect on this quote from him. One the virtues that is hard for us to practice on daily basis is that of humility. What is humility? It is accepting and living in the truth.  What is pride? It is seeking to be other than we really are. The devil was able to succumb Adam and Eve by enticing them, not to be merely creatures, but to desire equality with God. The devil was not able to sway Jesus from his called as Messiah. Jesus embraced the truth of his mission from the Father and embraced the cross for our salvation.  The devil seeks to draw us slowly from our relationship with God by tempting us to be other than we are or to desire what in reality is not the best for relationship with God. Live in the truth and not in the lie is to be humble and submissive to God.