Contents

5 Virtues Study Guide

Leadership and Humility

Umiltà

La Virtù dell’Umiltà

Humility

The Vincentian Virtues

On Humility

Excerpt from Robert P. Maloney, CM to the General Assembly of the Congregation of the Mission, July 13, 1998

Our service of the poor will be all the more effective to the extent that we can channel our energies, which are huge, into collaborative projects. I use the word col-laborate purposely. Each of us here has a missionary vocation, the lay women, the lay men, the sisters, the priests, the brothers ) each of us. In our family there must be no rivalries, there must be no clerical domination. We must be simple, humble servants of the poor. That is why humility is so important in our Vincentian tradition. “It is the foundation of all evangelical perfection,” St. Vincent said. “It is the core of the spiritual life.” Humility is the great collaborative virtue. It never seeks to dominate. The humble person looks for God’s gifts wherever they lie, receives those gifts, as a steward, and hands them on to the poor.