Two Hundred and Fourth Subject. Meekness and Its Marks

Brother Philippe, Subjects for Particular Examen, 1870, pp. 328–329

The servant of the Lord must not wrangle, but be mild towards all men, apt to teach, patient.—II. TIM. ii. 24.
Meekness is the effect of a patience entirely religious, of a profound humility, and of a continual mortification of our passions. It banishes from the heart all coldness, indifference, feelings of hatred, desires of vengeance, injurious complaints, offensive words.
They, who possess this virtue, repress every movement of anger, betray no sign of impatience or passion; they pay no attention to those shadows and suspicions which engender spite and chagrin, and which carry into the heart gall and bitterness. They do not abandon themselves to coldness, neither to aversion; they use not rough and stinging replies, still less reproaches and menaces; they grant pardon easily, and are reconciled without trouble; they avoid with care all kinds of troubles and disputes, defer willingly to the opinions of others, and never contradict, unless obliged to, and even then, they do so with the greatest mildness.
Whatever antipathy and opposition they feel for certain persons, they always give them a good reception, and never rebuff them. Is it thus that we act towards our brothers, and towards all those with whom we have intercourse?
Do we not abandon ourselves often to impatience, to bitterness, to resentments, to harshness in our words?
Are we not offended at the least thing, and are we not prompt to wound others?
To encourage ourselves to the practice of meekness, let us consider that, Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land; and let us put in practice this counsel of the Holy Spirit: My son, keep thy soul in meekness.—ECCLES. x.
Pause.
ACT OF CONTRITION.—O my God! how many faults I have committed against my neighbor, by my impatience, by my sharp and mortifying words. A little meekness would have spared me all these miseries, would have won for me the hearts of those with whom I have had intercourse, and, above all, would have rendered me agreeable in Thine eyes, for it is written: He will guide the mild in judgment, He will teach the meek in His ways. Pardon me the past, and grant me the grace to do better in future; I ask it of Thee by the merits of Jesus Christ and by the intercession of Mary.
I make the resolution to......