More on humility

I was hoping to quote from the passage from The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis, which I read in the breviary this morning, which was mainly focused on practical applications of humility. But my online source instead has the reading for the memorial of St. Lucy. This reading from St. Ambrose is also excellent, though, for the Advent season and for all who are seeking Christ, even though it comes from a book on virginity.

Whoever seeks Christ in this way, and finds him, can say: I held him fast, and I will not let him go before I bring him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me. What is this “house,” this “room,” but the deep and secret places of your heart?
Maintain this house, sweep out its secret recesses until it becomes immaculate and rises as a spiritual temple for a holy priesthood, firmly secured by Christ, the cornerstone, so that the Holy Spirit may dwell in it.
Whoever seeks Christ in this way, whoever prays to Christ in this way, is not abandoned by him; on the contrary, Christ comes again and again to visit such a person, for he is with us until the end of the world.

I find myself doing housekeeping of this sort during this Advent season, repenting of and renouncing those thought patterns that turn me inward toward myself rather than toward Christ.

I'm going to have to write about the passage from The Imitation of Christ later. Stuff in there really resonated with me, but I don't want to misquote it.