It is only in opening oneself to God’s truth, in fact, that it is possible to understand and achieve in the concrete reality of both conjugal and family life the truth of men and women as his children, regenerated by Baptism.

- Address, 26 January 2013

And humility is precisely the door to every virtue.

- Address, 13 May 2012

Heaven does not belong to the geography of space, but to the geography of the heart. And the heart of God, during the Holy Night, stooped down to the stable: the humility of God is Heaven. And if we approach this humility, then we touch Heaven. Then the Earth too is made new.

- Homily, 25 December 2007

Christians are called to assume the condition of a "servant", following in Jesus' footsteps, that is, spending their lives for others in a free and disinterested way. It is not the search for power and success but humble self-giving for the good of the Church that must mark our every action and our every word. True Christian greatness, in fact, does not consist in dominating but in serving.

- Homily, 24 November 2007

[S]tudy constitutes a providential opportunity to advance on the journey of faith, because a well-cultivated intelligence opens the heart of man to listen to the voice of God, emphasizing the importance of discernment and humility.

- Address to the Italian Catholic University Federation,

9 November 2007

The way of humility is not the way of renunciation but that of courage. It is not the result of a defeat but the result of a victory of love over selfishness and of grace over sin. In following Christ and imitating Mary, we must have the courage of humility; we must entrust ourselves humbly to the Lord, because only in this way will we be able to become docile instruments in his hands and allow him to do great things in us.

-Homily, 2 September 2007

It was Mary's humility that God appreciated more than anything else in her.

-Homily, 2 September 2007

It is evident that in the end he [Tertullian] lacks simplicity, the humility to belong to the Church, to accept his weaknesses, to be tolerant of others and with himself. When you evaluate your thoughts in terms of your greatness, in the end it is your greatness that is lost. The essential characteristic of a great theologian is the humility to stay with the Church, to accept her and one's own faults, because only God is holy. We, on the other hand, are always in need of forgiveness.

-Wednesday Audience Address, 30 May 2007

Thus, he touches us and we touch him. The humility of God's Incarnation - this is the important step - must be equalled by the humility of our faith, which lays down its self-important pride and bows upon entering the community of Christ's Body; which live with the Church and through her alone can enter into concrete and bodily communion with the living God.

-Homily, 22 April 2007