Contemplation #4
This reading is taken from The Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). In this work Aquinas responds to a series of questions. This is not easy to read, and you will need to move through his thoughts slowly and carefully to understand what he is saying. You may devote several days to this until you feel that you have mastered his teaching. We will take part of his answer to the following question:

Whether one ought, by humility, to subject oneself to all men?
We may consider two things in man, namely that which is God's, and that which is man's. Whatever pertains to defect is man's: but whatever pertains to man's welfare and perfection is God's, according to the saying of Hosea 13:9, "Destruction is thy own, O Israel; thy help is only in Me." Now humility, as stated above properly regards the reverence whereby man is subject to God. Wherefore every man, in respect of that which is his own, ought to subject himself to every neighbor, in respect of that which the latter has of God's: but humility does not require a man to subject what he has of God's to that which may seem to be God's in another. For those who have a share of God's gifts know that they have them, according to 1 Cor. 2:12: "That we may know the things that are given us from God." Wherefore without prejudice to humility they may set the gifts they have received from God above those that others appear to have received from Him; thus the Apostle says (Eph. 3:5): "(The mystery of Christ) was not known to the sons of men as it is now revealed to His holy apostles." In like manner. humility does not require a man to subject that which he has of his own to that which his neighbor has of man's: otherwise each one would have to esteem himself a greater sinner than anyone else: whereas the Apostle says without prejudice to humility (Gal. 2:15): "We by nature are Jews, and not of the Gentiles, sinners." Nevertheless a man may esteem his neighbor to have some good which he lacks himself, or himself to have some evil which another has not: by reason of which, he may subject himself to him with humility.

We must not only revere God in Himself, but also that which is His in each one, although not with the same measure of reverence as we revere God. Wherefore we should subject ourselves with humility to all our neighbors for God's sake, according to 1 Pt. 2:13, "Be ye subject . . . to every human creature for God's sake";

Contemplation #5
For this contemplation you ought to think about the following questions, and may add other questions you may have come upon. You may decide to take one question a day, or more if you choose.
1. How is pride manifest in my daily life of activities, my perception of myself in my opinion of myself, and in my relationships with others?
2. In what ways is God’s Spirit convicting me to abandon my pride and seek true humility?
3. How will humility be formed in me? By what means will God do this work?

Contemplation #6
There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. . . There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.

The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility . . . According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, book 3, chapter 8 – “The Great Sin.”