On poverty of spirit

Let us not seek pleasure or visions.  We are sinners unworthy of spiritual pleasures and visions, unfit for them on account of our decrepitude.  By attentive prayer, let us seek to turn the gaze of our mind to ourselves so that we may discover within ourselves our sinfulness.  When we discover it, let us stand mentally before our Lord Jesus Christ in the company of the lepers, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the paralyzed, the possessed; and let us begin our mournful cry of prayer before Him from the poverty of our spirit and from a heart crushed with sorrow for our sinfulness.