Because he looked at the humility of his servant

Truly, the Savior of the world has laid sweetness and humility at the base of all the virtues. Abstinence, fasting, austerity, internal or external poverty, good works, miracles, all of these mean nothing without a humble heart. But all these will come to life again and will receive their blessing, if humility sustains them.

The humility of the heart is the generative force of the virtues; the stem and the branches proceed only from the root. Because its price is infinite, because it is the foundation upon which all spiritual perfection rises, the Lord wanted to entrust to Himself alone the care of saying to us: "Be humble."

And because humility is the universal guardian, the Virgin Mary, as if she had forgotten all the other virtues of her body and soul, admired only one thing in herself, and gave only one reason to the incarnation of the Son of God in her: "Because he looked at the humility of his handmaid."

It is for this reason, and not for anything else, that the cry of the generations who have proclaimed her blessed has risen.

Saint Angela of Foligno (d. 1309)

Excerpt from her Book of Visions and Instructions