Humility Without Confidence Is False Virtue

I. The Privation: Days of Tears and the Cry to the Withdrawn God

“After going through several days of privation and of tears, I found myself all confused and annihilated within myself. In my interior I kept saying, continuously: ‘Tell Me, O my Good, why have You moved away from me? Where have I offended You, that You no longer make Yourself seen — and if You show Yourself, You are almost concealed, and silent? O please, do not make me wait and wait any longer, for my heart cannot take any more!’”

II. Annihilation and the Hidden Return

“Finally, Jesus showed Himself a little more clearly, and in seeing me so annihilated, He told me…”

III. The Divine Delight in Humility

“If you knew how much I like humility…”

IV. The Littlest Plant Whose Branches Reach Heaven

“Humility is the littlest plant that can be found, but its branches are so high as to reach Heaven…”

V. The Branches Around the Throne and Into the Heart

“…wind their way around my throne, and penetrate deep into my Heart.”

VI. No True Humility Without Confidence

“the branches which this plant produces, are confidence; so, there cannot be true humility without confidence.”

VII. Humility Without Confidence Is False Virtue

“Humility without confidence is false virtue.”

1st-pass framing carried into this movement: the original analysis read the “false virtue” as fear masquerading as humility — discouragement functioning as disguised pride, a refusal to trust the Master’s generosity; this is why confidence, not deeper self-abasement, is its cure.

Correspondences

Hogan cites it, and at least one pass identified it independently.

Matthew 11:28–30 — Hogan directs the reader to “Matthew, chapter 11, verses 28 to 30” at the humility passage; the 1st pass reached the same text via Matthew 11:29 (Christ meek and lowly) and the 2nd pass via the full invitation. All three converge on this as the load-bearing Christological anchor: humility is a participation in Christ’s own disposition, and his invitation grounds the soul’s confidence.

The privation as a state of soul is a further correspondence: Hogan names it the recurring central cross, and both passes filled the same experience with the lament tradition — Psalm 88:14, Psalm 13:1–2, and Isaiah 45:15 in common.

Deviations

Same concept, different passages.

For the plant / humility-exalted image, Hogan anchors on Matthew 11:28–30 (the Christological ground — humility reaches Heaven because it is conformed to the humble Christ), while the passes reach the growth-and-exaltation tradition: Matthew 13:31–32; Ezekiel 17:22–24; Daniel 4:10–12 (1st) and Isaiah 57:15; 66:2; James 4:6/4:10; Luke 1:48–52; Luke 18:14 (union). Both dimensions are genuinely present and mutually enriching.

For the nothingness concept, the independent passes carry self-emptying and the nothing/all dialectic (Galatians 2:20; John 3:30; John 15:5; Philippians 4:13); Hogan carries the creation-from-nothing register — the soul’s nothingness out of which God “creates a wonderful new thing” — with implicit background Romans 4:17 and 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Additions — Mine

A pass identified it and Hogan did not cite it.

• Psalm 88:14 — the lament without consolation, matching privation-as-state (both passes)
• Psalm 13:1–2 — the “how long” of the hidden face (both passes)
• Isaiah 45:15 — the Deus absconditus; hiddenness as a mode of the Savior (both passes)
• Psalm 42:1–3 — thirst and tears in desolation (1st pass)
• Lamentations 3:1–8 — the prophetic register of darkness and blocked paths (1st pass)
• John 20:11–13 — Magdalene weeping where the beloved should be (1st pass)
• Psalm 69:1–3 — the exhaustion of extended desolation (1st pass)
• Jeremiah 20:9 — the prophet worn by the love he cannot relinquish (1st pass)
• 1 Kings 19:4 — Elijah at the limit; consolation arriving at the extreme (1st pass)
• Song of Songs 5:6; 3:1; 3:4 — the Bridegroom concealed and silent; the seeking and partial finding (2nd pass)
• Job 13:24 — the hidden face read as accusation (2nd pass)
• Galatians 2:20; John 3:30 — annihilation as the lawful decrease of the self (2nd pass)
• Isaiah 66:2 — the God who looks upon the humble (both passes)
• James 4:6 — grace to the humble, resistance to the proud (1st pass)
• Isaiah 57:15; James 4:10; Luke 1:48–52; Luke 18:14 — the law of the lowly exalted (2nd pass)
• Matthew 13:31–32 — the mustard seed; smallest-becomes-greatest (both passes)
• Ezekiel 17:22–24; Daniel 4:10–12 — the sprig-to-cedar and cosmic-tree types (1st pass)
• Hebrews 4:16 — confident approach to the throne of grace (both passes)
• Revelation 4:2–4 — the throne as the center of creation (1st pass)
• Song of Songs 2:6 — the bridal embrace; penetrating the divine Heart (1st pass)
• Hebrews 10:19, 22; Ephesians 3:12 — confidence grounded in the blood of Christ, not self (both passes)
• 1 John 3:21–22 — confidence from a conscience at peace (1st pass)
• John 15:5; Philippians 4:13 — the nothing/all dialectic of humility and confidence (1st pass, from notes)
• 2 Corinthians 3:4–5 — confidence grounded in self-insufficiency (2nd pass)
• 1 John 5:14 — confidence tied to asking according to the divine will (2nd pass)
• Matthew 25:24–25; Romans 8:15; 2 Timothy 1:7 — fear masquerading as humility; the false virtue (1st pass)
• Psalm 42:5; Hebrews 12:3 — the cast-down/fainthearted soul and the remedy of hope (2nd pass)

Additions — Hers

Hogan names it, and neither pass identified it independently.

The privation as participation in the pains of purgatory and even of hell — “both pains are the pain of the loss of God” — is Hogan’s distinctive gloss, with implicit background Matthew 27:46 (the cry of dereliction) and Colossians 1:24 for her point that the privation is finally used “for the good of souls.”

The creation-out-of-nothing development — the higher volumes ask the soul to acknowledge her literal nothingness, out of which God “creates a wonderful new thing in us and through us” — with implicit background Romans 4:17, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and 2 Corinthians 4:6.

The structural observation that Volumes 1–4 are the foundations of the whole mystical journey, situating this entry as foundational rather than incidental. (Not a scriptural citation; a developmental frame.)

VIP / Special Designations

Hogan uses no formal “very important message” language, but applies strong elevating emphasis twice. She marks humility and confidence for retention — “write down the two words… you’re going to hear an awful lot more about them” — and designates the privation as Luisa’s “biggest cross,” greater than all her agreed sufferings. Both are flagged as emphatic designation short of a formal VIP marking.

Prefatory Note

This entry marks a shift in register from the March sequence. The preceding entries moved outward — chastisements, social disorder, the divine Heart’s grief over rebellion. April 3 turns inward with precision: the soul herself, in desolation, receiving a teaching addressed directly to her condition. It is simultaneously diagnostic and therapeutic — Jesus identifies what is wrong (annihilation sliding toward discouragement) and provides the specific remedy (the inseparability of humility and confidence). It is also, as Hogan notes, foundational: Volumes 1–4 lay the ground for everything that follows, and the teaching planted here will deepen across all thirty-six volumes into the Luisian doctrine of acknowledged nothingness as the precondition of divine operation.

The Privation: Days of Tears and the Cry to the Withdrawn God

“After going through several days of privation and of tears, I found myself all confused and annihilated within myself… ‘Tell Me, O my Good, why have You moved away from me?… O please, do not make me wait and wait any longer, for my heart cannot take any more!’”

The experience of divine withdrawal belongs to one of Scripture’s deepest traditions — the soul that loves God, stripped of consolation, pressing the absent beloved for explanation. The 1st pass anchors this in the desolation tradition: Psalm 42:1–3 (“my tears have been my food day and night… where is your God?”) for the thirst and tears of genuine love; Lamentations 3:1–8 for the prophetic register of blocked paths and darkness without light; and John 20:11–13, Magdalene weeping where the beloved should be, finding only absence and not yet recognizing the presence already near. The 2nd pass adds the spousal seeking of the Song of Songs: the Bridegroom “almost concealed, and silent” is the beloved of Song 5:6 who gives no answer, sought through the night in Song 3:1 — the absence felt by love rather than by mere petition.

The direct address — “why have You moved away? Where have I offended You?” — is the Psalmic speech-act of wounded love, not doubt. Both passes converge on Psalm 13:1–2 (“how long, O Lord?… how long will you hide your face from me?”) and Psalm 88:14, the only lament that ends without consolation, the 2nd pass reading it as fitting the privation as an enduring state. The 2nd pass adds Job 13:24 (“why do you hide your face, and count me as your enemy?”), the soul’s instinct to read the hidden face as a verdict — an instinct the entry corrects. Isaiah 45:15 names the theological truth both passes identify: “truly you are a God who hides himself… the Savior” — divine hiddenness is a mode of presence, not its absence, though this knowledge does not dissolve the pain from within.

The soul at the limit — “my heart cannot take any more” — has, in the 1st pass, precise parallels in the great intercessors: Psalm 69:1–3 (the waters to the neck, the parched throat of extended desolation), Jeremiah 20:9 (the fire shut in the bones, the prophet worn out by the love he cannot relinquish), and most directly 1 Kings 19:4, Elijah under the broom tree at the extreme limit — the precise point at which divine consolation characteristically arrives. Jesus’s appearing “a little more clearly” follows this pattern exactly; the 2nd pass reads the same return through Song 3:4, the beloved found just past the seeking.

Hogan’s most important contextual observation belongs here: what Luisa calls “the privation” is not an occasional difficulty but the defining cross she will carry across all thirty-six volumes — the pain of God’s apparent withdrawal that Jesus will disclose in the higher volumes as the experience of purgatory and sometimes hell, both being the pain of the loss of God (implicit Matthew 27:46), which she will learn to use for the good of souls (implicit Colossians 1:24). Without this context the opening reads as general spiritual dryness; with it, it is the first appearance of the specific wound that shapes Luisa’s whole mystical life, and the teaching that follows is its specific remedy.

Annihilation and the Hidden Return

Luisa “annihilated within myself” is, in the 2nd pass’s reading, the self reduced toward the nothing in which God works — Galatians 2:20 and John 3:30 giving the decrease its lawful direction. The annihilation is not destruction but the clearing in which Christ’s life becomes the soul’s life. This prepares the entry’s forward movement toward Hogan’s nothingness theme, taken up in the developmental arc below.

The Divine Delight in Humility

“If you knew how much I like humility…”

The divine delight in humility runs from the prophets through the Gospels to the apostolic letters. Isaiah 66:2 (“the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit”) gives the prophetic form — God’s gaze resting specifically on the humble — which the 2nd pass links to the entry’s spatial image: the low plant’s branches wind around the throne because the One enthroned inclines toward lowliness. James 4:6 (“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble,” 1st pass) gives the apostolic form; the 2nd pass extends the exaltation register through James 4:10, Isaiah 57:15, Luke 1:48–52 (the Magnificat’s low estate exalted), and Luke 18:14 (the publican humbled-then-exalted). Hogan’s citation of Matthew 11:28–30 — reached by the 1st pass through Matthew 11:29 — gives the Christological ground that is the entry’s most important single anchor: “I am gentle and lowly in heart.” Humility is not merely a virtue acquired from outside but a participation in Christ’s own interior disposition; the soul who is humble is conformed to the One already humble, and this is why humility reaches Heaven. The branches wind around the throne not because humility is powerful in itself but because it is shaped like the One who sits on the throne.

The Littlest Plant Whose Branches Reach Heaven

“Humility is the littlest plant that can be found, but its branches are so high as to reach Heaven, wind their way around my throne, and penetrate deep into my Heart.”

The governing image is the smallest plant producing branches that reach Heaven and penetrate the divine Heart. The mustard seed of Matthew 13:31–32, identified by both passes, gives the growth paradox: the smallest thing produces the greatest reach. The 1st pass deepens this with two prophetic types — Ezekiel 17:22–24, the tender sprig become a noble cedar in which every bird nests (the humble thing exalted by divine action), and Daniel 4:10–12, the cosmic tree reaching heaven and visible to the ends of the earth — giving the image its eschatological and cosmological depth: humility is the creature in its proper place, which is also the place from which it reaches highest.

The branches winding around the throne and into the Heart are the most intimate movement. Hebrews 4:16 (“draw near with confidence to the throne of grace”), identified by both passes, gives the warrant: the confidence humility produces is what brings the soul to the throne’s mercy. The 1st pass adds the bridal Song of Songs 2:6 (“his right hand embraces me”) for the penetrating of the divine Heart — the soul drawn into the embrace, not merely approaching from outside — and Revelation 4:2–4 for the throne as the center of all creation. The branches do not force their way in; they are drawn in by the gravity of humility, which is the shape of love God cannot resist.

No True Humility Without Confidence

“the branches which this plant produces, are confidence; so, there cannot be true humility without confidence. Humility without confidence is false virtue.”

This is the entry’s central doctrinal claim: the branches of the humility-plant are confidence — not separate virtues but a single organic reality, each requiring the other. Humility without confidence produces not virtue but its counterfeit; confidence without humility produces not boldness but presumption. The inseparability is grounded Christologically, both passes converging on Hebrews 10:19–22 (“confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus”) — confidence grounded in Christ’s blood rather than the soul’s merit, so it is not in tension with humility — and Ephesians 3:12 (boldness through Christ, not from the self). The 1st pass adds 1 John 3:21–22 (confidence flowing from a conscience at peace, itself a fruit of humility) and names the pair’s dialectic in the original notes as John 15:5 (“nothing apart from him”) and Philippians 4:13 (“all things through him”). The 2nd pass grounds the same hinge in 2 Corinthians 3:4–5 (“our competence is from God”) — confidence resting on the acknowledgment of insufficiency, the two as one act — and binds it to the divine will through 1 John 5:14 (confidence to ask “according to his will”), tying the teaching to the fiat at the center of Luisa’s framework.

The identification of humility without confidence as false virtue — counterfeit, not merely incomplete — receives its sharpest illumination from the 1st pass’s Matthew 25:24–25: the servant who buried his talent “because I was afraid” is rebuked, not praised; what looks like humility (“I knew you to be a hard man… I was afraid”) is a failure of trust in the Master’s generosity, self-abasement covering a refusal of relationship. Romans 8:15 (the spirit of fear as regression to slavery, against the Spirit of adoption crying “Abba”) and 2 Timothy 1:7 (“a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control”) complete the diagnosis: fear masquerading as humility is disordered at its root — discouragement functioning as disguised pride. The 2nd pass renders the corrective concretely: Luisa’s heart “a little discouraged” is the cast-down soul of Psalm 42:5, healed not by deeper self-abasement but by hope, the fainting against which Hebrews 12:3 warns.

The Developmental Arc — Nothingness as Precondition

Hogan’s developmental observation is the synthesis of the entry’s forward movement. The humility-confidence teaching is foundational — Volumes 1–4 lay the ground — but it will deepen into the doctrine of acknowledged nothingness: Jesus will ask not merely for humility but for the soul to “throw herself into her nothingness” so that he can create something new in and through her (implicit Romans 4:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17). This is the same teaching pressed to its ontological limit — if humility is the soul rightly knowing its smallness, acknowledged nothingness is the soul rightly knowing it is of itself nothing, and finding in that nothing the space into which the Divine Will pours itself without resistance. The fiat is made possible by this emptying: the creature thrown into her nothingness has no competing agenda, no self-will to interpose. This entry is the earliest root of the nothingness doctrine formally opened in Volume 3 (Nothingness as Structural Protection, August 3, 1900).