On Remembering Our Profound Dignity As God's Children:

I often find it difficult to understand my dignity.  Whether we have knowingly consented or not, we often accept that our value lies in our successes, gifts, virtues, and strengths; in the degree to which we are intelligent, productive, good, faithful, beautiful, and strong.  While these things reflect the goodness the Lord has given us and often signifies the presence of the Lord's life within us, they do not dictate our worth.  The truth is that in our mere existence is our dignity.  We are made in the image of God, and Christ has reclaimed for us the inheritance  being God's children.  So I encourage you to meditate on the dignity in being God's son or daughter.  Remember your profound and inalienable dignity - that the Lord made you, unique and unrepeatable.  Never forget the greatness the Lord had in mind when He called you into existence.

“Know yourself, said the Church, that is to say, know your nobility and your dignity, 
understand the greatness of your being and your vocation, of that vocation which 
constitutes your being.  Learn how to see in yourself the spirit, which is a reflection 
of God, made for God. ‘Oh man, scorn not that which is admirable in you! You are 
a poor thing in your own eyes, but I would teach you that in reality you are a great 
thing!...Realize what you are!  Consider your royal dignity! The heavens have not 
been made in God’s image as you have, nor the moon, nor the sun, nor anything 
to be seen in creation… Behold, of all that exists there is nothing that can contain 
your greatness.”   
Henri de Lubac