Humility often eludes us not only in practice but in our ability to understand it. As always, we have to look to Christ as the standard. What we see revealed in him through the incarnation and in the Paschal mystery opens the door for us to begin to walk this same path.
Understanding comes through experience. We must be shown what humility is and be made humble through experience. So often the self seeks to place itself at the center of existence; and in our spiritual life we begin to lose sight of God. Even in the pursuit of sanctity, we can fail to see the ways that we are lacking purity of heart. We often do not desire God above all things, or make him the beginning and end of all that we do. We may toil but to no end.
Having said this, the stories from the fathers begin to reveal to us the distinctive marks of humility in a man. These stories show us why it is not only the most important virtue but also the most powerful. It overcomes all that is demonic. The more we trust solely in the grace of God, the more we abandon ourselves to his mercy and acknowledge the poverty due to our sin, the more his grace transforms us and acts through us and touches the lives of others. Humility and its perfection goes beyond truthful living or acknowledging the truth about ourselves. It is having eyes only for God. It is living in him and for him in every measure.
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Text of chat during the group:
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XLV, Part III
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXII: On Vainglory, Part III
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XLV, Part II
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXII: On Vainglory, Part II
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XLIV, Part II
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXII: On Vainglory
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XLIII, Part II and Hypothesis XLIV, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XXI: On Unmanly and Puerile Cowardice, Part I
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XLII, Part IV and Hypothesis XLIII, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XX: On Bodily Vigil, Part II
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XLII, Part III
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XX: On Bodily Vigil, Part I
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XLII, Part II
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XIX: On Sleep, Prayer, and Psalmody with the Brotherhood
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XLII, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XVIII: On Insensibility
The Evergetinos - Hypothesis XLI, Part III
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XVI: On Avarice, Part II and Chapter XVII, On Non-Possessiveness, Part I
The Ladder of Divine Ascent - Chapter XV: On Chastity, Part XI and Chapter XVI: On Avarice, Part I
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