Humility

“…humility is to love the Lord Jesus, to continue to implore Him for mercy and for love, even in the face of what can appear to be His lack of love! And doesn’t it feel that way sometimes? Something terrible happens or we fear it might happen, and we pray and pray and pray, and yet it seems like He’s ignoring us. And we keep praying, and we see Him answering other people’s prayers and blessing other people. And sometimes fellow Christians treat us badly. And when we feel like we can’t take it anymore, something bad happens, and it feels like our supposedly loving God is insulting us and inflicting even more pain upon us. It makes no sense. At that point, people can lose faith. People can get angry with God or with the church community. Where was He in my pain? Where were they when I needed them most? But it is only when we love God, no matter what we experience, even if it feels like He is ignoring us or even mistreating us, it is only then that we can hear from Him…” (Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick)

“Why is humility so hard for us? It’s hard because this humbling of ourselves, of our souls, is not what we are used to. We are used to being in control, or at least somewhat in control. We are not used to trusting God for what we don’t see, don’t understand. We are used to rights and privileges and opportunities. We are not used to the constraint that all humble people experience. We are used to our own will, not to “Thy will be done.” (Fr. Michael Gillis)

“Unfortunately, many people mistake shame for humility. Accordingly, they may imagine that humility means thinking poorly of themselves. In reality, humility does not involve thinking poorly of ourselves; rather, it involves hardly thinking of ourselves at all. Humility is primarily about being a servant to those around us, putting the needs of others above our own…True humility, on the other hand, values the person God created: the self that is uniquely you, the self that God loves regardless of what you achieve and regardless of how other people think of you. A humble person is not demolished or shocked by his sin, because he knows that sin does not destroy his worth in the eyes of God.” (Robin Phillips)

“When our spiritual eyes gain the clarity to see that that is how we all stand before Christ, we will stop trying to impress Him with illusions of how religious or moral we are; we will also give up condemning others for not measuring up to standards we ourselves do not meet. We will no longer focus on ourselves at all, but will instead open our hearts to Christ in humility such that His compassion will extend to others through us.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)

“The perfection of the Christian life consists in extreme humility. Humility is a Divine attribute, too. Where humility reigns, whether it be within a family or in society as a whole, it always radiates Divine peace and joy…The devil’s greatest enemy is none other than humility.” (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica, St. Paisios the Athonite)

#FrAndrewStephenDamick #FrMichaelGillis #RobinPhillips #FrPhilipLeMasters #ElderThaddeusofVitovnica #StPaisiostheAthonite