Abundant Gifts

MOTHER MARIA (GYSI)

I see in humility, and the never-ceasing repentance of what we are perpetrating on the one side of ‘world,’ precisely the unity of mind and heart, or the descending of the mind into the heart, as an attitude. I intensely reject the idea of any esoteric side to the Christian or to the monastic life. What is esoteric (or made so, to sound interesting) must be unchristian and anti-Gospel; and there is never a sign of it in our liturgical texts, which, I think, must be our first guide after the New Testament. They shape us unawares and uncramped, and we must not force ourselves beyond that. The most important things are given us, where we least expect them; and they are, perhaps, if we could see, all the while most abundantly there where we feel ourselves shut out.

December 16^th, 1974

A cancer never leaves one. It has entered one’s soul and every day is an extra gift. I find it a peaceful condition, because it keeps one’s soul on the watchtower, where it anyway wants to be, and so is an immense help for life.

Mother Maria: Her Life in Letters (pp. 56,59)
Edited by Sister Thekla

Together with Others

ST. BASIL THE GREAT

…..I know perfectly well that I stand more in need of the help of each of the brethren than one hand does of the other. Indeed, from our bodily constitution, the Lord had taught us the necessity of fellowship. When I look to these my limbs and see that no one of them is self-sufficient, how can I reckon myself competent to discharge the duties of life? One foot could not walk securely without the support of the other; one eye could not see well, were it not for the alliance of the other and for its being able to look at objects in conjunction with it. Hearing is more exact through both channels, and the grasp is made firmer by the fellowship of the fingers. In a word, of all that is done by nature and by the will, I see nothing done without the concord of fellow forces. Even prayer, when it is not a united one, loses its natural strength and the Lord has told us that he will be in the midst where two or three call on him in concord…..

Social Thought (pp.121,122)
by Peter C. Phan

A Broken Resolution

ST. MACARIUS OF OPTINO

And do not agitate yourself over your resolution to read a litany daily at a fixed hour: this resolution which, you say, you now find impossible to carry out. To your question, “When it has been quite impossible to do so at the appointed hour, may I read it later, while knitting and minding the children?” I answer: No! this would be quite wrong. Our pledges are not debts owed to a harsh master who wants them carried out to the letter and cares for little else. The Lord does not wish to enslave us. He wants us free.

When you really cannot carry out a resolution, make penance, thinking of yourself as a humbled debtor. If you then refrain from the temptation of feeling agitated, it will be of greater profit than halfhearted mumblings followed by self-satisfaction and the pride of having kept your pledge in spite of all difficulties.

[…..] And so your good intentions have been frustrated by forces entirely outside your control. In the hard days to come, keep constantly in mind that God knows well how firm was your resolution, how keen your eagerness to act; and He may record your intention as having the value of an accomplished fact. He is particularly likely to do so if your humility remains quick, if it does not wither under the winds of adversity. Remember, too, that your careful tending of your humility can alone bring you consolation and peace.

Russian Letters of Direction (pp. 38,39,42)
Translated by Iulia de Beausobre

Taking a Step toward Humility

ST. BENEDICT OF NURSIA

The Value of Humility

The Word of God in scripture teaches us in clear and resounding terms that anyone who lays claim to a high position will be brought low and anyone who is modest in self-appraisal will be lifted up. This is Christ’s teaching about the guest who took the first place at the kin’s banquet: All who exalt themselves, he said, will be humbled and all who humble themselves will be exalted. He taught us by these words that whenever one of us is raised to a position of prominence, there is always an element of pride involved. The psalmist shows his concern to avoid this when he says: There is no pride in my heart, O Lord, nor arrogance in the look of my eyes; I have not aspired to a role too great for me nor to the glamour of pretensions that are beyond me. We should be wary of such pride. And why does he say this? It is because lack of humility calls for correction and so the psalm goes on: If I failed to keep a modest spirit and raised my ambitions too high, then your correction would come down on me as though I were nothing but a newly weaned child on its mother’s lap.

[…..] The first step of humility is to cherish at all times the sense of awe with which we should ever turn to God. It should drive all forgetfulness away; it should keep our minds alive to all God’s guidance and commandments; it should make us reflect in our hearts again and again that those who despise God and reject his love prepare for themselves that irreversible spiritual death which is meant by hell, just as eternal life is prepared for those who fear God.

Saint Benedict’s Rule (pp. 66, 67)
Translated by Patrick Barry, OSB

Almsgiving and Vainglory

ST. JOHN THE ALMSGIVER

My sons and brethren, do be cast down at all by this mishap to the ships. For believe me, humble John is found to be the cause of it, For had I not been high-minded, I should not have met with this misfortune. But because I had lofty plans with regard to the things that are God’s and thought I was doing great things by distributing what belonged to men, this has fallen upon me, and God allowed this to happen to bring me to my senses. For almsgiving often exalts the mind and makes the foolish man haughty, whereas an unexpected calamity humbles him who patiently endures it. The Holy Scripture says: “Poverty humbleth a man,” and again David, recognizing this truth, said: “It is good for me that Thou hast humbled me that I might learn Thy statutes.”

Thus I was the cause of two misfortunes, firstly, I lost the wherewithal to make distribution through vain glory; secondly, such large sums of money have been lost through my fault that now I have to bear the blame for the persons in distress. However, beloved, God is the same now was He was in the times of Job, the righteous, and not because of my poverty, but because of the need of those in want He will not desert us. He Himself has said, “I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake the;” and again, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Three Byzantine Saints (p. 230)
Translated by Elizabeth Dawes and Norman H. Baynes

Ten Signs of Humility

ST. JOHN CASSIAN

And humility is attested by these signs: First of all if a man has all his desires mortified; secondly, if he conceals none of his actions or even of his thoughts from his superior; thirdly, if he puts no trust in his own opinion, but all in the judgment of his superior, and listens eagerly and willingly to his directions; fourthly, if he maintains in everything obedience and gentleness and constant patience; fifthly, if he not only hurts nobody else, but also is not annoyed or vexed at wrongs done to himself; sixthly, if he does nothing and ventures on nothing to which he is not urged by the Common Rule or by the example of our elders; seventhly, if he is contented with the lowest possible position, and considers himself as a bad workman and unworthy in the case of everything enjoined to him; eighthly, if he does not only outwardly profess with his lips that he is inferior to all, but really believes it in the inmost thoughts of his heart; ninthly, if he governs his tongue, and is not over talkative; tenthly, if he is not easily moved or too ready to laugh.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
Volume XI, The Institutes of the Cenobia (p. 232)
Philip Schaff, D.D., L.L.D. and Henry Wace, D.D.

Turn Humbly to God

ST. NIL SORSKY

But when you are deemed worthy of the presence of God’s gift of grace, you should not become careless, that is, you should not give in to complacency nor become puffed up. Rather, you should turn humbly to God and give thanks to him and remember your sins, which you have committed by his permission. Recall how you have fallen so low then and how animal-like was your unthinking mind. Meditate on the depraved condition of your nature. Ponder upon the impure thoughts and disgusting fruits which gripped your soul when it was frozen without the warmth of God’s grace. Imagine that time of torturous and disordered movement which overtook you, not so very long ago when you lay in such blindness. Recall how quickly and suddenly you bowed down before your passions as you took delight in them only to heap more burdens upon yourself in the darkened state of your mind. And remember all of this as you weep and reproach yourself.

Consider this, that God’s divine providence brings all this upon us in order that we may be humbled. See what blessed Gregory of Sinai teaches about this purpose: “Until a person will have experienced having been utterly defeated and conquered, until he has been deeply wounded by every kind of passion and temptation, even if he does not receive evil wounds inflicted upon his soul as he does not find any help in the actions he performs nor any help from God or from any other creature, so that he is driven to the condition of despair, only then can he have true repentance and be humbled to consider himself lower than all others, since he regards himself as the least slave before all others and the worst of even the devils themselves. Only then can he realize that he was beset and conquered by them.”

And so divine providence arranges this for the purpose of instructing a person in humility. After such an experience there always follows a second and greater gift from God. God elevates the individual by giving to the humbled person the divine power to act and accomplish in him all things, even to perform miracles as he realizes he is God’s instrument.

Nil Sorsky: The Complete Writings (pp. 66,67)
Edited and translated by George A. Maloney, S.J.

Understanding, but Not Speaking Humbly

ST. GREGORY THE GREAT

Chapter XVII

How the rude in sacred learning, and those who are learned but not humble, are to be admonished.

(Admonition 25.) Differently to be admonished are those who do not understand aright the words of the sacred Law, and those who understand them indeed aright, but speak them not humbly. For those who understand not aright the words of sacred Law are to be admonished to consider that they turn for themselves a most wholesome draught of wine into a cup of poison, and with a medicinal knife inflict on themselves a mortal would, when they destroy in themselves what was sound by that whereby they ought, to their health, to have cut away what was diseased. They are to be admonished to consider that Holy Scripture is set as a kind of lantern for us in the night of the present life, the words whereof when they understand not aright, from light they get darkness. But in truth a perverse bent of mind would not hurry them to understand it wrong, did not pride first puff them up. For, while they think themselves wise beyond all others, they scorn to follow others to things better understood: and, in order to extort for themselves from the unskillful multitude a name for knowledge, they strive mightily both to upset the right views of others and to confirm their own perverse views.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
Volume XII, The Book of Pastoral Rule (p. 51)
Philip Schaff, D.D., L.L.D. and Henry Wace, D.D.

Because of Humility

ABBA MACARIUS THE GREAT

11.) When Abba Macarius was returning from the marsh to his cell one day carrying some palm-leaves, he met the devil on the road with a scythe. The latter struck at him as much as he pleased, but in vain, and he said to him, “What is your power, Macarius, that makes me powerless against you? All that you do, I do, too; you fast, so do I; you keep vigil, and I do not sleep at all; in one thing only do you beat me.” Abba Macarius asked what that was. He said, “Your humility. Because of that I can do nothing against you.”

12.) Some Fathers questioned Abba Macarius the Egyptian, “Why is it that whether you eat, or whether you fast, your body is always emaciated?” The old man said to them, “The little bit of wood that is used to poke the vine-branches when they are burning ends by being entirely burnt up by the fire; in the same way, man purifies his soul in the fear of God, and the fear of God burns up his body.”

14.) It was said of Abba Macarius the Egyptian that one day when he was going up from Scetis with a load of baskets, he sat down, overcome with weariness and began to say to himself, “My God, you know very well that I cannot go any further,” and immediately he found himself at the river.

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (pp. 109.110)
Translated by Benedicta Ward SLG

The Humble and the Haughty

ST. GREGORY THE GREAT

Chapter XVII

How the humble and the haughty are to be admonished.

(Admonition 18.) Let the humble, then, be told that, when they abase themselves, they ascent to the likeness of God; let the haughty be told that, when they exalt themselves, they fall into imitation of the apostate angel. What, then, is more debased than haughtiness, which, while it stretches itself above itself, is lengthened out beyond the stature of true loftiness? And what is more sublime than humility, which, while it depresses itself to the lowest, conjoins itself to its Maker who remains above the highest? There is, however, another thing in these cases that ought to be carefully considered; that some are often deceived by a false show of humility, while some are beguiled by ignorance of their own haughtiness. For commonly some who think themselves humble have an admixture of fear, such as is not due to men; while an assertion of free speech commonly goes with the haughty. And when any vices require to be rebuked, the former hold their peace out of fear, and yet esteem themselves as being silent out of humility; the latter speak in the impatience of haughtiness, and yet believe themselves to be speaking in the freedom of uprightness. Those the fault of timidity under a show of humility keeps back from rebuking what is wrong; these the unbridled impetuosity of pride, under the image of freedom, impels to rebuke things they ought not, or to rebuke them more than they ought. Whence both the haughty are to be admonished not to be free more than is becoming, and the humble are to be admonished not to be more submissive than is right; lest either the former turn the defence of righteousness into a display of pride, or the latter, while they study more than needs to submit themselves to men, be driven even to pay respect to their vices.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
Volume XII, The Book of Pastoral Rule (p. 41)
Philip Schaff, D.D., L.L.D. and Henry Wace, D.D.