A collection of scriptural meditations from Saints and Fathers of the Church.

The virtue opposed to pride is humility. But as far as pride is loathsome and abominable, so welcome and lovely is humility to God and men. God Who is great and exalted looks on nothing so lovely as on an humble and compunctionate heart. Whence even the Most Holy Theotokos says of herself, For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden. (Luke 1:48).

Not one of us can boast of having acquired humility: our actions, the whole of our life, prove the contrary. And where there is a lack of humility, pride is always present. Where light is wanting, darkness reigns.

A certain elder was asked when one attains humility. 'When he remembers his sins continuously,' he replied.

He, in whose heart humility and meekness are reborn, will find true rest for his soul. He will be satisfied with everything, grateful for everything, peaceful and full of love for everybody. He will judge none and will feel no anger. His heart will be filled with divine sweetness, that is, he will feel in himself the Kingdom of God because God grants His grace only to the humble.

He who seeks glory from men travels by the path of pride, but he who seeks glory from God travels by the path of humility.

It seems to me that, in all cases when indignity is offered to us, we should be silent; for it is our moment of profit.

If we are humble, God helps us to fight our sinfulness; if we are proud, He does not.

Without humility no other virtue is possible, for if man does not fulfill virtue in a spirit of humility, he will inevitably fall into God-opposing pride, and will fall away from God’s mercy.

Where there is pride there cannot be grace, and if we lose grace we also lose both love of God and assurance in prayer. The soul is then tormented by evil thoughts and does not understand that she must humble herself and love her enemies, for there is no other way to please God.

The conscience is nature's book. He who applies what he reads there experiences God's help.

All human misfortunes and all un-Christian acts spring from pride; all good comes from humility.

Humility has such power that it inclines even the hard of heart. For God, the lover of humility, works through the humble.

Let us have recourse to humility on all occasions; for the humble lie prone on the ground, and how can a man fall if he lies on the ground? But a man who stands on a height can easily fall.

As with the appearance of light, darkness retreats; so, at the fragrance of humility, all anger and bitterness vanishes.

For everyone who prays to God, ‘Lord, give me humility’ ought to know what he is asking for, viz. that God send him someone to mistreat him. And when he is insulted by someone, he ought to disparage himself and despise his own opinion so that when the other man humiliates him outwardly, he too humiliates himself inwardly.

When you humble yourself, everyone will seem saintly to you; when you are proud, everyone will seem bothersome and bad.

When it is needful that a person be humbled, then not only the Superior, the sisters, strangers and near ones, but even all creation, according to the words of St. Isaac the Syrian, will rise up against that person.

If the humbling of oneself before men is needful that one might be exalted before God, and temporal toil is the prerequisite of immortal life, what does it matter if some shake their heads and laugh at your self-abasement?

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