“Humility is the joyful-sad self-humiliation of the soul before God and people by the grace of the Holy Trinity… The humble are wonderfully softened of the heart, have a warm soul and warmth of love for all people, without exception, by some gift from above.” All the holy fathers revere humility as the basis of all virtues. When it is necessary to assess the spiritual height of a person, it is necessary, first of all, to assess the degree of his humility. Usually, by the presence of humility, monks distinguish great ascetics - who they are: saints or are in delusion. Our contemporary Archimandrite John Krestyankin said: “Sometimes a person does not want to see other people's sins, this is a good righteous state, but this is not yet humility. Humility is when a person cannot see the sins of others. He sees his own too much, he sees God too much in front of him. When the Egyptian ascetic Sisoy the Great was dying, he said: “The Angels have come to take me, and I ask that they allow me to repent a little.” The elders say to him: "You have no need to repent, father." He said: “Truly, I don’t know about myself whether I initiated repentance”
Holy Fathers on Humility
“Let no one consider himself righteous more than another, but everyone look at himself as the worst of all, “for everyone who ascends will humble himself, and he who humbles himself will ascend” (Luke 14, 11) Ancient monastic statutes
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt.)
“As soon as a person humbles himself, humility immediately sets him on the eve of the Kingdom of Heaven” St. Ambrose Optinsky
“If you want to be humble, then don’t be meek with one and bold with another, but be meek with everyone, be it friend or foe, great or small.” St. John Chrysostom
“God Himself heals the proud. This means that inner sorrows (with which pride heals) are sent from God, but the proud will not suffer from people. And he who is humble will bear everything from people. And everyone will say: worthy of everything. Ambrose Optinsky
“The humble seeks deliverance from passions and salvation, while the proud one “is curious about fate.” Humility, contained only in words, is the birth of pride, and gives birth to its own vanity. Barsanuphius the Great and John
“Be careful and don’t trust everyone. Caution and meekness are the best adornment.” St. Anatoly Optinsky
“He is great before God who humbly yields to his neighbor, and God exalts the humble, and God humbles the proud and obstinate” St. Joseph Optinsky
“The foundation of the monastic life is humility. If there is humility, everything is there; if there is no humility, there is nothing. It is possible even without any deeds to be saved by mere humility.” St. Barsanuphius of Optina
“Who enters into battle and desires to win, let him, as in armor, put on glorious armor - humility” St. Ephraim Sirin
Saint Isaac the Syrian calls humility the robe of the Divine, for the Word, having become incarnate, clothed itself in it.
“Humility is the garment of God” St. Ephraim Sirin
“Pride is destroyed and humility is acquired by silence. God said to Isaiah, “To whom shall I look? Only on meek and silent and trembling my words (Is. 66:2) Ask God to prolong your years. You can't do this without difficulty. By silence, great sins are conquered" St. Seraphim of Sarov
“When a person tries to have a humble heart and keep his thought in the world, then all the intrigues of the enemy are ineffective; for where the world of thoughts is, there God Himself rests: in the world, it is said, is His place (Ps. 75:3) ”St. Seraphim of Sarov
“Humility-obedience is the root of all passions and the planters of all virtues. Be patient, humble yourself - you will find paradise in yourself.” Optina Flower Garden
“Learn to be meek and silent and you will be loved by all” St. Anatoly Senior Optinsky
“Humility is an inextinguishable, God-pleasing candle. If monastics do not have humility and repentance, then they will not be saved, but will perish. Gabriel (Urgebadze)
“You live incorrectly as much as you can, try to improve and, most of all, humble yourself before God and before people. Humility will complete our malfunction.” St. Ambrose Optinsky
“And yet there is one truth: holy humility is the most salutary medicine. Humble yourself in everything, and, without any doubt, you will definitely achieve perfect or almost perfect freedom from passions ”Ephraim the Holy Mountaineer
“Condemnation of neighbors and touchiness are in no way compatible with humility. If we condemn others or are offended when we are offended by something, then we have no humility at all. Nikon (Vorobiev)
“Wrap yourself up in humility: then, if the sky clings to the earth, it will not be terrible” St. Ambrose Optinsky
"Love humility, and it will cover all your sins."
"If anyone reproaches you innocently for any sin, humble yourself and you will receive a crown."
"Be humble in everything, in posture, in clothes, in sitting, in standing, in walking, in the cell and in all its accessories" St. Anthony the Great
“Love work - submit yourself to everyone, keep your mouth closed - and you will acquire humility. True humility delivers to a person the forgiveness of all his sins ” Wise thoughts of the holy fathers of our days
“Let the following be a sign of humility and pride for you: the second despises everyone, reproaches and sees blackness in them, and the first sees only his own thinness and does not dare to judge anyone” St. Macarius
“Remember most of all that humility can save even without deeds, but deeds, no matter how great they are, will not save.”
"The Lord allows weakness and laziness to our humility, so that they do not boast, but always remain in a sense of repentance, and this is the most reliable state - constant contrition of the heart" Optina Flower Garden
"I tell you: the most the best remedy- find humility. This is what it is: to endure any pain that pierces a proud heart. And wait day and night for mercy from the All-Merciful Savior. Whoever waits like that will certainly receive… The main thing is that you don’t understand that this pain, this most bitter, sharp sting that pricks the sensitivity of the heart, is the real source of God’s mercies and humility. Anatoly Senior Optinsky
“If a person is not trampled under foot like a trampled cockle, then he cannot become a monk.” Brother Zacharias
“Be friends with the following things: work, poverty, wandering, bitterness of the flesh and silence, for humility is born from them, and humility brings forgiveness of all sin.” Abba Isaiah
“Don't ask too much of yourself. It is better to humble yourself before God. Open yourself to Him with all the filthiness and, like a leper, say: "Lord, if you want, you can cleanse me." Don't give God a deadline for this. Do what is necessary according to your strength, and the Lord will do everything necessary for your salvation. Just don't give up on God. Do not succumb to the suggestions of the enemy that it is useless to work, that everything is lost, etc. This is the work of the devil, the eternal slanderer of God and of everyone. Nikon (Vorobiev)
"The humble has all the virtues."
"God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
“Humble yourself, and the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven will open for you.”
“Humility and chastity prepares the betrothal pledge to the Most Holy Trinity…”
“Do not judge and do not be offended by people. Whatever they do to you, don't hate anyone. Everyone acts according to how he is learned, what character he has. Few have kindness and reasoning" Elder Jerome of Aegina
Saint Basil the Great:
Rev. Abba Isaiah:
Saint John Chrysostom:
Rev. Isaac the Syrian:
Saint John of the Ladder:
Rev. Abba Dorotheos:
Saint Anthony the Great:
Saint Anthony the Great:
Abba Aloniy:
Rev. Abba Isaiah:
Abba Joseph:
Saint Macarius the Great:
Abba Silouan:
Abba Strategius:
Tales from the life of the elders:
Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov):
Saint Gregory of Sinai:
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:
Saint John Cassian the Roman:
Venerable Saint Basil the Great:
In everything that we do good, the soul must attribute the causes of success to God, not in the least thinking that it succeeded in something good by its own strength, for such disposition usually gives rise to humility of wisdom in us.
Rev. Abba Isaiah:
Teach your tongue to pronounce words that serve the world, and humility will instill in you.
Saint John Chrysostom:
It is impossible to become humble otherwise than by love for the Divine and contempt for the present.
Saint John Cassian the Roman:
Humility cannot be acquired without poverty (that is, without the rejection of the world, all riches and unnecessary things, without non-acquisitiveness). Without it, it is by no means possible to acquire either readiness for obedience, or the strength of patience, or the calmness of meekness, or the perfection of love, without which our heart cannot at all be the habitation of the Holy Spirit.
Rev. Isaac the Syrian:
Belittle yourself in everything before all people, and you will be exalted above the princes of this world.
To the extent that a person multiplies his prayers, to that extent the heart humbles itself.
Saint John of the Ladder:
The path to humility is obedience and rightness of heart, which naturally resists being lifted up.
Rev. Abba Dorotheos:
Everyone who prays to God: "Lord, give me humility" should know that he is asking God to send him someone who will offend him. So, when someone offends him, he himself must annoy himself and humiliate himself mentally, so that at the time when another humbles him from the outside, he himself humbles himself inwardly.
Saint Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer:
In order to acquire humility, try to lovingly accept all kinds of displeasures and sorrows, like your own sisters, and in every possible way avoid glory and honors, wishing more to be humiliated by everyone and unknown to anyone and not to receive help and comfort from anyone except God alone. Affirm in your heart, convinced of its beneficence, such a thought that God is your only good and your only refuge, and everything else is only thorns, which, if you put them in your heart, cause deadly harm. If it happens to you to suffer shame from someone, do not grieve about it, but endure it with joy, in the confidence that then God is with you. And do not desire any other honor and do not look for anything else than to suffer for the love of God and for that which serves to His greatest glory. (64, 260).
Saint Anthony the Great:
Be ready to answer every word you hear: "Forgive me," because humility destroys all the machinations of enemies.
Love work, poverty, wandering, suffering and silence, because they will make you humble. For humility, all sins are forgiven.
My son! First of all, impute nothing to yourself; from this comes humility.
Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov):
It is about not recognizing any virtue and dignity. The recognition of one's virtues and virtues is a pernicious self-delusion, called ... opinion. Opinion alienates people infected by it from the Redeemer.
Saint Anthony the Great:
Do not envy the one who succeeds through falsity, but consider all people above yourself, and God Himself will be with you.
Dishonored, do not hate the one who has dishonored, say to yourself: I am worthy to be showered with dishonor by all the brethren.
Being in the company of the brethren, keep silence. If you need to tell them anything, say it meekly and humbly.
Love dishonor more than honors, love bodily labors more than calming the body, love damage in the acquisitions of this world more than gain.
Keep humility in everything: in appearance, in clothes, in sitting, standing, walking, lying down, in the cell and in its accessories. Throughout your life, adopt the custom of poverty. Do not be conceited either in speeches or in praises and hymns offered to God. When it happens to be with your neighbor, let your words not be dissolved by cunning, deceit and deceit.
Know that humility means that you consider all people better than you and that you are convinced in your soul that you are the most burdened with sins. Keep your head down, and let your tongue always be ready to say to the one who reproaches you: "Forgive me." Let death be the subject of your constant contemplation.
Abba Aloniy:
Once the elders were sitting at a meal, and Abba Aloniy stood before them and served them. The elders praised him for this. He didn't answer. One of them asked him: "Why didn't you answer the elders when they praised you?" Abba Aloniy said: "If I answered them, it would mean that I accepted the praise."
Alexander, Patriarch of Antioch:
Once the deacon of the patriarch began to reproach him in front of all the clergy. The blessed one bowed to him, saying: "Forgive me, my lord and brother."
Rev. Abba Isaiah:
The main thing we should look for is that we humble ourselves before the brethren.
Whoever considers himself as nothing, admits his ignorance, shows by this that he is trying to fulfill the will of God, and not his passionate desires.
Do not rely on yourself: everything good that happens in you is a consequence of the mercy and power of God. Do not exalt yourself in your faith, but remain in fear until your last breath. Do not be arrogant, recognizing your life as worthy of approval, because your enemies are still standing before your face. Do not rely on yourself while you are wandering in earthly life, until you have passed through the dark airy powers.
Abba Joseph:
If you want to find peace in this and the Future Age, then at any time say to yourself: "Who am I?" and don't judge anyone.
Saint Macarius the Great:
Perfection is delivered by the fact that we do not condemn anyone in the slightest, but we condemn only ourselves, and that we undergo vexations (insults).
Abba Silouan:
Love the humility of Christ and try to keep the attention of the mind during prayer. Wherever you are, do not show yourself witty and instructive, but be humble and wise, and God will grant you compunction.
Abba Strategius:
Let us not love praise and let us not blame ourselves.
Sayings of the nameless elders:
If you are in charge of the brethren, then watch over yourself, lest, while commanding them, do not lift your heart above them. Only outwardly show power, but in your soul consider yourself a slave who is the worst of all.
Those who patiently endure contempt, dishonor, and loss can be saved.
Who, humbly, says: "Forgive me," he scorches the demons - tempters.
Tales from the life of the elders:
If you get sick and ask someone for the right thing, but he does not give, then do not grieve for him in your heart, on the contrary, say: if I were worthy to receive. God would have put it in my brother's heart, and he would have given it to me.
Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov):
The brother asked Abba Kronius: "How does a man achieve humility?" The elder answered: "Fear of God." The brother again asked, "How does a man come into the fear of God?" The elder answered: “In my opinion, one must renounce everything, take on bodily labors and keep the memory of the exodus of the soul from the body.” Abba Krony. With such a memory of death, bodily achievement acquires the meaning of actively expressed, and therefore very effective, repentance.
Saint Gregory of Sinai:
There are seven mutually conditioned deeds and dispositions that lead and direct towards God-given humility: silence, humble thoughts about oneself, humble words, humble attire, contrition, self-abasement and the desire to see oneself as the last in everything. Silence gives rise to humble thoughts about yourself. Three kinds of humility are born from humble thoughts about oneself: humble words, humble and poor clothes, and self-abasement. These three types give birth to contrition, which comes from allowing temptations and is called providential... Contrition easily makes the soul feel below everyone, the very last, surpassed by all. These two types bring perfect and God-given humility, which is called the power and perfection of virtues. It is this that ascribes good deeds to God... Humility comes like this: when a person, left to himself, is defeated and enslaved by every passion and thought, and, defeated by an enemy spirit, does not find help either from works, or from God, or from anything else and is already ready to fall into despair, then he humbles himself in everything, laments, begins to consider himself worse and lower than everyone else, even worse than the demons themselves, as subject to their power and conquered by them. This is what providential humility is...
Saint Demetrius of Rostov:
Think humbly, speak humbly, think humbly, do everything humbly, so that you will not be stumbled in all your ways. Remember where the flesh and soul came from. Who created them and where will they go again? - Look at yourself from the outside and you will see that you are all - decay. Look inside and know that everything in you is vain; without the grace of the Lord, you are nothing but a dry stick, a barren tree, withered grass, fit only for burning, worn out clothes, a barrel of sins, a container of filth and animal passions, a vessel filled with all kinds of iniquity. You have nothing good from yourself, nothing pleasing, only sin and transgression: none of you, taking care, can “add even one cubit to your height” (Matt. 6:27) and make not a single hair white or black.
However, be humble, not recklessly, but humbly be wise in your mind, not wordlessly humble yourself before any recklessness, so as not to become like a dumb animal. For humility, like everything else, is accepted with reason, but rejected without reason. And dumb animals are often humble, but not in the mind, and therefore they are not worthy of any praise. But you are humble in your mind, so as not to be deceived and ridiculed by the enemy.
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:
You need to consider yourself more sinful than everyone else. Do not despise anyone, do not condemn anyone, but always listen to yourself. Avoid fame and honor, and if it is impossible to avoid, mourn for it. Courageously endure contempt. Treat people kindly; to be voluntarily obedient not only to the higher, but also to the lower. Consider all your affairs obscene. Despise praise. Without the need not to speak, and then peacefully and meekly ... This is a low path, but it leads to the high Fatherland - Heaven. If you want to reach this Fatherland, go this way.
How to seek humility? Briefly stated here. One must try to know oneself, one's poverty, weakness and wretchedness, and more often examine this weakness with the eyes of the soul. Think about the greatness of God and your own sinfulness, about the humility of Christ: both His love for us and His humility for us are so great that it is impossible to understand even with the mind. Meditate diligently on what the holy gospel has to offer you. Do not look at what you have good, but what you still do not have. Remember past sins... The good that you have done, attribute to God and thank Him, and not accept it for your own.
Through temptation the proud is brought to humility.
Temptation is allowed by God for humility.
Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov):
Whoever wants to acquire humility must carefully fulfill all the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ. The doer of the Gospel commandments can come to the knowledge of his own sinfulness and the sinfulness of all mankind...
In the rejection of justification, in blaming oneself and in asking for forgiveness in all those cases in which in ... worldly life one resorts to justifications ... lies the great mysterious purchase of humility.
Do not labor over the analysis of who is right and who is to blame - you or your neighbor, try to blame yourself and maintain peace with your neighbor through humility.
The Lord forbade vengeance, which was established by the Mosaic Law and which for evil was repaid with equal evil. The weapon given by the Lord against evil is humility.
Do you want to acquire humility? Fulfill the Gospel commandments, together with them ... (you will gain) holy humility, that is, the property of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Deep and accurate knowledge of the fall of man is very important for the ascetic of Christ; only from this knowledge, as if from hell itself, can he prayerfully, in true contrition of spirit, cry out to the Lord.
Humbleness means realizing one's fall, one's sinfulness, due to which a person has become an outcast being, devoid of any dignity.
Let us honor ourselves with hell, so that God will honor us with Heaven.
Submit your mind to Christ. When the mind submits to Christ, it will not justify itself or the heart.
Demanding immutability and infallibility from oneself is an unrealizable demand in this passing age! Immutability and infallibility are characteristic of man in the Age to Come, and here we must generously endure the infirmities of our neighbors and our own infirmities.
Changeability (ours) teaches us self-knowledge, humility, teaches us to resort unceasingly to God's help...
The remembrance of death accompanies the humble wise man on the path of earthly life, instructs him to act on earth for eternity, and... his very actions inspire him with special beneficence.
The Gospel commandments teach the monk humility, and the cross perfects him in humility.
Saint John Cassian the Roman:
I will present one example of humility, which was shown not by a beginner, but by a perfect and abbot. And hearing about it, not only the young, but also the elders can be more jealous of perfect humility. In one large Egyptian hostel, not far from the city of Panefis, there was an abba and presbyter Pinufius, whom everyone respected for his years, good life and priesthood. Seeing that with universal respect for him, he could not exercise in the longed-for humility and obedience, he secretly withdrew to the extreme limits of the Thebaid. There, having formed a monastic image and dressed in secular clothes, he came to the kennel of the Taven monks, knowing that it was the strictest of all and that due to the remoteness of the country, the vastness of the monastery and the multitude of brethren, he could easily remain unrecognized here. Here, staying at the gate for a very long time and bowing at the feet of all the brethren, he begged to be accepted into the number of novices. Finally, he was received with great contempt, thinking that he, already a very old man, had spent his whole life in the world, and now he decided to enter a monastery at an advanced age, when he could no longer grovel for his pleasures. It was said that he went to the monastery not out of a sense of piety, but in order to have food; and as incapable of hard work, he was appointed to guard the garden and placed under the supervision of one of the younger brothers. Here he practiced the longed-for humility and obeyed his steward with such zeal that he not only diligently looked after the garden, but also did in general all the things that seemed difficult or low to everyone, or which they were afraid to undertake. Moreover, he did a lot at night and secretly, so that they did not know who did it. Thus he hid for three years from his former brothers, who were looking for him throughout Egypt. Finally, one person who came to the Taven monastery was barely able to recognize him by his humiliated appearance and the low position that he held ... The one who came, seeing the elder, did not immediately recognize him, and then fell at his feet. By this, he perplexed everyone... But everyone was even more amazed when the name of the elder was revealed, which they also had in great glory. When all the brethren began to ask him for forgiveness... he wept that, due to the envy of the devil, he had lost the opportunity to practice humility and end his life in obedience... somehow he didn't run away.
Reverend Abba Dorotheos:
One holy elder, to whom, during his illness, his brother poured linseed oil, which was very harmful to him, instead of honey, did not say anything to his brother, and ate silently both the first and the second time. He did not in the least reproach the brother who served him, did not say that he was negligent, did not sadden him with any word. When the brother found out that he had confused butter with honey, he began to mourn: "I killed you, abba, and you laid this sin on me by keeping silent." To this, the elder answered with great meekness: "Do not grieve, child, if it were God's will for me to eat honey, you would pour honey for me."
What is the essence of humility?
"God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5)
« Love humility and it will cover all your sins»
Rev. Anthony the Great
St. Dimitri Rostovsky
Elder Paisius Svyatogorets (1924-1994):
“Humility has great power. From humility, the devil crumbles to dust. It is the strongest shock blow to the devil. Where there is humility, there is no place for the devil. And if there is no place for the devil, therefore, there are no temptations.
Whatever we do, humility, love, nobility are necessary. It's so simple - we complicate our spiritual life ourselves. Let us, as far as possible, complicate the life of the devil and make life easier for man. Difficult for the devil and easy for a man is love and humility. Even a weak, sickly person who does not have the strength for asceticism can defeat the devil with humility. A person can turn into an angel or a tangalashka in one minute. How? Humility or pride. Did it take a long time for Dennitsa to turn from an angel into a devil? His fall happened in a few moments. Most easy way salvation is love and humility.
Therefore, we need to start with love and humility, and only then move on to the rest.” 
Rev. Ambrose of Optina (1812-1891)
The elder once said at a general blessing: "God visits only the humble with His mercy."
Batiushka never ordered to be embarrassed by his mistakes. “They humble us”, he added. “If there were no frost on the hops, it would have outgrown the oak,” said the priest, explaining that if our various weaknesses and mistakes did not humble us, then we would think of ourselves very highly.
About the fact that it is impossible to be saved without humility, the elder told an example: “One lady saw in a dream the Lord Jesus Christ and before Him a crowd of people. At His call, a peasant girl came up to Him first, and then a man in bast shoes, and then all the people of the peasant class. The lady thought that He would also take her for her kindness and in general for all her virtues. Imagine her surprise when she saw that the Lord had already stopped calling! She made up her mind to remind the Lord of herself, but He completely turned away from her. Then she fell to the ground and began to humbly admit that she was really worse than everyone else and unworthy to be in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Batiushka then added: “But such and such are suitable, such and such are needed there.”
“It is natural and necessary for a sinner to humble himself. If he does not humble himself, then his circumstances will humble him., providentially striving for his spiritual benefit. In happiness, he usually forgets himself and attributes everything to himself, to his impotent strength and imaginary power, but, as soon as some misfortune visits him, he asks for mercy even from an imaginary enemy.
The elder expressed this truth with a parable:
“Man is like a beetle. When the day is warm and the sun is playing, he flies, proud of himself and buzzes: “All my forests, all my meadows! All my meadows, all my forests!” And as soon as the sun hides, dies cold and the wind starts to spree, the beetle will forget its prowess, cuddle up to the leaf and only squeak: “Don’t shove it!”
God loves only the humble, and as soon as a person humbles himself, so now the Lord sets him on the eve of the Kingdom of Heaven, but when a person does not want to voluntarily humble himself, then the Lord humbles him with sorrows and illnesses.
Once a sister was severely reprimanded by the superior for involuntary disobedience. The sister could not do otherwise and wanted to explain the reason, but the angry abbess did not want to listen to anything and threatened to immediately, in front of everyone, make her bow down. She was hurt and offended, but seeing that it was impossible to justify herself, she, suppressing her self-esteem, fell silent and only asked for forgiveness. Returning to her cell, this sister, to her great amazement, noticed that, despite the fact that she had suffered such an undeserved accusation, especially in the presence of outsider worldly faces, instead of shame and embarrassment, on the contrary, her soul was so light , gratifying, good, as if she had received something joyful. In the evening of the same day, she came to the priest (the elder was living in Shamordin at that time) and told him about everything that had happened and about her extraordinary state of mind. The elder listened attentively to her story and then, with a serious expression on his face, told her the following: “This case is providential – remember it; The Lord wanted to show you how sweet the fruit of humility is, so that when you feel it, you always force yourself to humility, first to the outer, and then to the inner. When a person forces himself to humble himself, the Lord consoles him inwardly, and this is precisely what Grace, which God gives to the humble.
Self-justification only seems to make it easier, but in fact brings darkness and confusion to the soul.
... Humility consists in this, in the feeling of the heart to have an awareness of one’s sinfulness and malfunction, to reproach oneself inwardly and cry out from the depths with contrition: God, be merciful to me, a sinner,— and if we, humble ourselves in words, think that we have humility, then this is not humility, but subtle spiritual pride.
The kingdom of God is not in words, but in power: you need to interpret less, be silent more, not judge anyone, and all my respect. 
Saint Anthony the Great (251-356):“The devil, who has fallen from his heavenly rank for pride, is constantly intensifying to drag into the fall all those who from the bottom of their hearts desire to approach the Lord, in the same way that he himself fell, i.e. pride and love for vain glory. This is what the demons fight us with, and this and other similar things they think to alienate us from God. Moreover, knowing that he who loves his brother also loves God, they plant hatred for each other in our hearts, so much so that one cannot see his brother, or speak a word with him. Many truly great ones have raised their labors in virtue, but due to their ignorance they have ruined themselves. It is not surprising for this to happen between you, too, if, for example, having lost interest in doing, you think that you have virtues in yourself. For now you have already fallen into this disease of the devil (self-conceit), thinking that you are close to God and are in the light, while in fact you are in darkness. What prompted our Lord Jesus Christ to lay down His clothes, gird His loins with ribbon, and pouring water into the laver (John 13:4), wash the feet of those who are beneath Him, if not to teach us humility? Yes, He portrayed him to us as an example of what He did then. And precisely, all those who want to be accepted into the first rank can achieve this only by humility; because in the beginning, what brought down from heaven was the movement of pride. So, if there is not extreme humility in a person, humility with all his heart, with all his mind, with all his spirit, with all his soul and body, then he will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Do not repay evil for evil, nor insult for insult, for By this the Lord Himself humbles you, seeing that you are not humbled by yourself.”
Saint Macarius the Great (391):“Whoever wants to become a son of God, first of all, like the Lord, must humble himself, endure when he is considered insane and dishonest ... not pursue glory, the beauty of this age, and anything like that, not have where to lay his head, endure reproach and humiliation, to be despised and trampled by everyone ... to be attacked openly and secretly and resist them in spirit.
Saint John Chrysostom (347-407): « The shepherd tends the sheep, not the wolves; as long as we are sheep, we will overcome, for the help of the Shepherd will not depart.”
I pray let us crush our spirit, humble our mind... If we bring ourselves into such a disposition, then we will be able to pray with great vigor and win ourselves great grace from above by confessing sins. And in order to be sure that such souls are pleasing to the Lord, listen to how He Himself says: But this is whom I will look upon: the humble and contrite in spirit, and the one who trembles at My word(Is.66, 2).
Therefore, Christ, talking with the disciples, said: learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls(Matthew 11:29).
The one who really humbles himself will never allow himself to be irritated, will not be angry with his neighbor, because his soul has humbled himself and is busy with what concerns itself. What could be happier than a soul so attuned! Such a person always sits in the pier, safe from any storm and enjoying the silence of thoughts. Therefore also Christ said: and you will find rest for your souls.
“Let us always carry in our hearts prayer and its fruits, that is, humility and meekness. … (Ps.50, 19).
Nothing is so accepted and loved by God as a meek, humble and grateful soul.” 
Rev. Isaac the Syrian (550) says that
“Humility and without exploits makes many sins forgivable; without humility, however, feats are useless, they even prepare us for a lot of evil. What salt is to all food, humility is to all virtue. To acquire it, one must constantly grieve with thought with humiliation and reasonable illness. And if we acquire it, it will make us sons of God.”
Rev. Abba Dorotheos (620) writes: “One of the elders said: “First of all, we need humility of mind, in order to be ready for every word that we hear, to say: sorry; for humility of mind crushes all the arrows of the enemy and adversary. ... Neither the very fear of God, nor almsgiving, nor faith, nor temperance, nor any other virtue can be accomplished without humility of mind.
... Indeed, humility of wisdom is great, and each of the saints walked along its path and shortened his path with labor, as the Psalmist says: see my humility and my work, and forgive all my sins(Ps. 24:18), and: humble yourself, and save me Lord(Ps. 114:6). However, humility alone can lead us into the Kingdom, as the elder Abba John said, but only slowly.
Blessed, brethren, who has humility; great humility. Well, one saint also meant the one who has true humility in this way: “Humility does not get angry at anyone and does not anger anyone, and considers this completely alien to itself.” Great, as we said, is humility; for it alone resists vanity and keeps man from it.
When Saint Anthony saw all the nets of the devil stretched out, he sighed and asked God: “Who will escape them?” - then God answered him: "Humility avoids them"; and what is even more surprising, he added: “They don’t even touch him.” Do you see the grace of this virtue? Truly, there is nothing stronger than humility of mind, nothing defeats it. If something sad happens to a humble person, he immediately turns to himself, immediately condemns himself, that he is worthy (of that), and will not reproach anyone, will not lay blame on another, and thus endure (what happened) without embarrassment, without sorrow. , with perfect calmness, and therefore does not get angry and does not anger anyone.
Saint Demetrius of Rostov (1651-1709) about humility he writes (from the book “Spiritual Alphabet”): “You will not find peace anywhere but in humility; nowhere will you find greater embarrassment than in pride. If you want peace and quiet, be humble; if not, then you will spend your whole life in rumors and confusion, in sorrow and sorrow, and you will never be free from falling. Humble yourself before all - may you be exalted from the Lord. Pitiful will be your self-exaltation if you are not exalted from God, for your exaltation is a falling away from God, and God's exaltation is in His Grace.If you rise up, God will bring you down; but if you descend, God will raise you up. But, even if God would exalt you, nevertheless, be humble, so that you may always be exalted from the Lord. “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and you will be exalted” says the apostle
(James 4:10).
“I am a worm, not a man, reproach of people, humiliation of people"(Ps. 21:7). How can you not be humble when you yourself have nothing? How will you rise when you cannot do anything pleasing to God without the help of God? Be as humble as God created you to be humble. God made you humble, and you are ascending!
... Where did the memory, flesh and soul come from? Who created them? And where will they go again? Know yourself inwardly that you are all aphids, delve into yourself and understand that everything in you is vain; without the Grace of God, you are nothing but a dry reed, a barren tree, withered grass...
Many will be found there glorious out of the not glorious here, honest there out of the dishonest here; but the glorious and honest here there will be in great dishonor; the noble of this world will be rejected, the bad-born will be honored; the proud and the rich will go to hell, and the poor in the kingdom of heaven, those who ascend are with demons, but those who are humble are with the Lord. For there is not such hypocrisy as here. There the Lord will evaluate everyone and with his righteous and non-hypocritical Judgment he will put everyone in their place, depending on their deeds.
... Do not think and do not say that you have done this and that, so that everything that is yours does not suddenly crumble before your eyes. If you have done something good, say that it was not you who did it, but the grace of God is with you. Our salvation is not so much in our deeds as in the mercy of Christ, for God will accept from us whatever he wants, and reject what he does not want. Attribute everything to God, so that He will impute all yours to you and be your quick Helper in everything.
... Obedience and obedience are born from humility, and strife and disobedience are born from pride. From humility - appropriation to God, and from pride - falling away from Him». 
Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow (1783-1867):
“If the pride of the angels from heaven cast down into hell, then by contrast it must be concluded that humility from hell itself, that is, from the very depths of sin, can raise
On sky».
Rev. Macarius of Optina (1788-1860) writes in one of his letters: “Try in all cases to have humility ... and when you see any abuse overcoming you, then know that it was preceded by pride, and rather resort to heartfelt self-reproach and the word: sorry».
Rev. Barsanuphius of Optina (1845-1913) about humility: 
“One day a worldly person comes to me and asks: “How to walk the path of God? Teach me". I thought. What to say to him? And then I say: “Have you read the Psalter?” - "Was reading". “It says: Lord teach the meek in his way(Ps. 24:9). So, first of all, you need to know that The Lord Himself teaches the ways of the Lord, but does not teach everyone, but only those who are meek, who humble themselves. So you too, humble yourself, be meek, and the Lord will not leave you and Himself will teach you how to walk this path...
... The spirit of malice, inflamed by envy of the human race, seeks to seduce everyone from the right path - and indeed seduces the lazy and negligent.
Once, the devil appeared to a certain ascetic in a sensual way. The ascetic asked him:
Why do you attack the human race with such malice?
Why are you taking our vacancies? the evil spirit replied.
For their pride, the spirits of malice have lost their heavenly bliss, and now people take their places for humility! It puts us above the nets of the devil.
Once the Monk Anthony had a vision of how the enemy was spreading nets everywhere and for everyone. The ascetic was confused and, sighing, said: “Lord, who can escape these nets?” And he heard the answer: "The humble." We must try to acquire humility; without it, all our exploits mean nothing. If a person thinks that he is something, then he is lost. For the Lord, a humble sinner is more pleasing than a proud righteous one.
Saint Macarius of Egypt was distinguished by special spiritual gifts. He is called not just a saint, but a great one. But then he once had the idea that for the region where he lived, he serves as a spiritual center, the sun, to which everyone aspires. In fact, it was. But when the monk thought something like this about himself, a voice came to him, saying that in the nearest village there lived two women who were more pleasing to God than he. The elder took the staff and went to look for those women. By the providence of God, he soon found them and entered their dwelling.
The women, seeing the Monk Macarius, fell at his feet and found no words to express their surprise and gratitude to him. The monk picked them up and began to ask them to reveal to him how they please God.
“Holy Father,” the women said, “we are not doing anything pleasing to God, pray for us, for the Lord’s sake.
But the monk began to insist that they not hide their virtuous deeds from him. Women, afraid to disobey the elder, began to tell him about their lives:
- We were strangers to each other, but, having married brothers, we began to live together and have not been separated for fifteen years now. During this time, we never quarreled and did not say a single offensive word to each other. We try, if possible, to visit the temple of God more often, we observe the established fasts. We help the poor as much as we can... Well, we live with our husbands like we do with brothers, and there is definitely nothing more good for us.
“And what,” the elder asked, “do you consider yourself holy or righteous for the good that you do?”
— Saints? the women were surprised. What kind of saints or righteous are we?! We are the greatest sinners. Pray for us, holy father, may the Lord have mercy on us!
The monk gave them his blessing and withdrew into the wilderness, thanking God for the admonition received. He did not say a word about his vision to the women, fearing that he would harm them with his praise.
…To enter the Kingdom, you must first be humble. How can you find humility? How to learn this great art? We must pray to the Lord to send this gift. In one of evening prayers we read: "Lord, give me humility, chastity and obedience." Humility makes us like God Himself, which the humbled Himself, being obedient even unto death, but the death of the cross(Phil. 2, 8). The Lord Himself is a teacher of humility: ... learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart(Matthew 11:29)…
Christ Himself is meek and lowly in heart. With the acquisition of humility, we achieve complete peace of mind. There is a historical example about the Most Serene Prince Menshikov. He was from the simple and traded in pancakes. Once Peter saw him and began to buy pancakes from him. "You know who I am?" Peter asked him. “No, I don’t know,” Menshikov answered. "I am Tsar Peter." “Now I know.” That was the first meeting. Peter noticed in Menshikov an extraordinary mind and outstanding abilities for military service, brought him closer to himself, and Menshikov took first place at court. But Menshikov achieved the highest glory under Empress Catherine I, under whom he autocratically ruled the state, since the empress herself, who had no preparation for this, did not interfere in the affairs of government. But a thunderstorm broke out over Menshikov. He was already thinking of standing with a firm foot at the throne, and his daughter was engaged to Peter II, they were commemorated at litanies, when he suddenly fell into disgrace. A trial was ordered over him, according to which, deprived of all his fortune, he was exiled to Berezov. His wife had just reached Kazan and died of grief. Her grave in Kazan still exists today. Menshikov remained firm. In Berezovo, a fur yurt was made for him, and he began to live in it along with the rest of the family. Here he came to know the Providence of God, leading him to salvation, and he began to read the Psalter with enthusiasm. Good for me, for thou hast humbled me… God (Ps. 119:71), the former ruler often said. In exile, he glorified God and began to feel such spiritual joys that he had not known about before.
Probably, if he were now offered to return to his former life, he would not agree. Menshikov died as a righteous man, and in Siberia he is considered a saint. This, according to outward judgment, a great misfortune brought him the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven, which he probably would not have reached while in glory.
The Holy Fathers call humility the robe of the Divine. Humility is the first condition of salvation: only they can save us... 
All mankind can be divided into two parts: the Pharisees and publicans. The former perish, the latter are saved. Cherish this consciousness of your sinfulness. What saved the publican? Of course, this is the consciousness of one's sinfulness: "God, be merciful to me a sinner." This is the prayer that has been going on for almost two millennia. Note that the publican recognizes himself as a sinner, but at the same time he hopes for the mercy of God. Without hope there is no escape... The Lord said, "I did not come to save the righteous, but sinners." Who here is meant by the righteous? People who are not aware of their sinfulness and yet sinful. But it is also said about demons. We cannot even imagine the pride in which they stand before God. We cannot understand with what hatred they treat God . God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Why is it not said that God opposes the fornicators, or the envious, or something else, but it is said precisely the proud? Because this property is demonic. The proud becomes already, as it were, akin to a demon ...
... Most of all, let us try to acquire humility. Prophet David said: Humble yourself and save me Lord». Only humility is enough for salvation. Again it is said in one psalm: See humility and my work and leave all my sins". The prophet David said so because true humility is never without difficulty.”
Archbishop of Voronezh and Zadonsk Anthony (1773-1846) said: "Humility is the height .
Can I judge others when I myself have many shortcomings. I do not know what is in the heart and mind of my neighbor. There are no windows through which I would penetrate my gaze into the soul of another. But I know myself very well: I am a sinner. This I know very well; I may be wrong in other people's opinions. Judge not lest ye be judged.
The humble in heart is likened to the Son of God. The humble and slander, and slander, and spitting, and beating, and all kinds of calamities complacently endure and pray for his very enemies. The humble thinks that he is worse than all, more sinful.
He loves everyone and wants the best for everyone. Carrying God in his soul, the humble bears no sorrows. In adversity, he rejoices; he is always calm; all his friends. Even here he anticipates the joys of heavenly life. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, took on our flesh; Our Creator has come to have mercy on us sinners. He forgives us our debts, our iniquities, our insults that we do to Him. How can we not forgive our neighbors their injustice against us, their insults? If the Lord loves us and commanded us to love each other: love, He said, one another; how can we not love everyone? How can one disobey such a Benefactor?”
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk (1724-1783) writes about the saving grace of humility: «
Have humility before God and before people, and try to have it not only in words, deeds and deeds of the meek, but also in your heart. Then you will have true humility when you recognize yourself as unworthy of everything, that is, you do not recognize yourself as worthy of either sweet food, or a rich dress, or a red house, or a soft bed, or a bow, or human reverence, or a high place, but only deserving of any trouble.
If someone offends you by word or deed, do not be angry with him, but forgive him from the heart, as he says Christ's word: let go and let you go(Luke 6:37), i.e. forgive, and you will be forgiven, and, going away, pray for him, saying: Lord, leave him(or her); and although the heart does not want it, you force yourself, and then it will be easier.
If someone hates you or is angry at you, you conquer love and strive to be reconciled with him; and even though he does not want peace, you seek peace and be ready for peace; and here, although the heart does not want, it is necessary to convince and persuade the heart ...
There is no more convenient way to seek and gain the great and highest God than true and heartfelt humility.. For God, being good and merciful, bows down and looks down on nothing so much as on a humble and contrite heart. Sacrifice to God the spirit is contrite: the heart is contrite and humble God will not despise(Ps.50, 19)… 
Reasons that lead a person to humility: our poverty and wretchedness convince us to humble ourselves. Take everyone for your consideration, and you will find a sufficient reason to humble yourself; penetrate into the depths of your heart, and you will see what evil and calamity lie there. This evil with evil thoughts, like an evil tree with its evil fruits, reveals itself. From within, from the human heart, evil thoughts come forth, adulteries, fornications, murders, thieves, covetousness, deceit, flattery, adultery, the evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness(Mark 7:21-22), says Christ. And what lies inside, in the heart, then outside, as from a boiling cauldron, no longer fitting in it, through external deeds it erupts. This is how quarrels, enmity, curses, slander, blasphemy, flattery, deceit, ridicule, reproach arise; hence the fruits of anger: vengeance, retribution, bloodshed, murder; hence theft, covetousness, perjury, insulting the poor, shedding tears of widows and orphans. ... In a word, every abomination and every evil comes from the heart, as a sown seed arises from the earth; and is already being fulfilled in practice, if it does not return back by the power of the fear of God.
But this is what human wretchedness multiplies: a person will not recognize this evil until God enlightens him with His grace. Many people imagine something about themselves; Against such, the Apostle says: whoever imagines himself to be that, insignificant, with his mind flatters himself(Gal. 6, 3). But such, if they look around with the help of the grace of God, they will see that in essence they are nothing, and everyone admits: astray, like a lost sheep(Ps. 118, 176). And this calamity and wretchedness is common to all people. What must be known and acknowledged, and thus humbled. This calamity is joined by another, no less, manifold cunning and enmity of the devil. This enemy, because murderer forever(John 8, 44) and in the heart of our forefather he sowed his evil seed, does not cease and now scatter his weeds.
Elder Georgy, Zadonsk hermit (1789-1836):“The deeper the humility, the more revelations are given to the heart that loves God.”
Hieroschemamonk Nikolai (Tsarikovskiy), confessor of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (1829-1899) said:
“Our enemy, the devil, does not care about anything so much as about to deprive us of humility, which attracts the Grace of God, and plunge us into pride, which rejects us from God. Therefore, one must have such an opinion about oneself as the saints had, so that the enemy could not completely approach the heart, for humility, as the power of God, Satan trembles and flees from him. And pride, on the contrary, in an instant can deprive God of mercy and subject the devil to slavery.
Father Nikolay He advised me to give up my selfish ego and begin the labors of self-denial. And most importantly, the father told them, you need to pray to God that He will grant humility, and purify your soul with repentance and confession before his spiritual father of thoughts. Without the labor of self-denial and without the purification of the soul by sorrows and hardships, and especially without the possible frequent confession of sinful thoughts before an experienced confessor, living in peace, a person gradually begins to be pleased with himself in every possible way, think about his imaginary merits as real and, comparing himself with other people , publicans and sinners, considers himself holy and sinless. If it happens that someone, by God's permission, only touches, for example, with a word of reproach or insult, an insult to the soul of one who thinks of himself in this way, then all his imaginary virtue will become apparent: he cannot endure insults, humiliation in any way and begins to become angry at the offender and take revenge on him in every possible way, becoming like a pagan ignorant of the teachings of Christ.
It is necessary to carefully resist any passion: anger, pride, envy, vanity, and do it immediately after the appearance of the thoughts of these passions, do not mentally agree with what the enemy invisibly inspires. It is impossible to give these thoughts even a minute to stay in the soul and take root in it, because the longer you do not fight them, the more difficult the struggle with them becomes, and The guardian angel can retreat from us for not resisting evil, sin. If a person does not agree with the devil's passionate thoughts, then the Guardian Angel, seeing the good will of the soul, now drives the enemy away from it. God and our enemy need only our will, since we have been given the freedom to choose good or evil and to reject the opposite of the chosen one. Neither the Lord's Grace, nor the enemy force a person to do anything by force, but only offer: Grace is good thoughts to do the will of God, and the enemy is evil, sinful, evil thoughts that tempt to sin. Only already the inclination of a person by his will towards good or evil is imputed to him as merit or condemnation.
Confirming his spiritual children in humility, the priest advised them not to forget and firmly remember that we have nothing of our own, and everything that we have is not ours, but God's. The body is from God, the mind and all spiritual powers are from God, various knowledge and arts, education are a gift of God, rank, power and everything good that we have for our spiritual and bodily life, our own and our neighbors, are gifts of God's mercy for the use of which it will be necessary to give God a strict account in due time. Therefore, if we turn out to have nothing of our own, and everything we have is from God, then we have nothing to be conceited or proud of. On the contrary, we must thank God for everything and always and humble ourselves in every possible way, preparing to give an answer to Him in everything. For our earthly life is a preparatory and short life, and was not given to us so that we would be conceited or proud of one another's merits or advantages. We are born in this world in order to glorify the Creator and serve Him, to work for His glory on the creation of His hands, this visible world entrusted to us for possession, and through this to gain mercy from God, to work for our own good and salvation, and for welfare and salvation of others. And, despite the fact that we must work very hard in our lives and always pray, like indispensable slaves, we must not for a moment forget that the Lord God saves us by His only mercy, and not by our deeds. What is stronger than this thought can induce us to the most perfect humility? Where, in our position, is there room for vanity or pride?
But the misfortune of a person lies in the fact that he either does not know anything about himself and his position in this world, or, if he knows, then he forgets (Ignorance and oblivion.) If he does not know or forgets about this, then he plunges himself into various disasters. … One needs to be careful not to take on labors and deeds that exceed one's strength, out of self-importance or out of vanity or pride, and without the help of a spiritual leader, one does not go through deeds where it is very subtle. For, not being able to hold on, not being able to stay on a spiritual height, one can fall from it and not only hurt themselves, but also be crippled, become unfit either for spiritual exploits or for passing obedience.
Humility of wisdom consists in never condemning anyone with your heart, not keeping in your soul the memory of the harm done and letting go of your neighbors their sins against us; to consider oneself lower and worse than all people, always and in everything to be ready to give preference to others over oneself; before God, always and in everything to condemn oneself and not consider oneself worthy of those natural and grace-filled Gifts with which He rewards. Such a person before the Judgment of God, as one who does not judge or condemn one’s neighbor, is not judged, as one who forgives everyone their sins is forgiven, and as a humble person, who humbles himself before everyone, is justified.
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt (1829-1908)
writes: “In order to have sincere, heartfelt faith, one must certainly be humble in heart.
... Remember, man, that you are a moral and physical nonentity; moral - because you are all sin, passion, weakness, and physical - because your body is earthly dust; in order to vividly, tangibly show one's humility before God, as ancient people clearly depicted, and even now some, sprinkling ashes on their heads, taking off their bright clothes, nourishing vanity and vanity in the immortal human spirit. So, man, the smallest goodness in you is from God, like the smallest trickle of air that is in you or you breathe in, from the air around you.
Elder Feofan (Sokolov) (1752-1832) talking about humility: “The Lord God gives grace for humility. One elder spoke incessantly from morning to evening, while the other was silent. One seer said about them: he who spoke, he kept silence, and he who was silent is an idle talker; was silent, but sim conceited. With what intention, after all, who does what - this is important. The Lord God judges our intentions. This science is completely different, not philosophy: vanity creeps into worldly science, but here humility is at the core.
To exalt oneself, and to neglect everyone is a demonic affair but it would be better to acquire Christ's humility. Even if they reasoned with themselves, they were not condemned(1 Cor. 11:31). Until you achieve humility, you can’t be calm in any way, everything is from passion to passion, so, as from the abyss to the abyss, the enemy will scold you; a when there is humility, then all the virtues are here; it's like a sacred chain. Where is pride, here is vanity, enmity, here is embarrassment, quarrels and evil of every kind.
Spiritual life should be simple, sincere, meek, benevolent, and even more humble. Humility is salvation without difficulty. Humility of the heart is the first and foremost foundation of the house of the soul... For even Christ, the Son of God, says: learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls(Matthew 11:29).
... If you are outwardly humble, quiet, patient, this is still not enough, this is bodily, but you need spiritual, perfect. One must think: I am the worst of all, I myself am to blame for everything; and not in such a way as to blame others for being slandered; there shouldn't be any excuse.
…The whole point is humility. No matter how many bows you put, and you will dream about yourself that I lead a cruel life, there is no use in these works. 
Elder in the world Alexei Mechev (1859-1923) taught his spiritual children: With humility the devil cannot fight. But we don’t have it, we all think about ourselves, we all try to arrange our happiness ourselves, we put ourselves in the place of God; a every proud person is an unhappy person, he moves away from God; therefore, the saints avoided honor, fearing that they would become proud and move away from the Lord, stop serving Him, and begin to serve their own “I”. So, in order to avoid this, you need to take care of yourself, remember every evening what happened during the day, and write down, for example: I wanted to get irritated, but I prayed, and the Lord put it aside; Lord, forgive my anger, etc. So later we will see that the Lord always helps us.
You have to consider yourself the worst. If you want to get annoyed, take revenge, or do something else, rather humble yourself. We must save ourselves and others, and for this we need to know ourselves and others. Take care of yourself more strictly, and be more condescending towards others, study them in order to treat them as required by their position, character, mood; for example, a person is nervous, uneducated, and if we demand calmness from one, delicacy from another or something else, it will be reckless; and we must be more careful about ourselves.
What right do we have to despise others?..»
Elder Zacharias (1850-1936): Wise is he who has acquired the Holy Spirit, trying to fulfill all the commandments of Christ, fearing to offend the Savior with sins. And if he is wise, then he is humble. The higher a person is spiritually, the more he sees how great the Lord is, and how he, a man, is insignificant and helpless, how sinful in comparison with what we should strive for.
The greatest Saint John Chrysostom in his prayer before Communion says: I believe, Lord, and I confess that You are truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners, from whom I am the first.”
Elder Arseny (Minin) (1823-1879):“Do not exalt yourself, do not expose yourself to anything in your opinion and many, but be among others, subject to falling, mistakes and various weaknesses, otherwise the horns of superstition will grow.
The main work of true asceticism consists in the humiliation of one's self. Obedience is higher than asceticism. This is why it is said: whoever insists on his opinion or wants to take advantage in a conversation, knows that he is ill with a diabolical disease. Like this, he who considers himself more intelligent than others. If you have a mind, then do not appropriate it to yourself, otherwise it will be taken from you for ingratitude.
Look for an opportunity everywhere to blame yourself for everything. Do not calm down until the Lord calms you down, otherwise you will be robbed.”
Reverend Elder Alexy (Shepelev) (1840-1917):“Your “I” should be eliminated everywhere and the blasphemy and slander of others should be looked at as the admonition of God.
One should be strict with oneself, and condescending with others. Humility needs to be nurtured».
Schiegumen John (Alekseev) (1873-1958) writes to spiritual children: “You write that you have been reading and listening and feeding on the word of God for twenty-five years, but there is no point. What kind of sense do you want to have? Or do you want to see yourself in everything serviceable and holy? But this is not the case in the spiritual life. Be content to see your flaws for from this imperceptibly, gradually comes, albeit to a small extent, humility.
Our work must be, and success depends on grace; grace is given not for labor, but for humility: whoever humbles himself, so much grace comes.
The more a person approaches God, the more he sees himself as a sinner. 
Elder Athenogenes (in schema Agapius) (1881-1979):“One must acquire humility, and then the Holy Spirit will indwell; everything will be fine.
... If a person does not humble himself, the Lord punishes him bodily. If he does not humble himself again, the Lord punishes even more, and the person, seeing his helplessness, submits to the will of God, begins to do good deeds and repents, calls on the Lord.
I ask: "Father, pray for me that the Lord would give me love for everyone and humility." The elder answers: “You yourself ask meekness; the meek are the gentle people."
ArchimandriteElder Kirik:“Success in the spiritual life is signified by a greater and greater awareness of one’s worthlessness in full meaning this word, without any restrictions. There are many good feelings, but the feeling of worthlessness is fundamental, so that as soon as it is not there, everything is not for the future, everything went wrong.
Consider every person the best of yourself; without this thought, even if someone did a miracle, it is not pleasing to God.
Hieromartyr Arseny (Zhadanovsky) Bishop of Serpukhov (1874-1937): « When you imagine that the ultimate goal of man is eternal perfection: Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect."(Matthew 5:48) the humility of the saints is made clear. The Lord appeared before them - the most holy Being, infinite Goodness - and now, believing their own state of mind to these latter, they justly, always sincerely, consciously and with conviction imputed themselves to nothing.
Hegumen Nikon Vorobyov (1894-1963) in letters to his spiritual children about the importance of humility in the matter of salvation, he writes: “... Do not be upset, but humble yourself. Everyone has an endless edge of arrogance and arrogance. You need a lot - many times to sit in a puddle in order to understand your limitations, the need for constant help from God. If all the forces of the soul are perverted by the fall, then the consciousness of one's personality, the "I," is especially perverted.
As an image of God, as called to be a child of God, a partaker of the nature of God, man is truly a great value, more precious than the whole world. One should be aware of this, thank God for it, behave accordingly, but in reality a person either does not know his true greatness, or, due to corruption, puts his “I” in trifles, stands up for petty pride, is conceited, proud ... and becomes unpleasant and for God and for people. This perversion is worse than other sins and is difficult to heal because concerns the very depths of the human soul, its foundation, "I". Humility is the correction of this perversion, and that is why it is so valued.
This is me approximately, not exactly expressing the idea. The topic is too deep and difficult, and it cannot be expressed in a few phrases. Until the end of life, every person has to fight with his false, fallen "I". The very success in the spiritual life is measured by the depth of humility. That is why it is necessary, as from the hand of God (as it is), to accept all humiliations, insults, insults, even falls - everything that contributes to the suppression of our “I”, not with grumbling, but with gratitude. Even with such an action, until the end of life, a person cannot completely free himself from vanity and arrogance. Without humility, a person cannot receive any of God's gifts without harm to himself. That is why it was predicted that in the last times, in view of increased pride, people will be saved only by the patience of sorrows and illnesses, and deeds will be taken away from them ...
Falls humble a person, and without humility no gift can be received here. "The Lord gives grace to the humble." Like a look at the humility of His servant.
And we all have more than enough pride. Words can't humble us. So the Lord allows you to fall into every shame, so that involuntarily a person comes to the consciousness of his insignificance and ugliness. All our beauty, all goodness is in the Lord and through the Lord. “Depart from the earth, draw near to the Lord,” and He will comfort you both here and in the next life.
May the Lord save you from all evil and adversity of the enemy. Do what you can on your part, and the Lord will do everything that is necessary for your salvation.
... The measure of a person's spiritual growth is his humility . The higher in spirit a person is, the more humble he is. And vice versa, the more humble, the higher. Not rules, not bows, not fasting, not reading the Word of God, but humility brings a person closer to God. Without humility, all, even the greatest, feats are not only not useful, but can even completely destroy a person. And in our time, you can see that a little bit more a person prays, reads the Psalter, keeps a fast - and already considers himself superior to others, condemns his neighbors, begins to teach when they do not ask, and so on. and by this he shows his spiritual emptiness and removal from the Lord to a country far away. Be afraid of a high opinion of yourself.
The Lord Jesus Christ says that even if you do everything prescribed (i.e., fulfill all the commandments), consider yourselves as slaves without keys and that you did only what you were obliged to do. And salvation is the gift of God to the humble and contrite heart. So we need to ask the Lord for humility. Humility is in no way compatible with condemnation of neighbors and resentment. If we judge others or get offended when someone offends us, then we have no humility at all. The holy ascetics sincerely thanked those who offended and offended them. Because by the patience of insults they learned humility. The Mother of God claims that the Lord chose her for the sake of Her humility. The Savior Himself calls upon all to learn humility from Him; not fasting, not prayer, not even love for one's neighbor, but humility. Only through humility does a person become one Spirit with the Lord, who humbled Himself to the point of spitting, death on the cross. It goes without saying that we are obliged to try with all our might to fulfill all the commandments, but again I repeat that without humility they are either useless or harmful.
… Only by the hand of humility can a person accept harmlessly for himself any gifts from the Lord.
... David called himself a flea in Israel, a dog, a worm, having the Holy Spirit , and we, having nothing but dilapidation, consider ourselves great, capable of teaching and denouncing others. What a devilish mockery of us!
... To receive special favors from the Lord or to inherit the Kingdom of God is a matter of mercy and God's condescension towards us, and not a payment for our labors. But we did not fulfill a single commandment, and if we did something, we poisoned it with vanity or human pleasing, or calculations. Why do we think we are tall? Why do we not expose our wounds before the Lord and do not beg Him for mercy, but we all want to appear before Him and before good people?
Humble yourself, consider yourself worthy of hell and with a contrite heart plead with the Lord for mercy, like a publican, a harlot, a robber, prodigal son and the Lord will have mercy on you, and even here you will feel it in your heart and calm down ... " 
O the benefits of temptations in acquiring humility hegumen Nikon writes: “You are already discouraged and lost from a small temptation. It is the Lord who allows you to recognize your weakness and understand how much is hidden in the soul of a person, what work must be endured in order to cleanse yourself of passions and become a temple of the Living God and achieve salvation. When all human weakness is revealed, then you will fall down to the Lord and already from the depths of your heart you will cry out to Him, like the drowning Apostle Peter. Then you will receive help from the Lord and you will understand that the Lord is truly close to those who call on His name from the bottom of their hearts. And with gratitude you will fall at His feet, and you will mourn all your sins, with which you offended the Lord. Then you will humble yourself in your heart, stop judging others and begin to take care that the Lord forgives past sins and does not allow you to offend Him by breaking the commandments. You will also understand how all earthly things are vain that your attachment to the earth, quarrels, grief over things, over deeds, over words - all this is so insignificant, so you should not be upset, quarrel and lose peace of mind because of this, maybe even salvation.
…All evil, all passions, all demonic machinations, all sorrows and suffering - everything is conquered by humility.. And humility is manifested by the fact that with all our hearts, as a prudent thief, we say to the Lord: “Worthy according to our deeds is acceptable, remember us, Lord, when you come into your kingdom.”
Now, if we manage to say this in all cases of life, if we do not grumble either at the Lord or at people, then it will be easy and easy for us, and we will be on the right spiritual path. If, however, they murmured at someone, then one must humble themselves even more and say: “Lord, truly I am worth nothing, only You can save me.”
... Repeat constantly: “Lord, Thy holy will be done; Lord, do with me whatever pleases You, just don’t let me grumble at You, just save me.”
... The time of infancy has passed, it is time to take up the work of adults. A contrite and humble heart God will not despise, the nets of the devil do not touch the humble wise"(vision of St. Anthony the Great about nets).
If you give in to grumbling, you start blaming people and circumstances, then from here you will move on to grumbling against God and you can come to despair, from which may the Lord deliver you.
Pskov - Pechersk Elder Reverend Simeon (Zhelnin) (1869-1960) o s 
humility says: “Humility ... consists in the fact that a person recognizes himself as a sinner doing no good before God; humility is when he carefully observes silence, when he does not increase himself so that anyone will accept his words, when he overrides his own will, keeps his eyesight, constantly has the coming death before his eyes, refrains from lying, does not utter empty words, does not contradict the elder, patiently endures dishonor and forces himself to endure labor and sorrow.
A truly humble person loves everyone as he loves himself, does not even mentally condemn anyone, pities everyone, wants everyone to be saved, but he sees his sinful impurity in himself and thinks with fear how he will answer at the judgment of God; but does not give way to despair or despondency, but firmly hopes in his Savior.
Truly humble, if he has any gifts from God: prayer, or tears, or fasting, or anything else - He carefully hides all this, for human praise, like moths or rust, eats away everything.
A truly humble person always condemns himself. He prays to God to grant him the grace not to make excuses. A humble person, when bad thoughts appear, reproaches himself: “In such a sinner as I, there must be such shortcomings.” The humble person recognizes himself worthy of any punishment for the evil will of his heart. But he does not run away from God and does not despair of his salvation, but to the One whom he offended and who is ready to righteously punish him, to Himself, turning faithfully, he cries out: God! be merciful to me, a sinner!(cf.: Luke 18, 13).
The humble does good to those who do evil to him. The humble one says about each brother in his heart: “Truly he is better than me” and honors him higher, wiser than himself and attributes his exploits to the ascetic God. A humble person is a stranger to hatred, contradiction and disobedience and possesses good qualities: he is gentle, affable, amiable, merciful, quiet, benevolent, carefree, cheerful, not lazy, not curious about incomprehensible objects. The humble chooses all the latter, loves the simplest clothes, and meekly corrects all kinds of difficult work.
Humility is the way to God. Takovo short definition understanding of the essence of humility by the Optina elders. Since the path to God lies through the complete fulfillment of the will of God, the doctrine of humility is an essential part of the teaching of the Optina Elders on the knowledge and fulfillment of the will of God. At the same time, humility is the proper way of life for a Christian, in which its goals are achieved, regardless of whether this life takes place in a monastery or in the world. Therefore, the theme of humility can be considered relatively independently.
2.1. WAY TO GOD»
Humility is the way to God. The Optina elders repeated this position many times and comprehensively revealed its meaning. First Optina Elder, Rev. Leo said this:
“... For us, seeking salvation, in fulfilling the commandments of God, the most necessary thing is humility, which attracts God's grace to us and sanctifies all our actions, and without it, no feats and labors can bring us the much-desired peace that the Most Merciful Creator has given us, saying to the apostles: I give you my peace, I leave my peace with you (), and give thanks to God for everything, and moreover, remembering His great good deeds and mercy to you "; .
A person who seeks salvation and makes efforts to fulfill the commandments of God cannot fail to see that his actions in this direction imperfect. Everything that is done on earth is not done quickly and smoothly, and often does not bring the desired result or is far from achieving the goals set. The very absence of a significant result is usually a source of a person’s mental discomfort. But in this case, it's more than that. How imperfect, and sometimes simply unsuccessful actions in fulfilling the commandments, are consistent with the will of God, good and perfect?
Elder Leo clarifies this issue, essentially speaking about this. Humility begins with the vision and recognition of one's weakness in the proper fulfillment of the commandments, and patiently waiting for the grace of God to fill this weakness. As soon as the soul of a person has taken such a disposition, the Lord does not leave it, sending grace to a person and sanctifying his actions. Grace eliminates anxiety in the soul and fills it with peace, gives it inner strength to continue striving to fulfill the commandments. The sanctification of human actions gives them a charitable character, although they are imperfect in themselves.
The grace of much-desired peace in the soul is not only a comforting reassurance in the midst of the worries and sorrows of this world. First of all, it is a witness to a person that he is not just looking for salvation, but is walking the path of salvation, and is going the right way. Or, speaking directly in the words of Holy Scripture, grace testifies to a person that he is one of those “by the power of God through faith kept unto salvation” (Pet 1, 1:5). For the sake of gaining saving grace, a person is ready to endure the labors and even feats that are inevitably associated with the fulfillment of the commandments.
Elder Leo, however, once again emphasizes that salvation is not accomplished by deeds as such, and grace is bestowed not only on labors and deeds, but primarily on faith. Humility in this sense is a manifestation of faith that it is not the person himself through his actions, but the Lord, through his own power, who accomplishes salvation and gives help to the person in fulfilling the commandments. For humility is the recognition of one's weakness and the expectation of God's mercy. That is why without humility it is impossible to find the much-desired peace in the soul.
And so, in order to gain and not lose peace in the soul, it is necessary to bring thanks to God in everything, especially remembering His great mercy and good deeds to us. Thanksgiving to God is a kind of light of a humble soul, kindled in it by the grace of God. This light dispels passions and obscurations, does not allow darkness to devour the world that resides in the soul.
Rev. Leo continues:
“... When you do not have peace, know that you do not have humility in yourself. This the Lord revealed in the following words, which at the same time show where to seek peace. He said: Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls () "; .
Calmness is what humility reveals itself. A restless soul is restless with passions and unrighteous desires that it has not been able to subdue. Passions do not subside on their own, and if a bridle is not found on them, then they begin to torment and torment a person, pushing him to become a slave to his sin, for passion finds its satisfaction in sin.
Rev. Antony speaks of this with great expressiveness:
“Why is there no peace in our bones, in our soul and in our heart? From our sins! From the fact that we do not learn at all in humility, because we love to argue and prove that we know everything more than others, because we do not leave the conversation with our thoughts, which, instead of executioners, constantly torment us.; .
In contrast, humility is peace in virtue. Virtue does not torment the soul of a person, it gives her peace of mind from doing what is due. The due is from the Lord, in his commandments. And therefore, what is due, as coming from God, is at the same time graceful, bringing peace to the soul.
Here the Lord seems to be saying to all of us, His followers and servants: being elected to serve, do not aim to determine the place and significance of your ministry among your spiritual brothers and sisters. For, because of your sinfulness, you will always be inclined to exaggerate the role of both your labors and your prayers. And therefore, you cannot avoid disappointment when the place assigned to you by God in this life will finally be revealed. So we must humble ourselves in order to take the place prepared by God, and not waste time on fruitless efforts to gain the undeserved by us.
But to accept the will of God means to embark on the path of salvation. And Rev. Anthony remarks:
“... It is impossible to be saved without humility in the spirit, and one cannot learn humility from words alone - practice is needed so that someone beats us, and crushes, and knocks out a bonfire (hard bark of plants), without which it is not easy to get into the Kingdom of God, which is acquired by many sorrows »; .
It is impossible to be saved without humility, but it needs to be learned. The Optina elders say not only that humility is the path to God, but also that it is possible to go to God if you know how to walk. Those. we are talking about not only declaring your desire for humility, not only recognizing it as the moral basis of your life, but also being able to in practice be humble. "In practice" means the need for an experimental test of a person's ability to humility, i.e. requires him to stay in real situations, incl. and difficult, in which you need to show humility.
In the course of such trials by sorrows and misfortunes, when someone “beats us, crushes and beats out a fire”, we usually come to know the measure of our humility, or, more precisely, the measure of our insubordination. From which the need to learn humility is revealed.
Humility is not an artificial device intended to calm a person. It is a way to see one's real situation, and to accept the inevitable that follows from it. And take it for granted. With this approach, a person's behavior becomes adequate: he does not grumble, does not get angry at someone, does not condemn others and does not try to shift his blame onto anyone. It is this ability to see the situation as it is, and to think and act in accordance with it, that is the beginning of the path to God.
Therefore, learning humility means for a person learning to live a real life, not an illusory one. This breakthrough to reality, to the spiritual vision of the world, does not come easily. It is difficult for us to think of ourselves as ordinary, ordinary, unremarkable people. The problem, however, is that we are who we are. And to the extent that we consider ourselves gifted or special, we move away from knowing ourselves as we are.
One cannot be truly gifted without walking the path of humility. For the law says: “A humble soul receives from God every gift, but an unhumble soul must receive humility from Him.” The path to giftedness lies through the understanding of the ordinaryness of one's being and the ordinaryness of one's "I" - and their unpreferability over others. And the way to special giftedness is to consider yourself the worst of all, for in this lies perfect humility.
2.3. THREE DEGREES OF HUMILITY»
Rev. Ambrose showed three degrees of humility and, accordingly, three stages of teaching humility:
“Vedati befits, as three are the essence of perfect humility of degree. The first degree is to submit to the elder, not to exalt yourself above your equals. The second degree is to submit to equals, not to exalt themselves over lesser ones. The third degree is to submit to the lesser, and impute yourself in the nothingness of being, as if united from cattle, unworthy of human sojourn.;.
Humility begins with acceptance social norm relationships between people. What could be more natural than the assertion that we should obey those superior to us in experience, knowledge, moral strength, spiritual or official position, and not place ourselves above those who objectively equals us in all these respects? Because of the self-evidence of this situation, few people openly dispute the first degree of humility. Yes, and life itself forces us to recognize the legitimacy and expediency of such a situation: it is impossible to work in an organization if we do not follow the instructions of our superiors, it is impossible to live if we do not obey the requirements of the law, etc.
The first degree of humility, in its simplicity and accessibility for all, reveals the important meaning of humility: it is necessary for the sake of the feasibility of a reasonable order of people's lives, in which everyone can achieve their goals without hindering others in the same. It is not our personal will that should form relations between people, as unhumble people believe, but the ability to follow our life path without opposing it to the legitimate interests of others.
Therefore, teaching humility begins with simple discipline and obedience to the law (not only legal, but also moral, spiritual law). To show diligence in fulfilling the instructions of those who have the right to give us instructions, to be attentive and unbiased to the arguments or wishes of our colleagues or friends, to be able to accept the point of view of the right, and not your own, when you yourself turned out to be wrong - all this is humility. It is difficult for a person who does not have such ordinary qualities to substantiate his claims to a particularly high spirituality or even holiness.
Accordingly, dissatisfaction with superiors, skirmishes with colleagues, unreasonable imposition of one's view on this or that problem serve us as signs of our insubordination and evidence that we all need to learn humility. Only by conforming to the above social norm can one assume with some caution that we are ready to take the first steps on the path to humility, which, as the Optina Elders defined, is the path to God.
Having experienced the skills of behavior at the first degree of humility, a person is able to understand the meaning of the second degree of humility. Indeed, why should one obey one's equals and not place oneself above those who are inferior? Here we are faced with the limitations of the social norm, which does not involve actions corresponding to the second degree of humility. For the second degree is already a mainly spiritual degree, which finds its justification not in the social practice of people, but in their subordination to spiritual law.
In the transition to the second degree, a person indicates his movement towards true humility, "putting himself worse than everyone and even lower than all creation." The basis of such a movement is faith in God, but there is no internal basis for this movement in the social order of people. But in the second degree of humility, a person conforms to his own strength and does not set the goal of immediately achieving perfect humility. He simply brings out the meaning of the second degree and seeks to make it the property of his soul as the basis for the subsequent movement towards perfect humility.
Placing oneself below an equal and equal to the lowest is, in fact, a “mitigated” or feasible variant of perfect humility for the given circumstances and the level of development of a given person. Therefore, everything that relates to the tasks of perfect humility (neutralization of the thought of one's superiority, acceptance of the will of God in relation to oneself as it is, following the example of humility of the Lord Himself) is also present here. But it is present in abundance.
By submitting to an equal, a person learns to be aware of his unpreferability over those like himself. He also learns to believe that God directs the actions of other people, and therefore, obeying equals, he obeys the will of God and, perhaps, the lesson that the Lord will teach all participants in one or another life situation. Keeping on a level with the lower, a person remembers that he himself can be among them. On the other hand, he also remembers that all people are created in the image and likeness of God, and therefore this spiritual equality of people must be recognized and implemented by him with all people without exception.
How formal is this division of humility into degrees, and is it possible to go straight to the highest humility, bypassing the previous stages? Sober-minded people rightly believe that the path of spiritual perfection is a long and difficult path. It is easy to fall into self-deception, and take your dreams of humility for humility itself, it is easy to dream of a great burden, being too lazy to bear a small one. A careful consideration of even the first degrees of humility will show that they are also very difficult to fulfill, that here too much work of the mind and accustoming to the discipline of feelings and actions are required. It is impossible to build a building of perfect humility on sand; it needs a strong foundation in the form of the habit of living according to the first degrees.
Yes, and the path of humility itself means the knowledge of our deep weakness in everything, including the ability to humility. Therefore, Rev. Ambrose speaks of the degrees of humility in yet another sense:
“... I sincerely wish you a spiritual ascent by decent and legitimate degrees, from which the first and most important thing is the knowledge of our deep spiritual and bodily weakness. The second legitimate degree is self-reproach, i.e. in every unpleasant and regrettable case, blaming yourself, and not others. The third degree is the grateful patience of the mournful temptations that meet and comprehend us. From these three degrees, the fourth is born - the beginning of humility, if the first three were dissolved by faith and prayerful disposition and turning to the Lord, according to the prescribed rules of the Orthodox Church and the instructions of the holy fathers, who went through spiritual life by experience and showed us the paths of salvation. However, I’ll say it easier - when it’s on the steps, when it’s simple, on even or uneven space, but you should always try to walk in humility, according to the commandments of the Lord. ” .
If we have weakness in everything, then we must see it; if we see, then we must also reproach ourselves for not doing the right thing and doing the wrong thing; we reproach ourselves, which means we blame ourselves, and not others; as soon as we are guilty, then we must accept the mournful temptations with gratitude, as a medicine that produces a healing effect in us. And only from all of the above is born the beginning of humility, its first and still weak shoots that need to be developed and strengthened.
Rev. Ambrose also speaks of a paradoxical thing, of humility in the face of one's inability to properly humble oneself. He says that we must try to walk in humility, even if we cannot learn it by degrees, but we have to walk through the even or uneven space of our life circumstances.
Therefore, learning humility consists in the unity of two processes: (1) moving along the degrees of relationships with other people, (2) moving along the degrees of awareness of one's weakness and the ability to correctly respond to weakness. In this duality lies the intricacy of people's path to humility. When we approach a matter one-sidedly, for example, when we learn to humble ourselves before people and seem to reach the point of recognizing ourselves as the worst of all, we often lose sight of our great weakness in the ability to humble ourselves. Some time passes, and our experience unexpectedly proves that we easily pass from humility to extreme degrees of conceit and irritation, which, as you know, are very sinful states.
Rev. Nikon helps us understand and solve this problem:
“Humbly considering yourself always, until death, capable of any sin, small and large (according to our understanding), we must earnestly pray to the Lord for help, “let us not enter into misfortune.” Self-conceit does not care about preserving itself and is the cause of great falls; temptations take over and overthrow a person"; .
So, humility is given to a person to a decisive extent by the Lord, and not by his own efforts. He who trusts in his own efforts and is carried away by them is put to shame by his weakness; he who takes his desire for humility is brought down by temptations. Probably, the path to humility will be easier for us if we simply accept as inevitable our inability to properly humble ourselves, and pay more attention to humility in its very first stages, without looking ahead and constantly praying to God for help in this important matter for us. At the same time, one must always remember that although it is within easy reach from humility to insubordination, a resigned person will always go a longer way than an unrepentant one.
2.4. HUMILITY IN WORLDLY LIFE"
A feature of the Optina eldership was its great concern for the life of the laity. And if the elders attached such great importance to humility, then they instructed in it, of course, not only monks. Today, it is the application of the senile teaching on humility to the circumstances of everyday life in the world that is of particular interest. Worldly people live in a dynamic, complex world with its own problems and its own rules. Therefore, the path of humility here should be understood somewhat differently than in a monastery.
One must take into account the differences in the content of the monastic and lay paths. The monastic path is an extreme path, built on pure prayer, asceticism and achievement. Therefore, this path is the lot of the chosen few. It is spiritually higher than the worldly path, because it represents, in fact, the concentration on the spiritual life, for which the world is left. Through prayer, humility and achievement, grace and spiritual gifts are acquired here that are inaccessible in the world. Through grace and spiritual gifts, a monk serves people (especially worldly ones), making up for their lack of prayerfulness, humility, and repentance.
The worldly way of the believer is the normal, ordinary way. There is no departure from the world for the sake of total concentration on the spiritual, but there is also no abandonment of spirituality; the worldly path is a synthesis of the spiritual and the material. Orientation towards asceticism here gives way to the desire for the fullness of earthly existence, asceticism is replaced by moderation. The worldly path is spiritually lower than the monastic one, but it has more opportunities for the creative realization of the individual and more freedom to choose a lifestyle. This is the mass path, accessible and acceptable to most people.
From the church's point of view, both paths are necessary and complement each other. The monastic path is necessary to solve the difficult tasks of saving many people, the worldly path is needed to prolong the human race and create worthy conditions for existence on earth. In a sense, the combination of the two paths can be revealed through the image of the cross, in which the monastic path forms the vertical, and the mundane horizontal side.
The specificity of the Orthodox view of both these paths lies in the fact that the monastic path is recognized as more significant, although the secular path, of course, is not rejected and is blessed. This is due to the fact that the monastic tradition in Orthodoxy is much more developed than the secular one, and it was the monks, especially the elders, who showed the greatest spiritual achievements here. There is another reason - the well-known lack of interest among Orthodox theologians and Orthodox Christians in general in worldly life, which is often understood as too gray and boring.
As a result, Orthodox laity have a certain duality of consciousness. They live in the world and are forced to perform worldly duties, but their ideal is the monastic, not the worldly, path. Therefore, in the depths of the soul, an Orthodox always has a craving for a monastery, sometimes a distinct, and sometimes a vague hope that the circumstances of life will change, and the mantle will replace the worldly dress.
But the years go by, and hopes do not come true. People cannot get into the monastery, but they are also rather indifferent to their worldly affairs - they do not want to become good professionals in any field, they do not strive for prosperity, they are ashamed of the usual manifestations of worldly life - for example, interest in erotica, rock music, etc. .d. If this conflict of consciousness reaches great tension, then it can provoke the disintegration of the family, discord with friends and the appearance of a general feeling of unsuccessful life.
How to be in this situation from the point of view of the teaching of the Optina elders about humility? The first degree of humility is the recognition of one's deep weakness. A layman must honestly admit to himself that he is not strong enough to choose the narrow monastic path, and even more severely, that he is unworthy of this path. And to give up the illusion that worldly life is just a preparation for monasticism.
The second side of such a decision is to equally humbly accept the worldly path as natural and objectively the most acceptable (ie, feasible and desirable) for oneself. And therefore, treat the worldly path as a sphere of one's interests and achievements, and more importantly, as a sphere in which one should give one's life a charitable character.
According to the teachings of the Optina Elders, the circumstances of life do not develop randomly - they are predetermined by God. And therefore, if a worldly situation steadily develops in life ( good family, work, etc.), and going to a monastery doesn’t work out and it doesn’t work out, then you need to think carefully about whether we are called to the monastic life? Do we think to succeed in what He has not given us, at the cost of neglecting what He has given us? Of course, I'm not talking about those who sooner or later will leave for the monastery, but about those who will not leave.
Acceptance of worldly life as one's path is not a defeat in the struggle for a higher ideal and the replacement of this ideal with some kind of surrogate. It's just that everyone is good in their place, and to find one's place in life means to find in it a place for the realization of one's personal ideal. If an Orthodox Christian mentally dwells in a monastic monastery, but lives in the world and fulfills worldly duties, then he lives in a contradictory and non-optimal way.
The first result of humbly accepting one's path is to eliminate such inconsistencies and find inner integrity. Thought turns to the immediate tasks of a person - work, family and other areas of social life. These spheres cease to be temporary and insignificant, they become areas of constant interest in which the most important life tasks must be solved. Moreover, the worldly path is gradually beginning to be realized as the most acceptable way for a given person to realize his spiritual interests.
In a situation where a person cannot (weak) choose the option of ultimate spiritual self-giving and ascetic limitation of his natural needs, he involuntarily looks for more moderate, balanced options for organizing his life. This balance naturally manifests itself in a more or less even distribution of interests, time, effort and other resources to ensure the entire spectrum of spiritual, mental and bodily needs.
In the usual case, this means that none of the components of the layman's life receives unconditional dominance over the other. There is gospel reading for the spirit, but there is also family, work, friends, and hobbies for soul and body. While the lack of concentration on the spiritual does not give a layman the opportunity to achieve significant results, for example, in prayer, it (lack of concentration) simultaneously excludes an unbearable ascetic load (fasting, vigil, solitude, silence, etc.).
And yet, the feasibility of tasks is not the only plus of the circumstances of a layman's life. In fact, this life can be and even expediently organized on the basis of a different (non-ascetic) approach, namely, on the basis of striving for the fullness of earthly existence. The principle of the fullness of earthly existence means that in a person not only his spiritual beginning is subject to development, but also the spiritual and bodily forms of his life on earth.
Unlike a monk, who is called upon to limit in every possible way the mental and bodily aspects of his life, reducing them to the minimum possible, a layman should not limit such aspects, but develop. The range of natural, and therefore unreprehensible needs of a layman is quite wide: the need for procreation, married life with a full-fledged erotic content, work and work, creative aspirations, aesthetic needs (craving for art, literature, etc.), social needs (communication with friends), cognitive interests in a broad sense (science, travel, etc.), physical education, sports, hobbies, etc.
The development of the natural aspects of worldly life here means assigning them a certain place in a person's life, sufficient from the point of view of the individual for its full existence and self-realization. At the same time, the named development itself must be orderly.
2.5. MIDDLE AND SMALL WAY»
Orderliness is achieved through prioritization and moderation. For a believing layman, the spiritual area always remains a priority, and therefore faith and church life are given a dominant place. Then come the basic forms of earthly existence - family and work, then others. Moderation is needed so that some aspects do not receive hypertrophied development (for example, hobbies do not have a negative impact on family life) or do not violate the priority tasks of the individual (the theater would not replace the temple).
From the point of view of the relationship between the spiritual and the material, the worldly path is median way, from the point of view of the spiritual hierarchy, it is small path. The attractiveness of the middle way for the average person lies in the fact that it excludes extreme, extreme conditions of life, is generally accessible and even comfortable. But even the smallness of the path has significant advantages and attractiveness. And that's why.
The small (in the spiritual sense) path of a person lies in the fact that a person is mainly left to himself, is responsible, first of all, for himself and his actions, and has the opportunity to choose a lifestyle in accordance with the tasks of developing his personality. There is also spiritual responsibility for others, but it is actualized only to the extent that a person has learned to be responsible for himself. Therefore, a person on a small path is focused on his spiritual and material needs, and his spiritual leaders - earthly and heavenly - provide him with the opportunity to satisfy these needs and solve the problems of development specifically. his personality.
In practice, this means that a worldly person chooses the spheres of life that interest him and carries out a free synthesis of these spheres, determining the place of each of them and the nature of their combination on his own. life path. Those. a person freely decides how much to pray, how much to preach, how much to make pilgrimages, how much to read spiritual books, how much to do charity, etc. This refers to his spiritual life.
But the same principle applies in social life and material matters. A person should just as freely determine where and how to work, how much money to earn and how much wealth to have, how many children to give birth in marriage, what leisure to choose and what issues to be interested in (politics, art, sports or anything else).
Making a choice of his spiritual and material interests, combining them according to the characteristics of his personality, a worldly person comes to a certain image or style of life, which is most consistent with his ideas about what exactly him or her needed in this earthly life. But a believing layman (laywoman) at the same time ensures the primacy of the spiritual side of life, and this means that he or she carries out a synthesis of various aspects of his life on the basis of faith and spiritual worldview, in this case, on the basis of the Orthodox faith and the Orthodox worldview.
In turn, this predetermines the understanding of what this most free synthesis of various aspects of life is in its inner sense. This experience A diverse and not devoid of pleasant features of life is needed by worldly people in order to experience and realize that life is a priceless gift of God, and to be affirmed in their faith in the Creator of their life and themselves.
In itself, worldly life is not objectionable, even when its spiritual aspects occupy a relatively modest place, while social and material ones occupy a fairly large one. But we must remember that worldly life should not only be unreprehensible, but also pleasing to God. And she becomes charitable through humility, which, as the Optina elders have repeatedly emphasized, sanctifies our life.
We must humbly accept our inability (weakness) to pray to the point of weeping for everyone, to carry the word of God to everyone we meet on our way, to help people always and to do the commandments of God in everything, to forget about ourselves for the sake of all that has just been listed. And we must humbly accept our need for material prosperity and our desire for the ordinary pleasures of life, our tendency to desire peace and avoid too difficult trials.
“Humility is salvation without labor,” the Holy Fathers said, and their words are well suited to the circumstances of worldly life. However, these words should not be understood in the sense that the worldly path consists in minimizing difficulties and simplifying life's tasks. The peculiarity of the life of a layman lies in the fact that his occupations are quite diverse and intersect with the activities of a large number of people. This objectively requires good organization, purposefulness and commitment.
Organization and focus are worldly equivalents monastic asceticism and monastic feat. In the world, you need to be able to set positive goals for yourself and achieve them on the basis of a good organization of your life. Under the good organization of life here is understood not only the presence in it of a certain plan, routine and control. To a large extent, we are talking about the relatively unhindered and timely implementation of significant personality traits: intuition, innovation, consistency, breadth of approach, mobilization, harmony, diligence, creative brightness, traditionalism, awareness, productivity, energy, etc.
The organization of the personality is also achieved on the basis of humility. First of all, a humble person avoids setting himself ambitious and impossible goals, and does not consider such things as fame, money, influence as independent and self-sufficient values. A humble person strives for morality and the realization of basic values - to get an education, find an occupation for one's soul, form a family, etc.
Those. humility in this case consists in not sacrificing a person's natural and optimal order of life to the cravings for luxury, fame, or continuous pleasure. Instead, a serious approach is chosen and great attention is paid to creating a family, obtaining the necessary knowledge, and searching for a sphere of manifestation of creative potential.
A humble layman strives to do everything necessary in life, but does not seek to predetermine the final result of his actions, leaving it to the will of God. Therefore, for example, before entering into marriage, believing worldly people will conduct an internal moral work in order to develop a stable orientation towards marital fidelity and love, and having met the appropriate candidate, they will talk in detail about family life and do not forget to discuss the intimate details of it. But at the same time, they will still pray for the gift of a husband or wife, and with their hearts look for a sign of blessing from above in a potential chosen one or chosen one.
In this division of the sphere of one's efforts and personal responsibility, and the sphere of action of the will of God, lies the strong side of humility, which makes it more effective than incentives built on personal ambitions. A humble person entrusts himself to the will of God and believes that the main events of his life, as well as its general course, are determined by the Lord. Therefore, no matter how modest and inconspicuous his life may be, its significant results will always be greater than those that could be achieved through all more or less selfish motivations.
This idea can be expressed in a slightly different way. Humility is the optimal mode of personality development, in which it is not drawn into vanity or craving for something like big money into unrealizable projects, on the one hand, and on the other hand, they are not too lazy to use their resources (knowledge, inclinations, etc.) to implement feasible tasks. The essence of the humble approach is the expectation that you will give a person everything that he needs, and to the extent that he needs.
Returning to the above definition of the worldly path as the fullness of earthly existence, the following should be noted. Man must go through simple shapes life and know their joy. He must be convinced that life is a priceless gift of God, which remains such only on the condition that life itself is organized on the basis of God's commandments. Where we sin, and sin especially grievously, there life turns into a punishment.
Ideally, the worldly path consists in the successive passage of the stages objectively necessary for a person: at first, these stages are associated mainly with the solution of his personal tasks, the arrangement of his personal life and the knowledge of its joy, from which comes the spiritual maturation of a person; then, with spiritual growth, comes the realization of the need ministries God and people in everything. As a reflection of a person’s gradual transition to more spiritual tasks, in his personal synthesis of the diverse aspects of life, an increase in spiritual elements (prayers, sermons, help, etc.) and a weakening of hedonistic ones (fun feasts, hobbies, etc.) will begin to be observed.
This understanding of worldly life leads to the conclusion that in Orthodox tradition not studied in depth. Namely: worldly life can be a path to holiness, the realization of that lofty spiritual ideal for which monasticism is so glorious. Over time, the task of achieving holiness through humility will inevitably be set before the laity.
The actual behavior of Orthodox Christians in society can by no means always be regarded as humble. This causes many problems and misunderstandings. Once again: humility sanctifies our life and gives the grace of a precious world. It is also the path to God. Therefore, one must humble oneself everywhere and always: in social activities, marriage, church life, and so on.
Humility is a golden rule that does not allow us to become an obstacle in exercising the legitimate rights of people of a worldview other than ourselves, in situations that we do not fully understand due to the natural limitations that we have: in knowledge, in mind, in goodwill, finally .
On the other hand, humility focuses on the real tasks of the overwhelming majority of us: to work well in the world, to patiently bring the Gospel and the patristic Tradition to at least a few friends or relatives, to pray for them and help them to the best of our ability.
It is very important to accept people for who they are and build normal human relationships with them. And remember that people have God-given freedom, which must be respected. Such respect is manifested in the refusal to impose on others one's way of thinking and one's way of life, in the ability to be attentive and friendly to all people without exception. This means that one should not dismiss the religious, political and cultural pluralism of modern society, and not perceive it as a collection of various delusions, but treat it as a natural and inevitable path of social development, in which everyone decides for himself, and has the right to decide for himself, what faith he or she should profess, what political ideals to adhere to, what culture to identify with.
Humility is not easy, but there is a kind of "technology" of humility. As revealed by Rev. Ambrose, you can move towards humility through the degrees of humility.
In relations with people, it is necessary to put yourself in the place of the worst, and thereby avoid the temptation of pride. It is through pride that the seduction comes to us that we understand everything correctly and better than others, that our role is to be leaders of other people, and the role of others is to agree with us. When life does not confirm these illusions, and there is no humility, it is the turn of the movement through the degrees of pride, which, alas, always precedes the fall.
In relation to the events of our life, we must remember our weakness and sinfulness, and therefore give the course of life to the will of God. Humility is not passivity – it is a way to properly fulfill the tasks set before us by God. Insubordination stains simple life in dull, gray tones, from which an unhumble person wants to run away to where he will be praised, where he will enjoy influence and feel himself the center of attention. And life turns into a run on the spot, when, no matter how much you run, this goal cannot be achieved.
But she, this goal, is nearby. The imperishable beauty of a meek and humble spirit, is this not the abode of our true life?
He who has succeeded in the highest humility, hearing reproaches, will not be troubled by the soul from the fact that they dishonor him with words, since he himself recognizes himself even more worthy of humiliation.
St. Basil the Great
The thought of oneself having reached the height of humility serves as a reason for exaltation.
St. Basil the Great
Humility of mind consists in considering everyone to be the most excellent of yourself.
St. Basil the Great
The humble is not the one who speaks little about himself, in front of a few and rarely, and not the one who treats the lower ones with humiliation, but the one who modestly speaks about God, who knows what to say, what to be silent about, what to admit his ignorance of. who gives way to the one who has the power to speak and agrees that there are people who are more spiritual than him and more successful in speculation.
St. Gregory the Theologian
Be ready at every accusatory word you hear to say: “Forgive me,” because such humility frustrates all the intrigues of the enemy.
Rev. Anthony the Great
The humble never falls, and where should he fall if he is the lowest? A humble heart is a strong man from a strong man.
Rev. Mark the Ascetic
God Himself reveals their sins to humble people so that they may recognize them and repent.
Rev. Isaiah the Hermit
Humility is when a person considers himself a sinner who has done nothing good before God.
Rev. Isaiah the Hermit
He is more courageous who submits his will to the will of his brother than he who is stubborn in defending and holding his opinions.
Rev. John Cassian
It is necessary to acquire true humility of the heart, which consists not in outward pretense and in words, but in sincere humiliation of the spirit. It manifests itself in clear signs of patience, not when he himself will be conceited of his vices, incredible for others, but when he is not offended if others ascribe to him, and with meekness of heart and complacency he endures the insults inflicted by others.
Rev. John Cassian
A purer look more and notices, an irreproachable life gives rise to great sorrow of self-reproach, the correction of morals and zeal for virtues multiply groans and sighs. For no one can be satisfied with the degree of perfection to which he has succeeded, and whoever is purer in spirit, the more he sees himself impure, the more he finds reasons for humility. And the sooner he strives for heights, the more he sees that he has more left to strive for.
Rev. John Cassian
A humble man will not be stubborn or lazy, even if he is called to work at midnight.
Rev. Ephraim Sirin
Whoever does not want to voluntarily humble himself out of piety will be humbled involuntarily (Job 12:16-21).
Rev. Ephraim Sirin
The humble, even if he sins, it is easy to repent, but the proud, even if he is righteous, easily becomes a sinner.
Rev. Ephraim Sirin
Humble sinners are justified even without good deeds, but the righteous ruin many of their labors for pride.
Rev. Ephraim Sirin
Humble your soul to the dust, so that your dust may rise and rise.
Rev. Ephraim Sirin
Demons often bring humiliation and reproach on the humble-wise, so that, not enduring undeserved contempt, they leave humility. But the one who courageously endures dishonor in humility, thereby rises to the height of humility.
Rev. Nile of Sinai
If you bear in your conscience a great burden of sins and at the same time admit that you are the last of all, then you will have great boldness before God, although there is still no humility for a sinner to consider himself a sinner. Humility of wisdom consists in not thinking anything great about yourself, realizing that there are many great things behind you.
St. John Chrysostom
There are many types of humility. Sometimes humility is acquired through sorrows, misfortunes and oppression from people. But true humility comes when we turn from our sins.
St. John Chrysostom
The humble is not caught by any passion. Neither anger, nor love of glory, nor envy, nor jealousy can revolt him. And what can be higher than the soul, alien to these passions?
St. John Chrysostom
If necessity forces one to humble oneself against one's will, then this is not a matter of the mind and will, but of necessity. Humility is so called because it is the subduing of thought.
St. John Chrysostom
As many are vain because they are not vainglorious, so humility (insincere) due to arrogance is extolled.
St. John Chrysostom
Truly, he knows himself best of all who considers himself to be nothing. Nothing is more pleasing to God than to count oneself among the last.
St. John Chrysostom
Humility is the offspring of a high soul and soaring to heaven, while pride is a product of a low and very thin soul.
Rev. Isidore Peluciot
It is not the one who shows humility who condemns himself, but the one who, being rooted by others, does not diminish love for him.
Rev. John of the Ladder
Whoever hates dishonor hates humility, and whoever shuns those who grieve him, he flees from meekness.
Rev. John of the Ladder
When the sacred grape of humility begins to flourish in us, then we, albeit with difficulty, will hate all human glory, driving away irritability from ourselves.
Rev. John of the Ladder
In the one who is united with humility, there is not a trace of hatred, no form of contradiction, no will of disobedience, except where it is a matter of faith.
Rev. John of the Ladder
If our thought no longer boasts of natural talents, then this is a sign of beginning health.
Rev. John of the Ladder
Then you will surely know that the holy being of humility is in you when you are filled with inexpressible light and inexpressible love for prayer.
Rev. John of the Ladder
It is a sign of the deepest humility of wisdom when a person, for the sake of humiliation, in some cases takes upon himself such guilt that he does not have.
Rev. John of the Ladder
Whoever asks from God for less than what he deserves, he, of course, will receive more than what he is worth.
Rev. John of the Ladder
The humble wise always abhors his own will, as sinful, even in his petitions to the Lord.
Rev. John of the Ladder
In humility from keeping the commandments there is a certain habit of humility, and this cannot be expressed in words.
Abba Dorotheos
Bodily labors lead to humility. How? - The soul, as it were, sympathizes with the body and sympathizes with everything that is done with the body. Work humbles the body, and when the body humbles, the soul humbles.
Abba Dorotheos
Everyone who prays to God: “Lord, give me humility” should know that he is asking God to send him someone to offend him. So, when someone offends him, he himself must annoy himself and humiliate himself mentally, so that at the time when another humbles him from the outside, he himself humbles himself inwardly.
Abba Dorotheos
The humble-minded constantly guards himself from everything much, and then it turns out that at all times he is in silence, at rest, at peace, in modesty, in reverence.
Rev. Isaac Sirin
Without offences, the mind cannot be humble.
Rev. Isaac Sirin
It is better that you be considered uneducated for your lack of ability to rebuke, than one of the wise for shamelessness.
Rev. Isaac Sirin
If you want to know if you are humble, then test yourself to see if you are confused when you are accused.
Rev. Isaac Sirin
The prayer of the humble wise, as it were, directly from the mouth - into the ears of the Lord.
Rev. Isaac Sirin
A person who has reached to know the measure of his weakness has reached the perfection of humility.
Rev. Isaac Sirin
He who is not peaceful is not humble, and he who is not peaceful is not humble.
Rev. Isaac Sirin
Humility of wisdom comes to a partaker of holy knowledge in two ways: when an ascetic of piety is in the middle of spiritual prosperity, then the humblest mindset about himself is kept in him either for the sake of bodily weakness, or for the sake of unpleasantness on the part of warring nonzealous people about a righteous life, or for the sake of crafty thoughts. When the mind, in full feeling and authentically, is illuminated by holy grace, then the soul will begin to have humility of wisdom, as if by its natural disposition. For, being saturated with grace, it can no longer be puffed up and saturated with love of glory. Although he constantly fulfills the commandments, he considers himself the most insignificant of all. That humility of mind is accompanied, for the most part, by sadness and discouragement, but this is accompanied by joy with all-wise shame. But the ascetic reaches the last only by passing through the first, for grace does not give us the wealth of the second, if it does not first soften our will by testing through the field of the battle of passions.
Blzh. Diadoch
Whatever a humble person suffers or hears, he takes from this an occasion to blaspheme and humiliate himself.
Abba Zosima
Humility frees a person from all sin, because it cuts off the passions of the soul and body.
Rev. Maxim the Confessor
Humility is born from pure prayer, with tears and pain. For she, always calling on God for help, does not allow foolishly relying on her own strength and wisdom and exalting herself above others.
Rev. Maxim the Confessor
With all your senses consider yourself an ant and a worm, in order to become a God-created man. For if this does not happen before, this will not follow. How much you go down in a feeling about yourself, how much you rise up in reality.
Rev. Theognost
I'll tell you a strange word, but don't be surprised. Even if you do not achieve dispassion due to, perhaps, tyrannical predispositions, but being in deep feelings of humility at the time of the exodus, nothing less than passionless, you will ascend on the clouds. For the one who has acquired humility, it delivers not only propitiation before God, but also an entrance together with the elect into the bridal chamber of His Kingdom.
Rev. Theognost
The degree of self-knowledge and theology is determined by the degree of humility and meekness.
Rev. Simeon the New Theologian
When you have humility of mind and exercise such thoughts in your mind, then the Lord will immediately come to you, embrace you and kiss you, give the right Spirit in your heart, the Spirit of deliverance and forgiveness of your sins, crown you with His gifts. Then every slander of the enemy against the soul will remain unsuccessful. All sinful passions will disappear in it and the fruits of the Holy Spirit will multiply. This is then followed by Divine knowledge, wisdom, glory, the abyss of hidden thoughts and mysteries of Christ. Whoever reaches such a state and qualifies in such a way, he is changed by a good change and becomes an earthly angel. With his body he communicates with people in this world, but in spirit he walks in heaven and communicates with the angels and from inexpressible joy spreads in the love of God, to which no one can ever approach unless he first purifies his heart with repentance and many tears and does not reach the depth of humility of wisdom. to receive the Holy Spirit into your soul.
Rev. Simeon the New Theologian
The more one descends into the depths of humility and condemns himself as unworthy of salvation, the more he weeps and draws out fountains of tears. As tears and weeping radiate spiritual joy in his heart, and along with it hope radiates and grows and gives the surest evidence of salvation.
Rev. Simeon the New Theologian
Humility calms the nerves, tames the movement of blood, destroys daydreaming, mortifies the life of falling, enlivens the life in Christ Jesus.
St. Ignaty Brianchaninov
In contrast to vanity, which spreads a person's thoughts throughout the universe, humility concentrates them in the spirit, leads to a prolific and deep self-view, to mental silence.
St. Ignaty Brianchaninov
Humility does not see itself as humble; on the contrary, it sees a lot of pride in itself.
St. Ignaty Brianchaninov
Out of perfect humility and perfect submission to the will of God, the purest holy prayer is born.
St. Ignaty Brianchaninov
Humbleness means realizing one's fall, one's sinfulness, due to which a person has become an outcast being, devoid of any dignity.
St. Ignaty Brianchaninov
The best or only path to humility is obedience and renunciation of one's own will. Without renouncing one's will, one can develop satanic pride in oneself by being humble in word and posture.
St. Theophan the Recluse
If you do not humble yourself in your thoughts, humility will not come without humility.
St. Theophan the Recluse
Simplicity is an inseparable feature of humility, therefore, when there is no simplicity, there is no humility.
St. Theophan the Recluse
One day a certain man, having a demon-possessed man with him, came to the Thebaid to an old man to heal him. The elder said to the demon: "Get out of God's creation!" The demon answered the elder: “I’m going out, but I’ll ask you one word, tell me, who are the goats in the Gospel, and who are the lambs?” The elder said: "I am the goat, but God knows the lambs." The demon, hearing this, cried out: “Here I go out according to your humility,” and went out immediately.
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