Quote for the Day: Pride & the Ladder of Humility

[Shin]

'Whoever will proudly dispute or contradict, will always stand without the door. Christ, the master of humility, manifests His truth only to the humble and hides Himself from the proud.'

St. Vincent Ferrer

[Shin]

Pride is such a killer!

God help us!  

Help us to be humble!

[Brigid]

In my confessions I can easily put everything down to pride. Even with working a lot on humility, I know it will be "10 minutes after death" that pride will be defeated.

[Patricia]

Humility of Christ teach me....

[Patricia]

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.”

---- St. Augustine

[Brigid]

Does anyone have a list (like on the other thread with St. Alphonsus Liguori 50 maxims) of things that will help with humility (I'm familiar with the cardinal's prayer)?

[Shin]

Quoting some resources..

Saint Benedict laid down twelve degrees of humility:

1. Holy fear of God, walking in the Divine Presence.
2. Renunciation of our own will.
3. Ready obedience.
4. Patience in all sufferings and injuries.
5. Telling our spiritual director or our superior all our thoughts and plans.
6. To enjoy all humiliations, to be pleased with the worst jobs, poor clothing, to love simplicity and poverty.
7. To consider ourselves less than everyone else.
8. To avoid all love of singularity in words and actions.
9. To love and practice silence.
10. To avoid dissolute laughter and jokes.
11. Never to speak in a loud voice and always be modest in our choice of words.
12. To be humble in all of our actions.

He adds that divine love is the payment for sincere humility and promises perfect chastity to anyone who follows these 12 degrees.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote on the subject, the translation of his rendition of St. Benedict's 12 degrees is this, in reverse order as a ladder:

XII. A permanent attitude of bodily; and spiritual prostration.
XI. The speech of a monk should be short, sensible and in a subdued tone.
X. Abstinence from frequent and light laughter.
IX. Reticence, until asked for his opinion.
VIII. Observance of the general rule of the monastery.
VII. Belief in and declaration of one's inferiority to others.
VI. Admission and acknowledgment of one's own unworthiness and useless-ness.
V. Confession of sins.
IV. Patient endurance of hardship and severity in a spirit of obedience.
III. Obedient submission to superiors.
II. Forbearance to press personal desire.
I. Constant abstinence from sin for fear of God.

And adds: THE TWELVE DEGREES OF PRIDE

TAKEN DOWNWARDS

I. Curiosity, when a man allows His sight and other senses to stray after things which do not concern him.
II. An unbalanced state of mind, showing itself in talk unseasonably joyous and sad.
III. Silly merriment, exhibited in too frequent laughter.
IV. Conceit, expressed in much talking.
V. Eccentricity attaching exaggerated importance to one's own conduct.
VI. Self-assertion holding oneself to be more pious than others.
VII. Presumption readiness to undertake anything.
VIII. Defence of wrong-doing.
IX. Unreal confession detected when severe penance is imposed.
X. Rebellion against the rules and the brethren.
XI. Liberty to sin.
XII. Habitual transgression.

For which we have a drawing:

[Shin]

Just to make it more complicated.. no more helpful with more info. .  St. Anselm gives his own version, that is seven degrees of humility which are:

1) To acknowledge oneself contemptible;
2) To grieve on account of this;
3) To confess or admit we are so;
4) To convince our neighbor of this, that is to wish them to believe it;
5) To bear patiently that this be said of us;
6) To suffer oneself to be treated with contempt
7) To love being thus treated

[Brigid]

Quoting some resources..

Saint Benedict laid down twelve degrees of humility:

1. Holy fear of God, walking in the Divine Presence.
2. Renunciation of our own will.
3. Ready obedience.
4. Patience in all sufferings and injuries.
5. Telling our spiritual director or our superior all our thoughts and plans.
6. To enjoy all humiliations, to be pleased with the worst jobs, poor clothing, to love simplicity and poverty.
7. To consider ourselves less than everyone else.
8. To avoid all love of singularity in words and actions.
9. To love and practice silence.
10. To avoid dissolute laughter and jokes.
11. Never to speak in a loud voice and always be modest in our choice of words.
12. To be humble in all of our actions.

He adds that divine love is the payment for sincere humility and promises perfect chastity to anyone who follows these 12 degrees.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote on the subject, the translation of his rendition of St. Benedict's 12 degrees is this, in reverse order as a ladder:

XII. A permanent attitude of bodily; and spiritual prostration.
XI. The speech of a monk should be short, sensible and in a subdued tone.
X. Abstinence from frequent and light laughter.
IX. Reticence, until asked for his opinion.
VIII. Observance of the general rule of the monastery.
VII. Belief in and declaration of one's inferiority to others.
VI. Admission and acknowledgment of one's own unworthiness and useless-ness.
V. Confession of sins.
IV. Patient endurance of hardship and severity in a spirit of obedience.
III. Obedient submission to superiors.
II. Forbearance to press personal desire.
I. Constant abstinence from sin for fear of God.

And adds: THE TWELVE DEGREES OF PRIDE

TAKEN DOWNWARDS

I. Curiosity, when a man allows His sight and other senses to stray after things which do not concern him.
II. An unbalanced state of mind, showing itself in talk unseasonably joyous and sad.
III. Silly merriment, exhibited in too frequent laughter.
IV. Conceit, expressed in much talking.
V. Eccentricity attaching exaggerated importance to one's own conduct.
VI. Self-assertion holding oneself to be more pious than others.
VII. Presumption readiness to undertake anything.
VIII. Defence of wrong-doing.
IX. Unreal confession detected when severe penance is imposed.
X. Rebellion against the rules and the brethren.
XI. Liberty to sin.
XII. Habitual transgression.

For which we have a drawing:

What do the bolded ones mean?

[Shin]

I can see I'm going to have to upload St. Bernard's little book on this subject.

I am working to make it easier for me to update the websites at the moment, once that is done I should be able to put it up.

IX. Is false confessions and exaggerated guilt, the pretense of humility, to put one in the good graces of others or for some other manipulative purpose. False tears and sighs and groans.. But when the penalty is given for this false confession the confessed resents having to pay any..

VII. Is audacity, which St. Bernard says, 'For if a man thinks himself superior to others, is it likely that he will not push himself in front of them? he is the first to take his seat at meetings, the first to intervene in debate. He comes forward without invitation, and with no introduction but his own; he re-opens questions that have been settled, and goes again over work that has been done.'

[Brigid]

I can see I'm going to have to upload St. Bernard's little book on this subject.

I am working to make it easier for me to update the websites at the moment, once that is done I should be able to put it up.

IX. Is false confessions and exaggerated guilt, the pretense of humility, to put one in the good graces of others or for some other manipulative purpose. False tears and sighs and groans.. But when the penalty is given for this false confession the confessed resents having to pay any..

VII. Is audacity, which St. Bernard says, 'For if a man thinks himself superior to others, is it likely that he will not push himself in front of them? he is the first to take his seat at meetings, the first to intervene in debate. He comes forward without invitation, and with no introduction but his own; he re-opens questions that have been settled, and goes again over work that has been done.'

Oh, dear!

[martin]

Thankfully I'm already humble hehe. 

You know this virtue is the most important of all and it;s the hardest one to achieve.
I almost give up trying. Even when I think I'm being humble I immediately regognise it and that's worse than if I never had tried to be humble in the first place 
I don't trust myself at all with this virtue and for almost 6 months now I've been praying to St Joseph daily for this.
The problem is,, When you think you have it you know then for sure you don't. 
What a conundrum!!

[Brigid]

martinfegan posted:

Thankfully I'm already humble hehe. 

The problem is,, When you think you have it you know then for sure you don't. What a conundrum!!

That's the truth.

[MarysLittleFlower]

great thread!

I can see I'm going to have to upload St. Bernard's little book on this subject.

I am working to make it easier for me to update the websites at the moment, once that is done I should be able to put it up.

IX. Is false confessions and exaggerated guilt, the pretense of humility, to put one in the good graces of others or for some other manipulative purpose. False tears and sighs and groans.. But when the penalty is given for this false confession the confessed resents having to pay any..

VII. Is audacity, which St. Bernard says, 'For if a man thinks himself superior to others, is it likely that he will not push himself in front of them? he is the first to take his seat at meetings, the first to intervene in debate. He comes forward without invitation, and with no introduction but his own; he re-opens questions that have been settled, and goes again over work that has been done.'

that is interesting to me about false confessions and false guilt.... how do we make a good confession, and how does true contrition differ from false contrition?

I think one time, I experienced false contrition cause it was just guilt and I wasn't turning to God's mercy.. but another time, I felt bad for what I did, but I trusted in His mercy and was open to Him. I think maybe false contrition is focused on the self, and true contrition is focused on God - feeling sorry because you hurt Him, but trusting in His mercy?

[Shin]

I really think the false confessions are about the intent to look good by confessing big sins, which can sound twisted but we've seen crocodile tears before -- politicians are experts at such apologies.

Well there's perfect and imperfect contrition, and for Confession both are good. So.. looking up these and considering the broadness of their definitions might be helpful.

[Brigid]

Just to make it more complicated.. no more helpful with more info. .  St. Anselm gives his own version, that is seven degrees of humility which are:

1) To acknowledge oneself contemptible;
2) To grieve on account of this;
3) To confess or admit we are so;
4) To convince our neighbor of this, that is to wish them to believe it;
5) To bear patiently that this be said of us;
6) To suffer oneself to be treated with contempt
7) To love being thus treated

I've always liked St. Anselm. I do a little better with his list anyway.