Humility by Elder Sergei of Vanves

This book is available from St John's Monastery Bookstore

"Humility is both the foundation of the spiritual life, and along with

love, its peak. 

God resists the proud, but He gives His Grace to the humble. The

Elder repeated the teaching of St Isaac the Syrian, who said that

no one can approach God except through humility. Without

humility we cannot do anything at all. Without humility, our

entire spiritual life becomes utterly meaningless and all of  our 

other virtues become totally worthless. Therefore we must

seek humility above all. Humility along with love is one

of the higher, more direct paths to salvation.

We must seek humility rather than holiness, because any 

holiness we might acquire without humility is nothing but

vain pretension. After all, the demons are nothing but fallen

angels who were perfect by virtue of being angels, but who became

demons by forgetting humility. This very same fate shall

be ours if we look for holiness without first acquiring

humility.

We should test our level of humility not just before

God but before our neighbor. We do this by not

concerning ourselves with our neighbor's reactions

to our humility, meaning that we shouldn't be upset

by our neighbor's sense of superiority when he 

encounters our humility nor should we fear that we

will be abused because of our humility. The Elder

remarked that there were many men in the past who

profited from the humility of the saints. The only thing

that matters to the humble man is what God thinks

of our attitude."

Elder Sergei of Vanves, Life & Teachings p.76-77 , by

Jean-Claude Larchet, Divine Ascent Press,

Manton, CA 2012