{"id":85262,"date":"2015-06-05T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T19:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/?p=85262"},"modified":"2016-05-17T08:12:27","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T15:12:27","slug":"on-humility-and-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/on-humility-and-pride\/","title":{"rendered":"On Humility and Pride"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"monk<\/a>
\nT<\/span>his past week’s readings from the Holy Rule<\/a> have been walking through what the saint calls “the twelve degrees of humility” (RB<\/em>, vii). This, my friends, makes for some sobering reading.<\/p>\n

Of the twelve, if I’m honest, I’m still working on the fourth, never mind those that come after it:<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he fourth degree of humility is, that, if hard and distasteful things are commanded, nay, even though injuries are inflicted, he accept them with patience and even temper, and not grow weary or give up, but hold out, as the Scripture saith: \u201cHe that shall persevere unto the end shall be saved\u201d (Mt 10:22). <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pride has always been one of my downfalls, as indeed it was for the whole human species.<\/p>\n

Saint Benedict spends so much time talking about humility precisely because pride is the ultimate source of all sin. Certainly, Saint Thomas Aquinas thought so, as he explained at length in Summa Theologica<\/em>, IIa-II\u00e6, Q. 162<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From Article 5:<\/p>\n

P<\/span>ride is opposed to humility. Now humility properly regards the subjection of man to God… Hence pride properly regards lack of this subjection, in so far as a man raises himself above that which is appointed to him according to the Divine rule or measure, against the saying of the Apostle (2 Corinthians 10:13), “But we will not glory beyond our measure; but according to the measure of the rule which God hath measured to us.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From Article 7:<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he first thing in every genus is that which is essential. Now it has been stated above (Article 6) that aversion from God, which is the formal complement of sin, belongs to pride essentially, and to other sins, consequently. Hence it is that pride fulfills the conditions of a first thing, and is “the beginning of all sins,” as stated above (I-II, 84, 2), when we were treating of the causes of sin on the part of the aversion which is the chief part of sin. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Look at me. I’m special. I know better – these are all symptoms of pride, and they’re so prevalent in our vain world that they almost don’t elicit notice any more.<\/p>\n

It’s pretty much the entire reason that reality TV exists.<\/p>\n

There’s a particularly insidious form of pride of which I sometimes find myself guilty: spiritual pride<\/em>. Saint John of the Cross sums it up this way:<\/p>\n

S<\/span>ome souls suffer from another kind of spiritual anger. They watch over others with a kind of restless fervor, perpetually annoyed by the transgressions they perceive. The impulse arises to reprove the other souls in an angry way. Sometimes they even indulge this nasty urge, elevating themselves as masters of virtue. This is all quite contrary to spiritual meekness.<\/p>\n

(Dark Night of the Soul<\/em>, Ch. 5)\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pride and anger make a particularly nasty cocktail of sin. We can sometimes delude ourselves into thinking it righteous indignation, but in most cases it just isn’t so.<\/p>\n

So how to fight the human tendency to pride and instead embrace humility? Well, obviously there are Saint Benedict’s degrees of humility to work through. They are, however, written in the language of a spiritual master teaching a novice. Sometimes we might find it harsh rather than merely daunting.<\/p>\n

In tackling Saint Benedict’s degrees of humility (ST<\/em>, IIa-II\u00e6, Q. 161, ad.2<\/a>), Aquinas says something that I find encouraging about how to proceed:<\/p>\n

M<\/span>an arrives at humility in two ways. First and chiefly by a gift of grace, and in this way the inner man precedes the outward man. The other way is by human effort, whereby he first of all restrains the outward man, and afterwards succeeds in plucking out the inward root. It is according to this order that the degrees of humility are here enumerated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let us all pray for grace, and for the strength to restrain our prideful behaviour until we finally succeed in submitting to true interior humility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past week’s readings from the Holy Rule have been walking through what the saint calls “the twelve degrees of humility” (RB, vii). This, my friends, makes for some sobering reading. Of the twelve, if I’m honest, I’m still working on the fourth, never mind those that come after it: The fourth degree of humility is, that, if hard and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meditations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1aGBK-mbc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":88552,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/accept-hard-things-with-patience-and-even-temper\/","url_meta":{"origin":85262,"position":0},"title":"Accept Hard Things with Patience and Even Temper","author":"Thom","date":"02 June 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday evening we had a rehearsal for our Confirmation Mass, to be celebrated tonight. It was a chaotic affair, with Altar Servers, Confirmandi, Sponsors, family, and of course Catechists and Clergy. I wasn't herding cats so much as juggling them. I was hoping that we could be out of there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "community"","block_context":{"text":"community","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89259,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/my-12-favourite-posts-of-2017\/","url_meta":{"origin":85262,"position":1},"title":"My 12 Favourite Posts of 2017","author":"Thom","date":"31 December 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, I posted a list of the most popular posts of the past year on this blog. However, the things I like are not always the most popular. I know this comes as a shock. I've been charitably described as eccentric, and I'm just going to go with that. 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He was a soldier turned monk turned reluctant bishop, and he was one of the first saints to be venerated who wasn't a martyr. Saint\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Annual"","block_context":{"text":"Annual","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/annual\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Icon-of-Saint-Martin-of-Tours.jpg?fit=700%2C493&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Icon-of-Saint-Martin-of-Tours.jpg?fit=700%2C493&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Icon-of-Saint-Martin-of-Tours.jpg?fit=700%2C493&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Icon-of-Saint-Martin-of-Tours.jpg?fit=700%2C493&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":85500,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/prefer-nothing-to-the-love-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":85262,"position":3},"title":"Prefer Nothing to the Love of Christ","author":"Thom","date":"11 July 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This Saint Benedict's feast (or memorial, depending on your calendar), I thought I'd do something a little different. I had hoped to attend Mount Angel Abbey's Saint Benedict Festival today, but unfortunately we had a meeting this morning, and Francine has a wedding shower this afternoon. Maybe next year. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Ephemera"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Ephemera","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/blog-ephemera\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Saint Benedict","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Saint-Benedict-240x240.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":110001,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/happy-martinmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":85262,"position":4},"title":"Happy Martinmas!","author":"Thom","date":"11 November 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"seems fitting that Veterans' Day - Armistice Day - is celebrated on November 11, for this is the memorial of the soldier-saint, Martin of Tours. He was a soldier turned monk turned reluctant bishop, and he was one of the first saints to be venerated who wasn't a martyr. Saint\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Annual"","block_context":{"text":"Annual","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/annual\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/saint-martin-of-tours.jpg?fit=461%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16832,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/canticle-of-brother-sun\/","url_meta":{"origin":85262,"position":5},"title":"Canticle of Brother Sun","author":"Thom","date":"04 October 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Most High, all powerful, good Lord, Yours are the praises, the glory, the honor, and all blessing. To You alone, Most High, do they belong, and no man is worthy to mention Your name. 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