Lord, teach me what I must do that my soul may become humble.’St. Silouan

Elder Sophrony(Sakharov) of Essex

“At last he rose up from his stool , intending to bow down and worship, when he saw a gigantic devil standing in front of the ikon, waiting to be worshipped.  Meanwhile, the cell filled with other evil spirits.” (ibid.  p.42)

 St. Silouan prayed,

 ‘Lord, Thou seest that I desire to pray to Thee with a pure mind but the devils will not let me.  Instruct me, what must I do to stop them hindering me?

And in his soul he heard,

‘The proud always suffer from devils.’

‘Lord,’ said Silouan, ‘teach me what I must do that my soul may become humble.’

Once more he heard in his heart God’s answer, 

‘Keep thy mind in hell and despair not.’ (Ibid). 

St. Silouan’s biographer, Archimandrite Sophrony comments:  What was the essence of God’s prescription to Father Silouan? 

 …the root of all sin, the seed of death is pride: that God is humility, and therefore the man who would ‘put on’ (cf. Rom.13:14; Gal. 3:27) God must learn to be humble. (ibid. 43)

Elder Sophrony(Sakharov) instructs us:

There are two kinds of humility: human and divine.  

The first finds expression in the ascetic’s conviction, ‘I am worse than all other men,’ and lies at the root of our prayer-life in the Name of Christ.  Without this humility the second kind, that of Christ and proper to God, will remain forever out of reach.  Of this divine humility Staretz Silouan writes:

‘The Lord taught me to stay my mind in hell and not despair.  And thus my soul humbles herself; but this is not yet true humility, which there are no words to describe.  When the soul approaches the Lord she is afraid; but when she sees the Lord the beauty of His glory fills her with ineffable joy, and in the love of God and the sweetness of the Holy Spirit the earth is quite forgot.  This is the paradise of the Lord: all will live in love and there Christ-like humility will make every man happy to see others in greater glory.  The humility of Christ dwells in the lowly ones: they are glad to be the least of men.  The Lord gave me understanding of this.’ (His Life is Mine, Archimandrite Sophrony, p. 126)

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