Exploring Parental Influence and Humility in Formative Years

What a privilege it is to read the fathers! As we are being drawn by them into a deeper understanding of the virtue of humility, their vision of its beauty opens up before us. It is not something that only reveals the poverty of our sin and need for healing. Humility also reveals that we are made in the image and likeness of God. 

We should not see humility then from a negative perspective. It reveals also the highest truth about who we are as human beings. We are destined to share in the fullness of the life of God. Humility does begin by acknowledging the truth about ourselves and our need for healing. Over the course of time it is perfected by the struggles that we undergo and the great losses that we experience. Eventually, however, by the action of God’s grace it is brought to perfection and there exist within us no desire for sin and no lingering element of pride. We begin to see in that moment that humility is one of the qualities of our God. Suddenly our vision of the spiritual life changes. Everything is meant to draw us into the fullness of his life, virtue and love. Thanks be to God!

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Text of chat during the group:

00:02:33 Suzanne: Ave Maria!!   00:02:52 FrDavid Abernethy: Full of Grace   00:03:07 Suzanne: 😇   00:03:37 Suzanne: Father, did you get my email about St. Theophan series?   00:04:07 FrDavid Abernethy: Gee.  I don’t know.  I’ll have to go back and look.  So sorry   00:04:20 Suzanne: Ok!   00:04:34 FrDavid Abernethy: page 403 letter B   00:06:34 Suzanne: Father, have you seen the Russian movie, The Island?   00:06:57 Suzanne: I can't stop watching it!   00:08:03 Suzanne: I love the scene where he cures the attachments of the Abbot.   00:10:16 Suzanne: Mr. Yu, how is your wife?   00:32:33 Eric Ewanco: What does he mean by "discernment"? How might we wound the conscience of our neighbor?   00:34:05 Eric Ewanco: ok   00:36:52 Sean: what do you mean by to know the mind of God?   00:41:29 Louise: Does humility imply that I am ongoingly aware that I am necessarily defective and fallible, even if I try to be virtuous?   00:56:57 Suzanne: Lately I’ve been thinking more and more that we are infected with pride as children, by parents who show too much pride in our accomplishments or abilities. That’s where it begins, and the culture is more than happy to cement it into narcissism. It’s like an evil bond develops between affection and praise – so that affection is sought, not in accordance with nature and grace, but to satisfy pride. One’s heart contracts, no longer able to give itself in charity, because of the demands it places on others to give “excellence” it’s due.   00:58:33 Anthony Rago: This is soft. It's gentle.  It's like Dante's Paradise in which love is a force of motion.  I like this better than the way Roman Catholics of our time and country - not like the medievals like St Bernard - pass on the Faith.   01:00:11 sharonfisher: Re: earlier tonight - Opening the day with prayer and giving God first fruits is something I can relate to. To this point, I haven’t felt a purpose for early morning prayer (as opposed to prayer any other hour) — this resonates with me. I’m such a novice. Thank you!   01:00:35 Eric Ewanco: I agree with Suzanne. My mother was very proud of me, which fed my ego so much that my arrogance was off the charts. This alienated me from my peers and I never overcame it until high school. I literally didn't learn what the word "humble" meant until I was a teen. I loved her dearly but it was clearly deleterious. God saw fit that she passed away when I was 13, no doubt to spare me from the worst of it (that's terrible to say but as her son I can say it).   01:04:34 Lee Graham: When God reveals our defects of character, there  is no shame.   01:05:50 Suzanne: Father said, "Pride isolates." ABSOLUTELY!!   01:13:50 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you🙂. Sorry I was so late, Zoom decided to update!   01:13:52 sharonfisher: And with your spirit!   01:13:55 Lorraine Green: Thank you, Father   01:13:59 David Fraley: Thank you, Father!   01:13:59 Suzanne: Thank you so much for these groups!