"Pride goes before disaster,and a haughty spirit before
a fall" (Proverbs 16:18).
Of all that exists on the four corners of the earth, what, O mortal man,
can make us proud except stupidities and demonic illusions. Did we not enter
into the world naked and wretched and are we not going to depart this world in
the same manner? Everything that we have, did we not borrow it; and by our
death, are we not going to return everything? Oh, how many times has this been
said and overheard? The wise apostle says, "For we have brought
nothing into the world, just as we shall not be able to take anything
out of it" (I Timothy 6:7). And, when we offer sacrifice to
God of ordinary bread and wine, we say, "Thine own of Thine own, we
offer unto Thee" (Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom).
For nothing that we have in this world is ours: not even a crumb of bread nor
a drop of wine; nothing that is not of God. In truth, pride is the daughter of
stupidity, the daughter of a darkened mind, born of evil ties with the demons.
Pride is a broad window through which all of our merits and good works
evaporate. Nothing makes us so empty before men and so unworthy before God as
does pride. When the Lord is not proud, why should we be proud? Who has more
reason to be proud than the Lord, Who created the world and Who sustains it by
His power? And behold, He humbles himself as a servant, a servant to the whole
world: a servant even to the death, to the death on the Cross!
O humble Lord, burn up within our hearts the devil's sowing of pride with
the fire of Your Holy Spirit, and plant within it the noble sowing of humility
and meekness.
Taken from "The Prologue"
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