Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” --1 Peter 5:5
Audience
It is a very difficult thing. Because I used to ask God to make me humble but it
was very difficult. Then I stopped asking.
Gerondas
That’s right. That’s knowing your limits and that’s knowing yourself and not
asking for more than what you can eat because then you will just explode or
vomit.
Audience
If you try to practice humbling yourself, do you need a blessing to do so just in
case you may be making up things?
Gerondas
Yes. You need to have a spiritual father. You can’t just go and make up things.
Like putting a rock in your mouth to practice silence without a blessing. I’m
just saying this because it has happened.
You could argue that obedience is a monastic virtue, but even to a lay person we would never ever suggest an act, such as the rock in your mouth, to acquire virtues, without his spiritual fathers’ advice. Why would you use strong prescription medication without a doctor’s advice? Why risking damaging your soul?
This [article series] has been transcribed and edited from a talk in a young families gathering in Perth, Western Australia, organised by the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St John.
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