Humility – such a disposition of our spirit where a person recognizes that he has nothing of his own and can do nothing without God's help, and in all things relies on God's will; he attributes all his merits not to himself, but to God; and he endures all sorrows with patience, as rightfully deserved by him. Honest acknowledgment of one's weakness and guilt before God becomes for such a person a ladder to moral perfection.
Humility is an unceasing desire to learn from Him who said, "Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart" (Matt. 11:29). Humility completely overthrows pride – that fortress of the devil in the human soul, the stronghold of all other passions. Through humility, genuine peace of soul is obtained, so that, according to the word of Abba Pimen, "If you think humbly of yourself, you will find rest everywhere you go."
Just as pride cast the devil down from heaven to the netherworld, so humility raises a person from earth to heaven.
Humility is not weakness, but great strength. It is a person's victory over himself, over the demon of selfishness and the power of the passions. It is the ability to open one's heart to God so that He may reign within it.
In spiritual terms, the humble person is characterized, as St. Ignatius Brianchaninov says, by "the laying aside of all one's own reasoning and the acceptance of the evangelical mind… Conscious obedience to the Church in all things."
Humility is acquired not only by humble thoughts, but by uncomplaining submission to the sorrowful events of our lives. It is also acquired through frequent repentance and through the fulfillment of Christ's commandments, especially the commandment to repay good for evil. He who always turns his gaze upon his own shortcomings always finds others to be better than himself.
He who wishes to acquire humility must be ready to respond to every reproof with, "Forgive me," and to consider all people above himself. He must be ready to renounce any of his own reasonings if he sees they contradict the truth, as well as his own will when it contradicts God's will. One must get rid of the bad habit of self-justification and the desire to insist on one's own opinion at all costs.
But the most important thing, from which the ascent to the heights of humility begins and which is accessible to absolutely every person of any age and gender, is the renunciation of judging one's neighbor.