Customer Reviews

The Way of Humility (Monastic Wisdom)

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Louf is a Trappist monk and retired abbot of Mont des Cats Abbey in northern France. This short book is a concise read on humility. The author wastes no words and so it is easy to read a sentence and then read it again, to let it soak in. There are many insights.
One is the origin of the word "humility" in the Latin word for nutrient matter in the soil.
Another gem is Louf's observation that humility is counter-cultural these days. He notes that it is seen as a character weakness by most of the fathers of modern psychology.
Louf points out that pride and humility are mutually exclusive and that true humility is often a cry for help.
"It is there, at the center of the crisis ... that a true humility, like a gift from the Spirit, is born," Louf writes.
Far from being an action one takes for others to see, humility is a condition that comes through life's toughest trials.
To make that point, Louf quotes St. Bernard: "God prefers a repentant sinner to a self-righteous virgin."
The second half of the book is a collection of texts on humility, beginning with scripture and ending with St. Bernard's writings in the 12th century.
As our economy falls apart and crises comes home, this little book offers insight into the positives that attend such a crisis. In short, few people seek humility. Instead, the circumstances of life often impose it.

Written by Cistercian Abbey monk Andre Louf and smoothly translated from the original French by theology professor Lawrence S. Cunningham, The Way of Humility is a serious-minded essay upon the nature of humility itself. Describing humility as an essential Christian virtue, seeking to reclaim this high quality as respected in ancient sources of the monastic tradition. Drawing upon selected primary texts including writings of the early desert fathers and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, The Way of Humility strives to enlighten the spirit as well as set guidelines for understanding an intangible human quality that nevertheless reflects the divine.

Very simply it showed me what true humility was! Not to mention how this knowledge can be now used to change the way you think in times of distress! Want to find out how? Then read this book but be warned have a dictionary handy as there are words that are pretty hard to decifer without one!

Happy Reading!

This is a wonderful short book on the virtue of humility with quotes on the subject that go back almost 2000 years showing the common realization of the importance of this virtue in the spiritual life and in life in general. Worth reading