Elder St. Porphyrios on Humility and Trust
“Complete trust in God — that’s what holy humility is. Complete obedience to God, without protest, without reaction, even when some things seem difficult and unreasonable. Abandonment to the hands of God. The words we repeat during the Divine Liturgy say it all: ‘Let us commend our whole life to Christ our God.’ The secret prayer of the priest says the same thing: ‘We commend our whole life and hope to You, 0 loving Master, and we entreat You and beseech You and supplicate You.. .’ To You, 0 Lord, we leave everything. That is what trust in God is. This is holy humility. This is what transfigures a person and makes him a ‘God-man’. The humble person is conscious of his inner state and, however unsightly it is, he does not lose his personality. He knows he is sinful and is grieved by the fact, but he does not despair and does not annihilate himself. The person who possesses holy humility does not speak at all, that is, he doesn’t react. He accepts to be criticized and rebuked by others, without getting angry and defending himself. He does not lose his equilibrium. The opposite happens with the egotist, the person who has a sense of inferiority. To begin with he seems to be humble, but if he is goaded a little, he immediately loses his calm and is irritated and upset.”
– ‘Wounded by Love’