“In antiquity, Abba Anthony, credited with being the founder of monasticisism, said, ‘I saw all the snares of the enemy spread out over the world, and I said, groaning, what can get me through such snares? Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Humility’.’ It was humility that made these ancient Christians able,with the help of God’s grace, to take on the enormous and dangerous task of the transformation of the old creation into the new. What is this humility, this world transforming attitude of heart, that made this possible? Most basically, it was the living out of the conviction that all human beings, every man, woman, and child, are beloved creatures of God….These early monastics put at the very heart of their understanding of what it means to be Christian the fundamental biblical message we find in so many forms: ‘while we were yet sinners Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8). It is the sick who need the physician, not the well. This basic attitude of humility recognizes that no person loves or does any good without the help of God, so that whatever acts of kindness or virtue a person performs, whatever strength or happiness one has, one’s ability to work well and to love well – all these are possible because God gives them to the creatures as God ‘s good gifts. No one is in a position to look down on another from a superior height because of her or his hard work or piety or mental superiority. We are all vulnerable, all limited, and we each have a different struggle only God is in a position to judge.” —-An excerpt from “To Love as God Loves” by Roberta Bondi