The rule of St. Benedict for a daily life, learning to listen to God with a discerning heart.

I'm Chris McGregor.

The Seven Degree of Humility, Episode 22.

With a seven degree of humility, St. Benedict turns more fully to the harp. The Seventh Degree of Humility, Episode 22.

With the seventh degree of humility, St. Benedict turns more fully to the heart before God.

He's no longer speaking first about outward actions, but what the heart comes to believe before God.

By this point in the Holy Rule, humility has already been shaped through obedience, endurance, honesty, and acceptance of ordinary things.

Now St. Benedict names the inward truth those practices are meant to form.

From Chapter 7 of the Rule of Saint Benedict

The seventh degree of humility is that a person not only consider himself inferior to others,

but truly believe it in his heart, humbling himself and saying with the prophet,

I am a worm and no man, the scorn of men and the outcast of the people.

This degree can sound harsh at first, especially if it's taken on its own. But St. Benedict isn't telling a person to hate himself or deny his dignity. He's dealing with pride, especially the kind that

keeps turning back on itself and asking where it stands. This matters because comparison slips

in very easily. We compare our work, our burdens, our gifts, and even our spiritual life. We notice who is praised, who is trusted,

who seems to be doing better and where we fall in all of it.

St. Benedict is trying to free the heart from that habit.

Humility begins to grow when a person no longer needs to measure himself against everyone else.

That doesn't mean pretending others are always right or saying things about yourself that aren't

true. It doesn't mean acting as if your life has no worth. It means standing before God

honestly and recognizing that you are not self-made. Whatever is good in your life has been

given, sustained, and guided by God. Humility begins to take root when a person stops trying

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