"The first degree of humility, then, is that a man always have the fear of God before his eyes, shunning all forgetfulness and that he be ever mindful of all that God hath commanded, that he always considereth in his mind how those who despise God will burn in hell for their sins, and that life everlasting is prepared for those who fear God. And whilst he guardeth himself evermore against sin and vices of thought, word, deed, and self-will, let him also hasten to cut off the desires of the flesh."
Humility is a key virtue for the monastic and the ordinary Christian. Its primary basis is epistemic more so than moral: the curtailing of the will (which makes little naturalistic sense) stems from a recognition of truth of God's revelation in the Act of Faith.
According to the Apostle, Faith is "the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not." This substance is to be contrasted with the truths of the senses that prompt self-will and what is called the "pride of life."
As we have explored so far, the monastic vocation seeks to triumph (in co-operation with God's graces) over this prideful orientation towards the self and its blind impulses.
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