On Pilgrimage With Padre Bergamo

Saint Benedict tells us in The Rule of Saint Benedict that the first step of humility is an unhesitating obedience which comes naturally as an outflow of our lives when we cherish Christ above all else that is part of the life we live.[1] Our Saint and Founder of the Order of Saint Benedict then goes into more detail about humility in the seventh chapter of The Rule where he outlines and talks about the twelve steps of his Ladder of Humility.

Abbot Benedict begins his chapter on humility by reminding us that whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. [Luke 14:11; 18:14] He concludes the chapter insisting that it is by ascending these ladder-steps that we arrive at the perfect love of God which casts out fear. [1 John4:18] He further concludes that it is in this quality of love for Christ whereby we are able to fully live as workmen cleansed of vices and sins.

Originally published in 1959 by the Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoration at Clyde, Missouri and now being reprinted by TAN Books, the little booklet entitled THE SEVEN CAPITAL SINS begins: “There is a seven-headed monster that each one of us has to fight our whole life through. This monster is SELF-SEEKING or SELF-LOVE. It’s seven heads are: Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Envy, Gluttony, and Sloth. Bishop Fulton Sheen calls them ‘the seven pall-bearers of the soul’ and gives them the following names: Self-love, inordinate love of money, illicit sex, hate, jealousy, over-indulgence, and laziness.”[2] [3]

Each Capital Sin has an antithetical Virtue as its contrast and opposition. The sin and the virtue are mutually incompatible. They will ever exist in opposition to one another. One or the other, sin or virtue, will always prevail depending upon our own personal investment in and practice of them. One of the things that soon becomes evident in reading the Rule of Saint Benedict is that Saint Benedict refuses to allow his students to remain comfortable with or in their sins. Hence the Benedictine Vow of conversatio morum [conversion of manners] that is taken within the cloister by monks and religious sisters and the Benedictine Solemn Promise of conversatio morum promised by Oblates of Saint Benedict living in the world outside the monastic cloister.

Pride has always been viewed as the chief of the Capital Sins.

“Pride was the first sin committed. It was the sin of Lucifer. It was also the root of the Original Sin committed by Adam and Eve. Pride is the greatest of sins because it is the summit of self-love and is directly opposed to submission to God. It is, therefore, the sin most hated by God, and the one He punishes most severely. The punishment of the Angels, of Adam and Eve, of Nebuchadnezzer in the Book of Daniel, bear witness to this.

Pride is likewise the greatest sin because it is the fountainhead of the self-love in which all other sins take root: ‘From pride all perdition took its beginning.’ [Tobit 4:14] There is a species of pride in every sin, whatever may be the individual nature of the sin itself.

Pride is the most dangerous of sins, because it blinds the understanding, and unless something finally makes us realize the truth, we are liable to go on, day after day, in a spiritual self-delusion, imagining our acts to be good and virtuous when certain habits actually may be vicious. When we are blinded to pride, we do not consider our talents and abilities as God’s gifts to us, but attribute our good qualities to ourselves, with the right to use them as we see fit.

Everybody is infected with the virus of pride! But there is a particular kind of pride in each individual; at least a particular kind dominate, though there may be several of its viruses in the same character. This pride determines our temperament or our type of character, or at least is intimately related to it. Searching into our type of pride is very important for obtaining a true knowledge of ourselves, and for making fruitful efforts to root out sin and vice from our life.”[4]

It is to the task of slaying the monster of Self-Seeking or Self-Love that Saint Benedict calls us. And where does this battle take place? Where does this conflict occur? Where do we wage this warfare?

Whether inside the cloister or outside in the world, this conflict is carried out within ourselves as we conscientiously endeavor to work out our salvation and grow in the image of Christ. “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.” [Matthew11:12] The forces of evil attempt to deprive us of the kingdom of God that is within us [Luke 17:21] by virtue of His residence within us as living tabernacles or temples [1 Corinthians 6:19-20]. It is only through violence, through conflict with the enemy of our soul’s eternal salvation, that we remain in possession of the kingdom placed within the geographic boundaries represented by our physical frames.

Hence, at Compline, we hear the lesson from 1 Peter 5:8, “Brethren: Be sober, be vigilant, + because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist, steadfast in the faith. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us. R. Thanks be to God. V. Our help is in the Name of the Lord. R. Who hath made heaven and earth.”[5]

The small book, Humility of Heart, was part of an order that came from TAN earlier this year. It was on their list of $5.00 books. Written in Italian by Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo [1660-1753], the book was translated into English by Herbert Cardinal Vaughn [1832-1903] not long before he died. Though I briefly glanced at it when it arrived, I have now begun to closely peruse it.

The publisher’s preface says, “HUMILITY OF HEART is one of the few books on the virtue of humility, and it is probably the best! As the author points out in several places, humility is typical of all Saints; it is the underlying virtue of all virtues; and as the author shows, the easiest way to acquire all other virtues is to concentrate first on acquiring humility.

What exactly is humility? It is definitely not a groveling self-deprecation or even a low self-esteem. Rather, it is an accurate view of oneself and where one stands in relation to all others, but especially where one stands in relationship to God and how difficult it is for a person consistently to perform supernaturally good acts purely from a motive of love of God.”[6]

From the original preface written by Cardinal Vaughn’s brother:

“THESE ‘Thoughts and Sentiments on Humility’ were written by Cardinal Vaughn during the last months of his life. Being ordered out of London by his medical advisors, the Cardinal went to Derwent, where, as the guest of Lord and Lady Edmund Talbot, he found that perfect freedom and multitude of peace of which he had long felt the need.

It was while reposing his soul in quiet prayer and feasting his sight on the fine scenery of this ideal spot among the moorlands of Derbyshire, that the thought came to him of translating, while yet there was time, Father Cajetan’s treatise on humility.

For more than thirty years Cardinal Vaughn had known and studied that work, and it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that he had made it during the last fourteen years of his life his constant companion, his vade mecum – [literally, ‘go with me’; a handy reference book one carries].

What lessons it taught him, what sights it had shown him, what stories it had told him, those only know to whom he revealed his inmost soul. However even those who knew the Cardinal less intimately could scarcely fail to realize in their dealing with him that they were treating with a man whose growing characteristic was humility of heart. A more truly humble man I have seldom if ever come across. It was the humility of a child; it was so sweet and simple, and yet so strong and saint-like – may I not even venture to say, Christ-like?”

I once knew a man who resembled this description of Cardinal Vaughn given by his brother. He was a monk. An old monk. A dear and precious old monk. He was the prior of the monastery and the Oblate Director who so warmly welcomed me when I knocked at the monastery door seeking to become an Oblate of Saint Benedict. Father Thomas O’Connor made an indelible impression upon my very soul. His lifetime of conversatio morum had changed him into someone who was genuinely gentile, humble, saint-like – may I also not even venture to say, Christ-like?

HUMILITY OF HEART is not a book to be read like a dime-store western.

In his Introduction, Cardinal Vaugh writes:

There is a great advantage in using such a book as this for two or three years consequently as a meditation book. The human mind is so volatile, the character so restless, convictions are so slow in taking a deep and permanent hold on our practical life, that I have always considered that a retreat made upon one idea, and two or three years given to the meditation on one great subject is productive of more solid good than the following out of the ordinary system, which of course has its own advantages, commending it to the greater number. I venture even to think that for many persons living amidst the distractions of the world, such as priests engaged in the active ministry and devout men and women of the laity who are deeply in earnest about the work of their sanctification, the persevering study of one book for years – such as the Spiritual Combat, St. Alphonsus on Prayer, Blessed [now Saint Louis] De Montfort on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Padre Gaetano on Humility of Heart, Palma on the Passion, and certain other treatises which need not be name here – is far more important than for recluses and good people living out of the world.

We never get a proper hold of a great spiritual doctrine until we have lived in it and been saturated by it. The soul must soak in the brine until it has become wholly impregnated with its qualities.”[7]

Stumbling upon this little book is something that I refer to as a providential accident – accidental on my part but something so right on time in God’s providential timing. Stumbling upon this little book, for me, is like discovering a long needed starets or venerated spiritual elder to personally advise and guide me at this point in my own conversatio morum.

From the back cover:

“It is only by the measure of thy humility that thou canst hope to please God and save thyself, because it is certain that God ‘will save the humble of spirit.’” [Psalm 33:19 – Page 60] “As paradise is only for the humble, therefore in paradise every one will have more or less glory according to his degree of humility.” [Page 75] “Humility generates confidence, and God never refuses His grace to those who come to Him with humility and trust.” [Page 93]

These are only a few samples of the gems of wisdom contained in Humility of Heart. Fr. Cajetan da Bergamo has assembled in this incomparable Catholic classic every conceivable motive for us to practice the virtue of humility. From every direction, he marshals up the reasons why this virtue is paramount in the lives of all Saints and of all those on the way of perfection. As no one will enter Heaven who is not perfect and as no one will gain perfection who is not humble, it behooves us all to apprise ourselves of the requisites for gaining true humility of heart, for once possessing this virtue, we can then make great strides in the spiritual life. But without it, we are simply deceiving ourselves regarding our spiritual progress and postponing the great work of our own salvation.”

I consider it no coincidence that, when I opened my email this morning, TAN had published an email naming Humility of Heart their Book of the Year and that each Thursday those on their mailing list will receive an email containing and excerpt from the book to assist and encourage in the cultivation of this crucial virtue.

Nor is it coincidental that, as I place my hand to this plough, my own already established vade mecum [the daily Gospel reading from the lectionary and the selected daily reading of The Rule of Saint Benedict] come to challenge me to walk long and far in this furrow. They happen along at this moment in time to affirm me in what I consider to be a personal spiritual journey of necessity of deeper conversion through accepting the lessons of humiliation that are part of daily life. This spiritual journey of necessity, conscientiously treated, is a pilgrimage of sorts, one that depends intimately upon Christ and requires the graces afforded by those Four Cardinal Virtues of Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance.

I realize that my own conversatio morum [conversion of morals] is far from complete. I also recognized that the virtue of humility does not develop on its own but through the multiplied trials, temptations, and sufferings that are a normal part of daily life.

“Let him who is received promise in the oratory, in the presence of all, before God and his saints, stability, conversion of morals, and obedience, in order that, if he should ever do otherwise, he may know that he will be condemned by God ‘Whom he mocketh.’ Let him make a written statement of his promise in the name of the saints whose relics are there, and of the Abbot there present. Let him write this document with his own hand; or at least, if he doth not know how to write, let another write it at his request, and let the novice make his mark, and with his own hand place it on the altar. When he hath placed it there, let the novice next begin the verse: ‘Uphold me, O Lord, according to Thy word and I shall live; and let me not be confounded in my expectations.’”[8]

“Then came Peter unto him and said: Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? Jesus saith to him: I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times.”[9]

Let this pilgrimage with Padre Bergamo begin.

[1] Holy Rule Chapter 5:1-2 [2] Page 1 [3] Not only is the booklet informative. It is also authoritative and doctrinally reliable, as it bears both the Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur. [4] THE SEVEN CAPITAL SINS, p. 7-8 [5] The Monastic Diurnal, Compline [6] P. vii [7] P. xviii - xix [8] Holy Rule 58:17-21 [9] Matthew 18:21-22 Douay-Rheims