The Grandeur of the Mother of God [3]

Monk Arsenios of the Skete of Koutloumousiou, the Holy Mountain

If we see that some saints enjoy greater glory than others, this is due to the fact they have even a little bit more of Christ’s humility within them, nothing else. There are saints who have astonishing ascetic achievements to their name, but have less glory than others who performed fewer ascetic feats and this is due to the amount of the blessed divine raiment. Forgive me, but the more I write about the blessed raiment of the divinity, which the Mother of God had in its entirety, I’m overcome with fear, because my unworthiness causes my hand to falter and it’s perfectly possible- indeed, this is the most likely circumstance- that it’s my own pride that’s motivated me to dare to write about the humility of Christ. Pray, then, for me that I don’t suffer a terrible catastrophe, wretch that I am. On the other hand, my conscience won’t allow me to stop what I’ve already started, so I probably have to…