The True Humility of Those Near Perfection

Holy men feel that they are weighed down by the burden of earthly thoughts and fall from the height of their mind. They feel that they are led away, against their will or rather without knowing it, into the law of sin and death, and (to pass over other matters) that they are held back from the vision of God by those actions I described above, which are good and right though earthly. So they have something to groan over to the Lord without ceasing. They have something for which to humble themselves in truth, and in their heartfelt sorrow to confess themselves sinners, not in words only but in heart. And for this, while they keep asking the Lord’s grace for pardon for everything they commit day by day when overcome by the weakness of the flesh, they should shed true tears of repentance without ceasing. For they see that they are entangled, to the very end of their life, in these same troubles, and are tried by constant sorrow over them, so that they cannot even offer their prayers without harassing thoughts. [a]

They know by experience that, because of the hindrance of the burden of the flesh, they cannot reach the end they long for by human strength, nor be united as their heart desires with that chief and highest good, but are led away from the vision of it, captive to worldly things. So they take refuge in the grace of God, “who counts the ungodly righteous,” and cry out with the apostle: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” For they feel that they cannot do the good they want, but are always falling into the evil they do not want and that they hate, that is, wandering thoughts and care for bodily things.