With my cornflakes ....

 

I have been reading Dorothy of Gaza’s Spiritual Works with my breakfast cornflakes for the past few weeks. This is a practical book of spiritual instruction, written in the 6th century, aimed at novice monks. Very down to earth and in very easy Greek, and to this day prescribed reading for novices on Mount Athos.

Two small things struck me this morning. The passage is from Instructions X § 106. “This is why we say the virtues are a middle way. For example, courage is the middle way between cowardliness and reckless audacity, humility between pride and servility; respect between shame and insolence; and in the same way all the other virtues.”  First was the Greek word used for “courage” (ανδρεια), which uses the rood for man (ανδρος), if you like ‘manliness’, important in any man on a serious spiritual journey. Second was the positioning of humility midway between pride and servility. All too quickly the distinction between humility and servility is lost in Orthodoxy, with the latter often both expected and offered.