Chapter 7: The value of humility (paragraph 13)

The sixth step of humility for monks or nuns is to accept without complaint really wretched and inadequate conditions so that when faced with a task of any kind they would think of themselves as poor workers not worthy of consideration and repeat to God the verse of the psalm: I am of no account and lack understanding, no better than a beast in your sight. Yet I am always in your presence. (From para. 13 of Ch. 7 of Saint Benedict's Psalm, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)

The important sentence here, for me, is the last one. It's hard for me to read Benedict's admonition to think of myself as worthless and accept it as a model of healthy self-esteem. But the fact is I sometimes do feel quite unworthy, and the way through that is not in esteem-building exercises, but in remembering that I am nothing without God, and yet, I am always in his presence. What changes is my fickle point of view. What is constant and redeeming is the divine energy that sustains me.