St. Bernard of Clairvaux details the spiritual descent from initial curiosity to deep-seated pride and alienation in his treatise The Steps of Humility and Pride. [1, 2]

The Root: Curiosity (Curiositas)

• Wandering eyes and ears: Bernard identifies curiosity as the first and lowest degree of pride. It begins when a person stops looking inward to examine their own soul and instead looks outward with a restless, critical gaze toward others. 

• Neglect of the self: Instead of guarding the heart, the curious person lets their senses wander through trivial observations, gossip, and judgment, opening the door to spiritual sickness. 

The Escalation to Pride

Bernard maps out a twelve-step downward spiral of pride that grows out of this initial distraction:

1. Curiosity: Inquisitive and unfocused observation of others.
2. Levity of mind: Unsettled thoughts and a lack of serious inner reflection.
3. Giddiness: Frivolous behavior and careless speech.
4. Boasting: Exalting oneself and talking up personal achievements.
5. Singularity: Insisting on standing out or acting uniquely to draw attention.
6. Self-conceit: Inflated self-appreciation and emotional detachment from reality.
7. Presumption: Overstepping rightful boundaries and assuming authority one does not possess.
8. Self-justification: Defending one's faults and refusing to admit wrong.
9. Hypocritical confession: Fake or insincere expressions of remorse.
10. Revolt: Open defiance against legitimate authority, rules, or God Himself.
11. Freedom to sin: An arrogant insistence on doing whatever one pleases.
12. The habit of sinning: Complete spiritual hardening, where sin becomes a permanent state or enslavement. 

Relation to Christ and Denial

• Rejection of the Incarnate Model: Christ is the embodiment of divine humility and truth. As pride ascends the ladder, the soul rejects the truth about its own frailty and resists submission to Christ. 

• Spiritual Denial: When pride reaches revolt and the habit of sin, the soul functionally denies Christ—not always through a singular verbal disavowal, but by replacing God's authority with self-worship, self-salvation, and a stubborn refusal of His grace. 

• The Antidote: Bernard teaches that this trajectory is reversed only through the twelve ascending degrees of humility, starting from the fear of God and honest self-knowledge, which reconnects the soul to Christ's redeeming love. 

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8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. 9 Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; 10 he delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. (2 Corinthians 1:8–10, RSV2CE)

For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we have behaved in the world, and still more toward you, with holiness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God.  (2 Corinthians 1:12, RSV2CE)

21 But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has commissioned us; 22 he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.  (2 Corinthians 1:21–22, RSV2CE)

REFLECT

Despairing of how difficult life is, is not abnormal or a show that God does not love me. Even the apostle Paul and his companions despaired of life. They felt they were dying it was so difficult and painful. Paul tells me how to deal with it—rely on God! Believe God raises the dead to new life even here on Earth. Hope on God! He delivers from death to life and will keep doing it over and over—never give up!

Do not act out in evil ways when things are not going the way I want. Behave in the world with holiness, sincerity, and wisdom, from the grace of the Almighty. He gives grace to withstand the difficulties and choose righteousness. 

God has established me in Christ. He has put his seal upon me. I have been given the Holy Spirit in my heart! If I surrender to Him I am guaranteed to be His. 

PRAY 

Jesus sometimes I despair that this life is so hard and not at all what I want it to be. Every day is a battle, it seems like there is no rest against the flesh that is trying to kill my soul. Then there are days that I just can’t stand to be living here in the midst of this devastating darkness and blatant evil that people are calling good. Then there are days where I feel I can’t breathe and just want to come home. The fight is so intense just to be alive. 

Paul says to Hope in You, not in myself or my ability to fight. I must rest in your hand knowing You can take care of all I need. I must obey you in your strength not mine. It is not a give-up mentality, it’s letting you carry me as I do what you say to get through the trial. You will give grace to fight if I come to you and hope in your care. You raise the dead heart to life!

I am in Christ, I have the Holy Spirit, I can choose to do right and not evil when I am going through a trial. Help me not rely on myself but You! Give me grace Father to choose right even when I feel like I’m dying! Glory to God! Save me! Amen 

Accept Responsibility, Stop Blaming, Forsake my Will, accept Divine Life

Why many are not saved:

God, You love us. It is not mushy love it is empowering love. 

We are weak and hide in our sin. We deflect and blame. 

You are strength and want us to take responsibility and walk through the consequences of ours and others’ sin. It is the fall. 

We have to face up to our real selves. 

We have to believe you love us and want to walk us through. You do not allow escapism. That is devil tactics. You are God and take on what is and bring us through it. You are courageous the devil uses cowardice. 

Escapism brings on more sin. We hide and fight because we can’t face up to consequences of life instead of saying this is what is, help me go through it. 

We get angry, even at you, for making us go through so we hide and fight even more. Instead we should admit the real, acknowledge our weakness and fear, ask to get your power and strength. When we admit, accept we have to go through, ask for help, you deny absolutely no one who is serious about wanting help. You are not into relief, but true healing. Relief is a bandaid, healing is a surgery. You are the surgeon, the devil wants to bandaid so you stay in his power. 

The grace is sufficient for all. But all will not accept responsibility for the truth of their real self (weakness, fear, & dependence) and consequences of life. They do not want help to go through, they want to escape and deny. They would rather hide, deflect, blame, and remain in sin that hides pain instead of have it surgically healed. 

Life is hard. Sin is rampant. We have a hard time facing our true self. We do not want to deal with life on life’s terms. We want to control life into what we want or escape it if we cannot. We do not trust you to bring us through in your strength. We blame you for making it hard and demanding us to live it instead of escaping it. We do not feel loved because we want you to remove the obstacles. We do not want to accept we have to go through the obstacle course in your power not ours. 

You love us so much you made a way to go through. Jesus took on human flesh to unite it to the Divine. We can have Divine Life through uniting ourselves with him. But to do that we have to be willing to do the surgery. Do you want to be healed? You will deny no one. We have to accept responsibility for ourselves and stop blaming others. We have to give up our own life and let your divine life live…it is no longer my will but thy will in thy strength not my strength. I cannot add Jesus to my life, I must forsake this life to live the Divine Life. It’s an abandoned surrender not an add on. Save Me!!

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ungodly persons pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.  (Jude 4, RSV2CE)

God who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the deepest darkness until the judgment of the great day (Jude 5–6, RSV2CE)

these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones. (Jude 8, RSV2CE)

these men revile whatever they do not understand, and by those things that they know by instinct as irrational animals do, they are destroyed. (Jude 10, RSV2CE)

they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves; waterless clouds, carried along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved for ever.  (Jude 12–13, RSV2CE)

These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loud-mouthed boasters, flattering people to gain advantage.  (Jude 16, RSV2CE)

“In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. (Jude 18–19, RSV2CE)

REFLECT

Judgement is coming!

Ungodly people pervert grace to be allowed to sin. They deny the divine life Jesus wants to give them to escape sin. 

God saved his people, the Israelites but destroyed those who refused to believe and be delivered from sin. Even angels who denied him his rightful glory and rejected righteousness are going to be in eternal chains. 

God loves us but lets us choose to be righteous and His or Not and be destroyed. 

The rejectors: 

Live in fantasy of what they think is right 

Defile their own flesh (living in sin)

Reject authority (of God His body the Catholic church)

Revile glorious ones (the people of God walking in him and saints)

Revile what they do not understand (they don’t understand because they do not love truth and want to know-reject)

They act like animals and are destroyed by sin instead of seeking the truth. 

They proudly carouse together looking after their passions and desires. 

They follow the crowds in dissipation and have no fruit of right living. They live in shame and death. 

They complain and are malcontent because sin makes you not be able to get enough, never satisfied. 

They are loud-mouthed, boasters in their sin, manipulating others with flattery to keep an advantage to do their evil. 

They scoff at righteous people to guard their hearts to justify their sin. 

They do not have the Spirit. 

PRAY

God, you made the world. You made us to be righteous. We got broken but you did not leave us in that state. You came to rescue us. You are offering divine life to reject sin and live as we were meant to. 

Help me my God accept this amazing gift. I cannot do it without your grace. Thank you Father for offering your grace through Jesus Christ my Lord. Holy Spirit, come live in me. Help me see what you want, give me the grace to do it, help me reject sin and live for righteousness. 

My flesh, the world’s ideas, and the devil are constantly attacking my mind and heart. I need you at all times. Please do not let me fall into the traps that lead to all the things above!

I want to live in you, with you, and for you! Glory to you alone God! Save Me!

Amen 

A meek person, molded by the Holy Spirit in imitation of Christ, is one who has learned to control all the disordered manifestations of self: irritation, contempt, anger, the spirit of jealousy or revenge. It is also the person who has given up the temptation to impose himself upon others, or to make himself respected by others, or to dominate others by bullying them. This is a hard task for our nature, wounded by sin, in which selfishness and pride are always trying to assert themselves, and to claim rights. As long as we live, our victory will never be total, but we must never put down our arms, but renew our efforts every day with good will, calling upon the aid of the Holy Spirit, so that he may destroy the remnants of violence and resentment in us and dissolve every trace of harshness. Come, Holy Spirit, bend the stubborn will, soften our hardness, calm all anger, smooth all sharpness.

Even in this world, meekness confers a certain capability for dominion and conquest, both of oneself and of others: first of all, over self, by controlling all impulses of anger, and keeping calm even amid contradictions; over others because meekness attracts and conquers hearts. The meek person, who has renounced every form of violence, finds that through this very renunciation, he has a special ascendency over others. For inasmuch as hearts are repelled and closed up by violence, meekness opens them to confidence and trust, softens and appeases them.

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9  The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11  Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, 12 so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.  (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12, RSV2CE)

PRAY

Help me Jesus NOT refuse to love Truth. Help me be saved. Help me NOT be in league with the activity of Satan. Help me NOT be swayed with pretend signs and wonders. Help reject wicked deception. Save me from the delusion that you allow to those who do not believe your truth and have pleasure in unrighteousness. I do not want to be condemned from your presence forever. 

Open my heart to your truth. Help me love it. Help me love you! Save me! I want to be yours forever! Amen. 

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9  And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went into another country for a long while. 10 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, that they should give him some of the fruit of the vineyard; but the tenants beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 11 And he sent another servant; him also they beat and treated shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third; this one they wounded and cast out. 13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; it may be they will respect him.’ 14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 And they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16  He will come and destroy those tenants, and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “God forbid!” 17  But he looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written:

‘The very stone which the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone’?

18  Every one who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but when it falls on any one it will crush him.”  (Luke 20:9–18, RSV2CE)

REFLECT

God planted a vineyard (the earth)

Leased the vineyard to tenants (gave the earth to man to cultivate)

God came looking for fruit from his vineyard. (We are supposed to produce fruit -character)

Man did not want to give fruit (either does not have any from wicked living or wants to keep it for himself-does not think he owes God anything-though his life and the vineyard are gifts from God to work)

God keeps looking for fruit and sends his own Son to get what is owed. (Hoping man will realize and give honor and thanks for the gift of life and earth)

Man does not honor the Son, they kill Him. (Man is full of pride and sees his life and fruit  as his own not something given to him as a gift to give some to the owner)

God will destroy those who will not give some fruit to Him. Life was a gift to cultivate. Man killed His only Son thinking it would make them heirs. (Hubris)

God will give the gift of the vineyard to those who will accept that they are cultivators not owners; that accept that life is a gift and they are managers not owners; that character of God is the fruit He is looking for. 

All who fall on Jesus will be broken (pride annihilated, Christlike life revealed), those who Jesus falls on will be crushed beyond recognition (in hell separated from love for eternity)

PRAY

My God, thank you for giving me life. Thank you for giving me things to manage here in your vineyard. I am to produce Christlike character as I walk here on earth to show the fruit of you in my life. All I do is supposed to glorify you. I am weak and fail a lot. Please help me keep getting up so I can give you the fruit you are looking for. Jesus, break me open! Kill my pride that might separate me from you forever! Kill anything in me that deforms who I was made to be in You. Help me let go and fall on you to be broken so I will not be crushed and lost for eternity! I am responsible and my responses will last into eternity. Save Me!! Amen.