Sayings Hieroschemamonk Ambrose (Young) ~ Alzheimer'd disease

Hieroschemamonk Ambrose (Young) was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease; in 2011, he offered the following thoughts about it:

“From a purely spiritual standpoint I want to share with you the insight I believe God gave me from the time of my diagnosis. My greatest and overriding sin — indeed, even vice — has always been pride. Pride of mind, of ‘knowing better’ and judging others inappropriately, sometimes thinking of them as being less than I am. This is a most grievous sin, and one that many people don’t even recognize in themselves, but it is the one sin that will, above all, consign us to hell if we don’t overcome it! It was the sin of Satan, the sin of Adam and Eve… Now the Lord has offered me a chance to mortify and humble down that pride, by accepting without complaint the slow crumbling of my mind. And I do accept this, with my whole heart, even if with the occasional tear, as a gift from Him for my salvation. So it sometimes ‘feels’ as though this dying of various parts of my mind is also a dying of self…isn’t that the purpose of spiritual life, after all, anyway? The Lord looked down and saw that I wasn’t going to do it any other way…I see this as a great, if sometimes painful, blessing!”

Thanks to:

https://fallen-leaves.org/2019/03/07/fr-seraphim-rose-part-8/