That In Which We Cannot Be Overcome

Having begun my nightly reading, I came across this and decided to share:

"Once Abbot Macarius was on his way home to his cell from the marshes, carrying reeds, and he met the devil with a reaper's sickle in his path.  The devil tried to get him with the sickle, and couldn't.  And he said: I suffer great violence from you, Macarius, because I cannot overcome you.  For see, I do all the things that you do.  You fast, and I eat nothing at all.  You watch, and I never sleep.  But there is one thing alone in which you overcome me.  Abbot Macarius said to him: What is that?  You humility, the devil replied, for because of it I cannot overcome you."

 - The Desert Fathers, p. 53

Seriously - this book is some good stuff.