This essay explores the interplay between ascetic practices and human vulnerability within the domains of sport and religion, engaging with the phenomenological traditions of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Paul Ricoeur. It examines how ascetic disciplines, often framed as pathways to transcendence, expose a profound tension between the sacred as a transcendent ideal and its immanent presence within the embodied realities of the human condition. Asceticism embodies a dual movement: the disciplined striving to transcend human limitations and the necessity of embracing vulnerability as an intrinsic aspect of embodied existence. Such acceptance, rooted in humbleness, reflects an acknowledgment of the human condition as finite and fragile, resisting the temptation to aspire toward invulnerability or divinity. This approach suggests that through the acceptance of vulnerability, ascetic practices may offer a holistic encounter with the sacred, one that integrates transcendence with immanence and reveals the sacred within the corporeal ordinary realities of human life. By addressing the transformative and paradoxical potential of ascetic practices, this essay contributes to the panel's exploration of embodied practices and the sacred. It highlights how the interplay of vulnerability, humbleness, and ascetic discipline mediates encounters with the sacred through the body, positioning the tension between transcendence and immanence as central to understanding the sacred in both sport and religion. Keywords: asceticism; vulnerability; transcendence; sports.