Exhortation to Monks

Let there also be no fixed measure of fasts for those who are willing, but let it be extended according as the striving of one who labors is able, so that, apart from the Lord's day, there may always be solemnities, if they be votive. In these, Moses, most blessed, preparing himself, made himself worthy of God's addresses. In these, the threats foretold through Jonah to the Ninevites turned again into a placid sentence. In these, the people of Bethulia, shut in by the Assyrian siege, and terrified up to the point of surrender by much proven valor, deserved to be vindicated from the swelling threats of Holofernes by the hand of a steadfast woman. In these, Mordecai hanged the cruel pride of Haman by a reversal of the punishment prepared, on the very wood set up for himself. In these, Jesus our Savior, trained in the flesh of the man he had assumed, blunted the persuasions of the tempting devil.

Which, though he could have expelled them otherwise, yet he wished to form the peoples who were to be taught by this example. As for prayers, one must be so frequently insistent upon them that scarcely any time interrupts them. For it is written: Be instant in prayers, watching in them. And again: Seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. Through these the sleeping friend is roused; and although deep sleep has beset the whole household, yet the importunate petitioner extorts that loaves be brought out and handed to him. Let these, if it can be done, be interrupted only by the interval of reading; the care of which matter is to be placed upon the canonical monuments—not that we ought to condemn apocryphal writings, especially unknown ones, but because we think that, for the knowledge of God arranged in order, the series of the canon can suffice. For those other writings, if they agree, are superfluous; if they disagree, are to be avoided.

Without zeal for reading no one will be able to be intent upon the Lord. First, because works of this kind draw one away from other pursuits of transient occupation, and the insinuated knowledge of various examples produces either an appetite for good things, or a caution against evil ones. For it was not otherwise that the apostle Peter admonished us, saying: Be always ready to give an account to all who ask you concerning the word of your hope and faith. And the Apostle: We do not cease praying for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And again: Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly in all wisdom. For even in the Old Testament a similar eloquence impressed upon men a care for sacred precept. For thus David says: Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of pestilence.

But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he will meditate day and night. And God speaks to Joshua the son of Nun: This book of the law shall not depart from your hands, and you shall meditate on it day and night. Into these occupations too the slippery paths of bad thoughts frequently insert themselves. And although the very diligence keeps the mind intent upon God, yet the gnawing care of the world makes itself troubled within itself.

But if he who is devoted to religious labor frequently and importunately suffers these things, he will surely never be free from them while idle. Now since we have set forth the members pertaining to studies, let us heap up the increase of morals. I think this too is not beyond admonition, that one's fare be simple and one's clothing plain, since these were devised for the purpose of covering the body, not of adorning it; and for sustaining the soul rather than burdening it. Given over, then, to the acts we have shown above, let him lay aside all hatred of the enemy.

And not content with this alone, let him exchange enmities for love, temper anger with the rein of patience, conquer avarice by the strong command of abstinence, and above all hedge in his tongue with the guard of silence, lest it grow hot into contentious dispute, lest it fall headlong into cursing, lest it creep, slanderous, into detraction, lest it slip easily into swearing, lest it feign falsehood into lying, lest it grow crafty in deceitful circumvention, lest it be tossed about in proud elation; but observing a time for silence and a time for speaking, let him know that every idle word is liable to judgment. For this reason the most blessed David too begs a guard for his mouth. And the sacred page of blessed Paul appoints that speech be seasoned with salt. And the precepts of James testified that no member is so untamable as the tongue. Let him, then, who climbs this path be silent, gentle, kind.

And since the affection of charity is held to be unbreakable, let him in equal zeal always judge another to be worthier. For by this rein he restrains envy, which, more often stirred up by the judgment of a neighboring elation, while seeking to have honor rendered to itself, incurs the mark of wretched envy. Nor does anyone perceive this so readily, if he requires it from men: for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. When he instructed his disciples concerning this kind of endeavor, he pronounced him the greatest who wishes to be least of all. Suppose your brother is more favorably honored by some; do not therefore hold them as lesser friends, nor regard him as a rival in preferred veneration. Rather judge that the increase of his honor grows also around you, knowing it is written: For if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ, and members. For whoever loves any one of you ascribes all dignity to God, into whom you come together.

In this, gentle silence pleases; in this, kindly affability is loved. This one, an untaught and native simplicity commends; that one, learned knowledge commends. This one's patience in the continuance of fasting, that one's contempt in the virtue of abstinence, another's diligence in the assiduity of reading, are praised according to the diversity of divine gifts. But these, as it is written: One and the same Spirit works, dividing to each as he wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, though many, are yet one body, so also is Christ. For we were all baptized in one Spirit into one body. Each of you can lay claim to the sum of all good things, if no one begins to be puffed up in that in which another excels.

But when you bind yourselves to one another with the bond of tightened charity, then do not condemn, by the austerity of a more attentive life, those who are outside, and who are still bound in secular activity by worldly ties, knowing it is written: Do not judge, lest you be judged. And again: Who are you that judge another's servant? He stands or falls to his own master. For God is able to make him stand. Rather, with exhortations of kindness and enticing gentleness, having shown the way of truth, open the cloud of error, so that each one may not begin to be dragged along, but to follow one who goes before.

The harder things must always be bent, lest the curvature, inclined by force before it comes into a circle, meet with a breaking fracture. For here scandals of the common crowd are more often engendered with mocking speech, when a censorious rule is claimed for the yoke of religion. Let our life command, let our tongue persuade, for example bears more authority, and gentle formation of character instills a desire for imitation of itself. In every act of yours, therefore, shine as in a gleaming mirror. Be everywhere circumspect, everywhere watchful, lest envy find anything, lest false rumor inflict anything. Honor honest women devoted to true religious zeal with a measure of veneration, so that neither is austerity inhuman, nor attentiveness slack. Let your access to one another not be forced, but natural, occasioned by cause, not indulged by superfluity.

Listen to many people only when many others are present; or, if at times a gathering of the other sex is lacking, let either the proven gravity of some certain years, or the concourse of the place, or the reason of the time lend it honesty, since age, hour, and solitude are especially to be avoided by you. Not that it is right for me to think anything otherwise of those who have truly once for all dedicated their hearts to God, but that, out of abundant caution, we may guard against everything that can be feigned, as if it could also be believed, lest, from no wound at all to our reputation, suspicion born of occasion creep in. Let the very seeds of rumor perish before they are nourished by tongues. Yet it is not only the credibility of the deed that must be bound up, but even the possibility of falsehood. For blessed and glorious is that life of which falsehood can allege nothing.

Nor indeed have I taken up this judgment of mine as a stern censor, but have assumed it as a gentle admonisher under heavenly command: for thus also says the Apostle: “Being jealous over you with the jealousy of God, I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ”, knowing it is written: “Put not a stumbling-block or scandal before a brother”; and again: “Be without offense to Jews and Gentiles and the Church of God”; and again: “Let not then our good be evil spoken of”; and again: “For why is my liberty judged by another’s conscience?”; and again: “Let all things be done decently”; and again: “Commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God”; and again: “Providing good things not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of men”; and again: “That he who is on the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say”.

Nor does it escape me that the envy of worldly spite always burns for detraction of religion, and that a biting tooth of malicious rumors fixes the sting of mockery. Let the world use its own nature, so long as it find nothing in our discipline. Let falsehood be bandied about as is its custom, so long as what is said cannot even be plausible. No one ought therefore to despise the wound of ill fame because rumor is always accustomed to feign; but should be the more carefully on guard, because it is wont even to compose fictions. No one is rendered secure from the fear of detraction by the habitual practice of detracting. Nor is a continued matter of anxiety a cause for negligence. Let the guarding of your modesty and reverence, therefore, be safe and watchful. Let your going out from the house be necessary and rare, occasioned either by some reason of religion, or ordained by the necessity of exercising work for the sake of sustenance.

Abstain from all gifts, except such as suffice for daily food and yearly clothing. Knowing it is written: “Having food and wherewith to be covered, with these we are content”; and again: “That you walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you want nothing of any man”. Nor indeed, even for the sake of giving alms, should you presume anything from anyone beyond the aforesaid sustenance, knowing it is written: “For if the will be prompt, it is accepted according to that which a man has, not according to that which he has not.” Thus that divine sentence of the Gospel word enriched with a magnificent acceptance of largess the poor widow who cast in only two mites among the abundant gifts of the wealthy. For that cannot be little which is the whole. Nor has anyone given more than he who has reserved nothing for himself.

If these things seem too strict to anyone besides yourselves who shall attempt to knock at the cloisters of God, he will relax them according as his own reason allows: lest perhaps he be bound by a spouse, or hindered by children. Besides these, a narrower substance has very many things that follow. Nor let him believe himself repelled, but admitted by the entry of another calling, as it is written: “Let every man abide in the calling wherein he was called”. Yet not so that, being more occupied with fleeting things, he bestow more devoted care upon his patrimony than upon religion, acknowledging it is written: “and those who possess, as though they possessed not.” If, however, a happier nature has freed someone from the fetter of posterity, if it be rightly understood, he will have no cause for clinging to the world, unless he is ignorant of the gifts of God. Why should he not, by a free choice in life, let go of what death will inevitably break, turning circumstance into reward and necessity into greater virtue?

Rather, the person who, in managing his household, turns small things into great ones, cheap things into precious ones, and perishable things into eternal ones will alone be able, when he reaches that place, to possess his patrimony forever. If he is not avaricious, he ought to despise things that come to an end; if he is avaricious, he ought to desire things perpetual, knowing it is written: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where the moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, and where thieves do not break through nor steal”. For this is an exhortation to him who is not without children; to him who is without them, a command. All these things, suited to the times, fitting to persons, full of examples, seasoned with blandishments, alluring in speech, in the mild integrity of exhortation, he can more easily persuade who does them.

Nor indeed are you envious of any fruit of all these things, so as to defraud anyone of due esteem. You surely had strong bodies, an unspent age, and untried minds; even if your prospects were modest, the variety of human life still lay open to you: trade, military service, different crafts, and countless worldly occupations for increasing wealth. Finally there was not lacking even a poor wife, who might prepare the pleasure of living and the endearments of offspring implanted in human feeling. All of which indeed, rejecting them in body and chaste senses, you keep the form of the divine sentence in your religious acts, Scripture saying: “Whosoever shall love house, or wife, or children more than me, is not worthy of me”. Looking, therefore, upon your examples, let not those who have come to the pursuit of this life with equal substance despair of the sum of merits by too narrow an estimate of themselves. Established, therefore, dearest sons, on this path of living, be at leisure and see that the Lord is sweet.

Spend your days and nights in readings and prayers, and remember me always, whom you have thought worthy to choose as your teacher—one born untimely among all priests, in work and in knowledge: Watch, stand fast in the faith, act manfully, be strengthened, let all things of yours be done in charity, and the God of peace shall be with you.