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Monastic Life
Monastic
Life
IF
YOU wish peace and concord with others, you must learn to break your will in
many things. To live in monasteries or religious communities, to remain there
without complaint, and to persevere faithfully till death is no small matter.
Blessed
indeed is he who there lives a good life and there ends his days in happiness.
If
you would persevere in seeking perfection, you must consider yourself a pilgrim,
an exile on earth. If you would become a religious, you must be content to seem
a fool for the sake of Christ. Habit and tonsure change a man but little; it is
the change of life, the complete mortification of passions that endow a true
religious.
He
who seeks anything but God alone and the salvation of his soul will find only
trouble and grief, and he who does not try to become the least, the servant of
all, cannot remain at peace for long.
You
have come to serve, not to rule. You must understand, too, that you have been
called to suffer and to work, not to idle and gossip away your time. Here men
are tried as gold in a furnace. Here no man can remain unless he desires with
all his heart to humble himself before God.
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