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put a high value on fasting.
do not value anything more highly than the love of Christ.
Confess your past sins to God each day in prayer with tears and sighs.
The master’s order and the disciple’s perfect fulfilment of it occur more or less simultaneously.
Those who are motivated by a desire to progress towards eternal life carry out both promptly, in the fear of the Lord.
The first step towards humility is to keep the fear of God in mind at all times.
The second step towards humility is not to love your own will and not to take pleasure in satisfying your own desires.
The third step towards humility is to submit to your superior with complete obedience out of love for God,
The fourth step towards humility is to cling to patience with equanimity, practising obedience when you encounter painful and difficult experiences and even unjust treatment.
The fifth step towards humility is to confess humbly to the abbot all the wicked thoughts that spring to mind and anything you have secretly done wrong,
The sixth step towards humility is for the monk to be content with the lowest position and most menial treatment, and to consider himself incompetent and worthless with regard to everything he is told to do, saying to himself in the words of the prophet, ‘I have been reduced to nothing and I know nothing. I am regarded as a beast of burden in your eyes; yet I am always with you’ (Ps. 73:22–3).
The seventh step towards humility is for him not only to claim that he is beneath everyone else and worse than them, but also to be convinced of this deep in his heart, humbling himself and saying with the prophet, ‘I am a worm and not a man, hated by others and a laughing-stock to the people’ (Ps. 22:6).
The eighth step towards humility is for the monk to do only what is commended by the common rule of the monastery and the example of his superiors.
The ninth step towards humility is for the monk to keep his tongue in check and to refrain from speaking.
The tenth step towards humility is to avoid being easily provoked to laughter,
The eleventh step towards humility is for the monk to speak gently and without laughter, but with humility and seriousness, saying only a few, reasonable words, and not speaking in a loud voice,
The twelfth step towards humility is for the monk always to display humility,
he should always have his head bent, his eyes fixed on the ground, regarding himself at all times as guilty of his sins, and imagining that he is already appearing before the dread judgement. He should constantly repeat to himself in his heart the words of the publican in the Gospels who said, with his eyes fixed on the ground, ‘Lord, I am a sinner and not worthy to raise my eyes to heaven’
Above all he must be humble and if he has nothing else to give, let him offer a kind word in reply, as it says in Scripture, ‘A kind word is of more value than the best gift’
Above all, there must be no word or sign of grumbling for any reason at all – this is a serious offence: if anyone is guilty of it, he should be subjected to strict discipline.
by serving one another the brothers gain a greater reward and become more loving.
striving to be the first to show each other respect.
They must bear with great patience one another’s weaknesses of body and character
compete with each other in bei...
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For is not every page and every word of divine authority in the Old and New Testaments a most reliable guide to human life?
this little rule for beginners
