Saturday, August 2, 2014

Chapter 54: The reception of letters and gifts in the monastery


No one in a monastic community may receive or send to others letters, gifts of piety or any little tokens, without the permission of the superior, whether it is their parents who are concerned or anyone else at all or another member if the community. (From Ch. 54 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

Gifts and letters are good, I think, except when I use them to manipulate others or make them indebted to me. True generosity comes from one realized heart respecting another, and carries with it liberty of spirit.

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