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

Then it will be for the superior, after agreeing to the reception of the gift, to decide who in the community should receive the gift and, if it is not the one to whom it was sent, that should not give rise to recriminations lest the devil be given an opportunity. (From Ch. 54 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

A generosity of spirit, an attention to the true needs of others, and a detachment from controlling or being controlled by things: All of this is a liberating message to me in a culture of commercial chaos.