Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

Do not exhibit your way of life

All guests who arrive should be received as Christ, for he himself will say, I was a stranger and you took me in. Proper respect should be shown to all, especially fellow monks and pilgrims. (RB 53: 1-2)

CS003419One brother, an ascetic who was not eating bread, went to visit a great old man. Some foreigners were also there and the old made made a little cooked food for their benefit. When they sat down to eat, the ascetic brother set before himself a single soaked chickpea and ate.

When they got up, the old man took the brother aside and said to him, “Brother, if you visit someone, do not exhibit your way of life. If you want to keep to your own way of life, stay in your cell and never come out.”

Persuaded by what the old man had said, he became more accommodating when he got together with the brothers.

From Becoming Fire, ed. Tim Vivian, p. 427.

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1 Response

  1. I think this is wise advice. To do otherwise is a form of spiritual materialism — where you run the danger of calling attention to yourself and how spiritual you are.

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