The Simple Life

An Athonite hermit said: “Fasting, vigilance, and prayer: anyone who practices these virtues can succeed in anything. One should lead a simple life. You see my hut is empty. In any household only the necessary things should be there. Too many things are a hindrance to the spiritual life.”

Re: The Simple Life

This excerpted from a letter from a dear friend:

… I leave you with the Paramount
Goals
of the Benedictine Order of Monks (penned, of course, by St. Benedict).
I
got this from a little book that you both should buy entitled “Always
We
Begin Again”, by John McQuiston II. In it McQuiston updates the rules
of
the Benedictines just a little. It is a wonderful read.

Paramount Goals

What is wanted is not that we should find
ultimate truth,
nor that we should become secure,
nor that we should have ease,
nor that we should be without hurt,
but that we should live fully.

Therefore we should not fear life,
nor anything in life,
we should not fear death,
nor anything in death,
we should live our lives
in love with life.

It is for us
to train our hearts
to live in grace
to sacrifice our self-centered desires,
to find the peace without want
without seeking it for ourselves
and when we fail,
to begin again each day.

If we adopt an outlook of confidence and
trust and perfect our experience by care for
others, if we live in the certainty that we are
heirs in the providence of the outermost
mystery, we wil begin to change into the
persons that we have the potential to be.

Re: The Simple Life

Wonderful Words Violet !!!!

My personal Thanks for sharing these words from your friends letter.

Made my day. Good words to read many times, and to learn to live life by.

Very much enjoyed reading this….:o)

Thank you.

In His Love,

Baba's Boy

Re: The Simple Life

I'm happy that you found it today.

Tonight I found something by Thomas Merton, from The Wisdom of the Desert:

XXXIV  

One of the monks, called Serapion, sold his book of the Gospels and gave the money to those who were hungry, saying: I have sold the book which told me to sell all that I had and give to the poor.

~!.~

Lindsey

Re: The Simple Life

Lovely!