If, for the sake of silence, we ought sometimes not to speak what is good, then even more are we obliged to avoid all evil talk, for fear of the punishment due to sin. Therefore, frequent leave to talk is not to be granted to those who are advanced in perfection, even if the subject is good and holy and edifying. Because it is written, "In much talk you…

We must prepare our hearts and bodies for the battle of holy obedience to his instructions. What is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Lord to supply by the help of his grace.

The keeper of the wine cellar for the community shall be chosen out of the community, discreet, mature in his behavior and sober. If a brother chance to demand anything unreasonable of him, he is not to be contemptuous in his refusal but to refuse reasonably and humbly. He is to be careful of his own soul and remember that St. Paul says: "He that has done…

We believe God is everywhere, and his eye beholds the good and wicked wherever they are: so we ought to be particularly assured of his special presence when we assist at the divine office. Therefore we must always remember the advice of the prophet, "To serve God in fear," "to sing wisely" and that "the angels are witnesses of what we sing." Let us then…

It is the abbot's responsibility to have great concern and to act with all speed, discernment and diligence in order not to lose any of the sheep entrusted to him. He should realize that he has undertaken care of the sick, not tyranny over the healthy.

In his teaching the abbot is ever to observe this rule of the apostle: "Reprove, beseech, correct." This consists in a judicious timing: to mix gentleness with sternness—at one time to show the severity of a master, at another the tenderness of a father. Use rigor with the irregular and the turbulent, but win to better things the obedient, mild and patient.

Brothers, let us hear the Lord's answer to the question, an answer that shows the way to the heavenly tabernacle.… He who drives the tempter and his temptations far from his heart, defeats his malice and dashes his rising thoughts against the Rock Christ. He who fears the Lord without growing proud of his virtue and humbly acknowledges that what is good…

[The abbot] must be aware of his own frailty and remember that it is forbidden to break the already bruised reed. We do not mean that he should countenance the growth of vice but that he use discretion and tenderness as he sees it expedient for the different characters of his brothers. He is to endeavor much more to be loved than to be feared.

The Scripture asserts that "everyone that exalts himself will be humbled, and he that humbles himself will be exalted." …If we want to attain to true humility and come quickly to the top of that heavenly ascent to which we can only mount by lowliness in this present life, we must ascend by good works. We must erect the mystical ladder of Jacob, where…