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Longer Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 26: That All Things, Even the Secrets of the Heart, are to Be Revealed to the…
Every man in a subordinate position, if indeed he means to show proper progress and remain firmly fixed in a life lived according to the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ, must keep no movement of his soul secret and utter no word without careful consideration, but must lay bare the secrets of the heart to those brethren who are entrusted2 with the task of caring for weak souls tenderly and sympathetically. For in this way what is praiseworthy is strengthened, to what is wrong is adjudged the appropriate penalty, and from such co-operation in discipline we shall win perfection through gradual additions of goodness.
Notes
- Not an accurate description of what follows.
- i.e. by the Superior. Cass. Inst. iv. 9 gives a similar precept, based perhaps on B. but making the distinction one between juniors and seniors. Here those who hear confessions are not necessarily the oldest monks nor need they be priests; see Clarke p. 96 and Intr. p. 40 f.