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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 122: If a Man Punished by Being Forbidden to Receive a Blessing Says, Unless I Get a…
He that has inflicted the punishment will judge assuredly whether the fault deserves so great a punishment as that the man should be prevented even from eating. But if a man is merely judged unworthy of the blessing and though allowed to eat will not do so, let him be judged on this account disobedient and contentious. At the same time let him consider himself and know that he is not healing himself by seeking this but that he is adding sin to sin.
Notes
- εὐλογίαν. Some small gift bestowed as a symbol of fellowship, perhaps pain bénit. Cf. Hist. Laus. xxv. 3. Or it may refer to a blessing in the usual ecclesiastical sense. It cannot = the Eucharist. See B. 44 where deprivation of food (ἀσιτία) and separation (from prayer, ἀφορισμός) are mentioned as penalties. Here the punishment is by itself mild: ἀσιτία may be added to increase its severity.