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Shorter Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 135: May a Man Ask for More Than Usual When He is Fatigued? (R. 94)

If he has incurred the fatigue on account of the reward promised by God, he ought not to seek in this way alleviation of his toil, but to prepare himself for the reward of the Lord; knowing that as he will be counted worthy of the reward for his labour so will he also be of comforting at the hands of the compassionate God in return for his affliction. However he that has been bidden to follow the Seripture practice: “Distribution was made unto each according as each had need ’¹ is necessarily bound to know each of those who are fatigued² and to care for them in appropriate manner.

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