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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 160: With What Disposition Ought We to Serve the Brethren? (R. 86)
As if we offered our service to the Lord Who said:1 ‘Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even one of these least, ye did it unto me.”2 Now it contributes towards the attaining of such a disposition if those who receive our care are worthy. Wherefore the Superiors must attend to them the more zealously lest loving their bodies they become slaves of the belly and of lusts, but rather that through perfect endurance as befits those who love Christ and God, they may become an object of boasting to the Lord and a reproach to the devil, like righteous Job.
Notes
- Mt. xxv. 40. Ben. Reg. xxxvi. quotes the opening lines of this answer.
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