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Shorter Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 225: The Lord Said, Wherever Two or Three are Gathered Together in My Name, There Am…

Those who have been gathered together in the name of any one ought by all means to know the purpose of him who has gathered them together and fit themselves for it that they may find the grace of pleasing him and not incur the condemnation of wickedness or carelessness. For just as those who have been summoned by a man if his purpose is reaping prepare themselves for this task, and if his purpose is building get ready to build, so those who have been called by the Lord ought to remember the apostle’s words: ‘I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye were called in one hope of your calling.”² The Lord puts the whole matter to us more clearly by the promise He made to the individual: “If a man love me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.”³ As then the abiding with the man comes from keeping of the commandments, so also He is in the midst of the two or three if they are conformed to His will. But those who are gathered together not worthily of the calling and not in accordance with the will of the Lord, even if they seem to be gathered together in the name of the Lord, are told: “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not what I say? “⁴

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