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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
29. Rule 29: How Can a Man Avoid Anger? (R. 46)
If he considers always that he gazes upon the all-seeing God and the ever-present Lord. For what subject ever dares before the eyes of a ruler to do anything displeasing to him? And if he has no reason to expect obedience from others, then let him prepare himself to obey them, thinking all men superior to himself. For if he requires obedience in view of his own needs, he must know that the word of the Lord teaches each of us to serve others, but if he would avenge a transgression of the Lord’s commandments, there is need not of wrath, but of pity and sympathy, after the pattern of him who said: Who is weak and I am not weak?”’1
Notes
- 92 Cor. xi. 29.