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Shorter Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Preface

The good God,¹ that teacheth man knowledge,”² gives command by His apostle to those who are entrusted with the gift of teaching that they should continue in their teaching.³ And those who desire the edification of divine teachings He exhorts by Moses, saying: “Ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.”⁴ Therefore it is necessary that we who have been entrusted with the ministry of the word should be always zealous for the perfecting of your souls. Sometimes we must needs bear witness publicly before the whole Church, at other times we may allow ourselves to be consulted privately at his pleasure by any one who may come to question us concerning that which belongs to sound faith and the true method of right conduct according to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; for by means of these two things the man of God is perfected.⁵ And you too must allow nothing to pass fruitless and unheeded, but, besides what you hear in public, must also ask privately concerning those things which are expedient and so make good use of all your times of leisure. Seeing then that God has brought us here together, and that we have much freedom from external distractions, let us not turn aside to any other⁶ work, or give our bodies again to sleep, but rather pass the hours of the night that remain in careful thought and in searching out that which is needful, fulfilling the words of the blessed David: ‘“In the law of the Lord will he meditate day and night.”

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