between the struggle of St. Augustine for the meaning of true friendship. What a folly it is that men don't know how to love men. And the solution he finds, while in one way he is wounded deeply for the one reason, that he had loved his friend as if he were never to die. And then he cured and rising or being healed slowly finds the solution to love the friend in God, in God the Creator. Because there is the hope of all goodness that we find in any human being the manifestation of God's goodness.

[01:06]

So we cannot love any human being as if he was not created, not given by God, not going to God. But in God, there he is, eternal. There everything that is bad, that is good, that is beauty, there it is staying, there it rests, there it stands. And then I, the friend, with in God. And then one should go a step further to love the friend in the word. It has become flesh. which became our friends, in whom the whole idea of friendship is truly fulfilled. And it's such a way that we, as human beings, enter into it, are able to enter into it.

[02:14]

He took on our flesh. And then, through his flesh, and taking us, drawing us into himself, he rises with us to the throne of God. Not to leave us, but to be with us. But to be with us then in the way of the Spirit, in our hearts. That is the meaning of the ascension and of Pentecost. And so there the bond of friendship is being knit through that charity which is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And we have celebrated this Mass this morning for the remission of sins. And there at the Epistle we have listened again to the a basic human situation that two loves, two laws are in conflict in us.

[03:23]

And we find ourselves subject to the law of the flesh. But then our cry that we may be delivered from it, freed from it, and the answer, the divine answer through the grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That really is the only solution for the problem of affections. So you see already from these few words, from the example of a man like St. Augustine, nobody could blame him for that of sensitivity. St. Augustine is the model of a rich human soul with an eager response to anything beautiful and good that God has collected.

[04:30]

And his heart was full of affection. And one can also say this, that in reading the Confessions, you will see that these affections were never killed itself. They were purified. And that indeed is the Christian attitude. We think of the communion of saints in terms of affection, in terms of peace, in terms of joy. What else are they but affections? So it's not the killing of affections which is the purpose or the spirit of Christianity. One has to say that and state that very explicitly, especially in a country like this, where puritan morality has a great influence on the spiritual energy.

[05:38]

on the guiding ideas of people, especially when they tackle the religious life. But Puritan morality is not capital. We all know that. Puritan morality is a derivative of what we call deism. that doctrine of the illumination period, which conceives of God simply as the architect of this universe, who then has withdrawn and leaves the universe as it were to the mathematical principles on which he built it in the beginning, so that life becomes rather a mathematical or a problem, let's better say, of arithmetic. And of course, for any such approach, feelings are dangerous. They are the terrible unknown quantity.

[06:43]

They don't fit into any human and arithmetic, the arithmetic of reason or reasonableness. But that is greatly the idea which dominates our ideas on morality. That the moral, the righteous man, righteousness, and that word righteousness in our days is filled or associated with the idea of reasonableness, with the idea of keeping the golden medium, the right balance, it's a calculation thing. The will strictly subject to reason, man following the dictates of prudence. Be good, and if you can't be good, at least be prudent, as I once heard a Puritan mother advise in her songs.

[07:53]

no overeating, no overdrinking, no sexual excesses, because they are against moderation. They cause disorder in your life, and that disorder makes you less useful, makes you function not as well as you are expected to, as you lose the interest That's the confidence of others, always clear. So therefore, feelings on this background are considered dangerous. A weakening of the wind. A dimming of the light of reason. Harmful to our usefulness. You know that this idea in some way or so goes back to Aristotelian ideas, where it's difficult to put passions into the right category.

[09:08]

That is where Aristotle puts the affections, the affective states of man, under the category of the passionness, passions. Then what is the passion in this philosophy? Motus appetitus sensitivi et imaginatione boni velna. They are the actions or reactions of the sensitive appetite springing forth from the image or imagination of something good or something evil. So therefore these affective states are always connected with bodily reactions and therefore interfering with the freedom of the will and therefore morally suspicious.

[10:16]

infringing upon the sovereignty of man as a reasonable creature. And this approach to the affective states of man was as led to a certain aspect, to mean to a certain degree. And that maybe has even been more accentuated in the post-Reformation Catholicism. with its accent on purity. And this purity interpreted in the sense of that angelic innocence of the child as a moral idea. In this way, so in this connection of things, feelings are apt to be strict, as it were, of that strength and color and intensity which characterizes the mature human being.

[11:30]

And so feelings are exposed to many falsifications. An image of feelings is pictured which rather repels the mature human human being that attracts and much of this kind of thing has entered into devotion as for example devotion to the sacred heart in the christian art of the 19th century is it seems to me a product of such an approach And in that way, feelings are discredited by, let us say, more strong men or family types as sentimentality, as something subjective, something even that smacks of infantilism.

[12:34]

And all these things then lead to a reaction against the whole field of feeling. And I think that is wrong. The affective states are not limited to this moment or to this time in which the soul is together and lives together with the body. And they are not only reactions in that way of the appetitus sensitius, but they may be even also and accompany the spirit, the spiritual life. Joy, for that matter, is not in that sense a passion of the appetitus sensitius, but joy of something which is joy. power to the angels, to the saints in heaven. Joyful and matter is attributed to God's perfection, perfectio, simpliciter, simplex.

[13:45]

And still is certainly, I mean, the status, affective status. So, of course, Christianity has always coming from the Bible, from the Revelation, the Word of God, always recognize that. And that is, to my mind, the real meaning, the deep meaning of the idea of the heart, which is essential piece of the entire Old Testament and New Testament revelation. That idea of the heart stands there as the symbol of these historic affective states. We have the will and we have the intellect. We have the heart. So it's evident immediately when you only take one look at the manifestation of the Father's heart who sent his Son

[14:53]

from his bosom, to make known to us his riches. And Christ the Lord brings to this earth the radiant goodness, infinite, overflowing goodness of the Father's heart. He brings what Holy Scripture calls the eternal life. Bios Ios, eternal life. And this eternal life includes the, what we call, the affective states. You may read the parables, Matthew 20, the wonderful parable of the labors in the vineyard. where those who work least receive the most. And that has always been the thought in the side of Puritan morality, this parable.

[16:01]

But it ends on this beautiful note. Why should you of irons be evil, but I am good? has a wonderful verdict against that morality of reasonableness, of measuring everything, that morality of the justitia destructiva, as it was developed in the political realm of a little Greek city with many difficult individuals around. So that is here, you know, the manifestation of Christ's goodness. And the echo to that goodness is wherever you see it. It's joy, it's the praises, it's a song. That song again is the expression of an affective state.

[17:05]

But this song, the Alleluia, continues. It's not in any way limited to this perfect state of ours. So then, the way we get glory of the divine mercy, if you think of the parable of the prodigal son, that of the father, who arranges a feast, who clothes his son in beautiful, the best garments, puts a ring on his finger. My dear friends, all that is far beyond the calculations of righteousness. That is a completely new dimension. It's the dimension of the heart. And for that matter, the dimension of the affections. Oh, the Good Samaritan, again that same abundance, pouring oil into the homes, bringing into the hostel, paying for an advance.

[18:22]

All that is, again, beyond all calculation. It's, one can say, the overflow of infinite mercy. and therefore again the reaction of thanksgiving, of joy. But the same also in suffering. Take our Lord himself and his deep sorrow, his deep suffering, that is in the realm of the affections. Gethsemane is a manifestation of the depth of the heart, That is, again, beyond all calculations, beyond all reasonableness. But it is the heart of our whole redemption. In redemption, the battle for our souls has been fought in the depth of the heart of the Saviour.

[19:29]

And all that what we live from, through, by, now, it's all because the land has opened, the heart of the Savior, and blood and water are pouring forth. These gifts of the bios aeolus, of the eternal life, in which we participate in the church's mysteries, And of course those we celebrate. Again, as I have told you so often in the past, a celebration is very proper to Puritan morality. It's very proper also to the bourgeois morality of post-Reformation Catholicism. A celebration, for that matter, is an ecstasy. It is an excess. Excessus paritatis.

[20:34]

A feast. So those things, that whole field, my dear brethren, we should never lose sight of. We should not consider our monastic life as a way of life which has to be dry in order to be really good. That is nonsense. The monastic life is a feast. Every day for the Christian, every day of his life is a feast. That is the thing that the Fathers realized so deeply. And there was that abundance of the reaction, the feelings of the heart, and that created the liturgy. I have told you before, to sing an Alleluia before the Gospel is read, sure, I'm afraid,

[21:37]

If any, even the best liturgical commission that the bishops of this country, for example, would set up to devise a new celebration of the Holy Eucharist, to sing an Alleluia before the Gospel is announced, I don't think they would get that idea. If they didn't have the tradition of the Church and the tradition of the Fathers to learn from, So let us never lose that glorious splendor, full of affection, deep sorrow, highest, purest joy. Absolute peace. The beautiful word, serenitas, is a typically Christian word. So, think of, if you look at the Gospels, think of the joy of Syria taking into its arms the child Jesus.

[22:45]

Nun dimittis servum tuum in pacem. Now, you dimittis your servant in peace. What a wonderful picture that is. Again, cannot be departmentalized. Is that passion? The goodness, as we celebrated yesterday, the goodness of good Dr. Luke, And then all that which is so visible, so real in his gospel, and in the way he understood, interpreted, and hands down to us, the deeds, the life of our Savior. Then in the Acts of the Apostles, this wonderful description of the young church, and there they were together. had everything in common, and were in favor with all the people.

[23:52]

They were full of affections, and therefore they affected, they moved the hearts of others. In our days, where does a Christian community, a Catholic community, live in the depth of true Christian affections, in such a way that it affects others. Very, very. On the go, well, then probably count them all over the world and that's five things. Five, our approach is that it's completely lost to us. We think the only obligation we have towards others is to tell them the truth. And that very often means, again, hit them over the head with the stick of some dog. Either you take it or you die. That's a poor approach.

[24:56]

That is not an approach which wins the heart. But if you look at the acts of the apostles, it's different. They had favor with all the people. Today, the church is, by outsiders, one of the institutions that is most hated and most feared of all institutions. Why is it? Because we have lost this whole fear, this fruit of the abundance of divine love given to us, the affection we have lost in it. And so, let us realize that And let us, we compare and live in the enthusiasm of a Verdi Saint Ignatius of Antioch, a great bishop. But look how the Holy Spirit works in his heart, gives him parousia, this beautiful dream.

[26:01]

That quiet, strong, victory-conscious confidence that makes him, enables him to stand up and to love for martyrdom from the bottom of his heart. Very often also, in other good, really truly Catholic saints, the sense of humor that you find takes somebody like St. Francis, taking two pieces of wood, and then scrambling down the road, walking the other way, like a violin, and singing a Troubadour song. And in that way, marching through a village. Hope we do that today. But still, it's so beautiful. There is a man, out of whose heart, Strange wails are the song to the sun.

[27:07]

I could say, whoever sings the song of the sun today, spontaneously, out of the heart, calling the sun one's sister. And the water, and the moon, and the stars, all that is affective. That's not a matter of reason. That's not a matter of willpower. That is a free, spontaneous swirling of the apartments of God. That is the target of the heart. And that's what we have lost. But not, you know, the monk really shouldn't. The monk shouldn't lose that. I think sometimes monastic life indeed is always endangered. I see that.

[28:09]

And just in this context, this context of too much formalism. The other day when somebody made a mistake in reasoning, in reading, spoke about the Depressing observances. I got some encouraging nods. Telling me now, why don't you give a conference of depressing observances. That would be really a noble monastic retreat. But really, not such a bad idea. However, one has to be cautious, prudent. So, that is true. Sometimes, that's true now that in life, We meet in great formalism. Sometimes that formalism has a kind of, gives a kind of an icy feeling. One is kind of, one feels in a frigid day.

[29:13]

There are masters, one feels a little in a frigid day. But there are others, but that is not the case, you know. And then, you know, a sign of relief on every side, in every direction. Thank God. So, therefore, our predicted life really, in its essence, it's not that way. It's deeply affected. We see it. The monk has always been outstanding in the church as a man who's not only dedicated, let's say, to the reason, to the services of reason, let's say, to teaching, But he is, and I think any pedagogic merits that may be there, they rest to a great extent not on the efficiency of hammering certain materials, objective truth, matter, into the lives of the boys, but let them grow, give them the realm, the space where they can breathe.

[30:28]

and breathe with their hearts. And that is the tremendous function of art. And that is the function, for example, of music in the life of the world and of the monastic community. Music to us is not just a relaxation, It's not just a kind of a little ornament on the fringes, a kind of a concession, you know, that if I'm completely tired out now, then I sit down and I make this concession and I listen to some music. Music for us is something for the merchant. That is, in a mysterious way, it's the language of the heart. but the language of the heart of the order of the heart, not of all that merger that may accumulate on the bottom of the human heart, as far as fallen nature is concerned.

[31:34]

Music is just that, that it has this tremendous transforming power. Only music can for that have an end. human ways come close and bring to us the beauty and the overbearing depth of something, a mystery like that of the Resurrection, or a mystery like that of the Passion. All these things are connected therefore, and I would say essentially, with the musical and musical expression. A musical expression, you cannot categorize it into the intellect, and you cannot seat it in the will, it just doesn't work. There is a field, we simply call it the field of the addictive state. And there is, we call it symbolically then, the field of the heart.

[32:37]

So these things are really and truly also in a monastic community. And the life of a monastic community should be filled with that. How good and how, what do you say, you could. That's an effective step. Habitare fratres inut. But then, of course, and that is always a matter of virtue, we should not deceive ourselves. We have to see the dangers. Because it is true that certain affections, of course, that word affections covers, I was tempted to say, a multitude of things. but if you understand what I mean I mean a multitude of now let's also say phenomena there are and they are completely you know of various degrees various levels and of course also of various values there are aspects

[34:01]

which are, of course, damaging to the human nature. But we shouldn't, for that reason, condemn the whole affective sphere. That would be nonsense. It is a matter of judgment. It's a matter of separation. It's a matter of taking, you know, in the power of the Holy Spirit what can be consecrated and offering up what cannot be consecrated. And there, of course, there is always, there is another misunderstanding, my mind, which is so deeply rooted in the thinking of modern man, that he admits, at least, you know, as his five senses altogether, that reason, the truth, is a common ground which can be shaped. That also the will, That way can be at work for the same good, under the guidance of reason.

[35:11]

But when it comes to the affections, now that is incommunicable. Therefore, with the affections we reach the sphere of the private, the homo privatus, or the sphere of the individual. In opposition, let us say to the person, I think that is absolutely not true. It is true of some perspectives, but by no means of all. And it is the meaning of the monastic life that the rule which St. Benedict gives us is one of the purposes which this rule is supposed to achieve. It's not supposed to strip us of all affections. We are not, for that matter, striving after what the ancients called apathy.

[36:12]

Apathia. Apathy. This apathy and this idea of apathy comes from the fact that one simply throws all affections in one pot, and the best thing is boil it, and let it boil until it's all crisp. That is not, you see, that's not the meaning of the rules. The ideal... that you, for example, every one of you has to have before him of a monk, what is it for me to become a good monk? That is not to know that I'm hanging in the monastic column room like one icicle next to another. What a terrible picture. That is not the meaning of it. So therefore, but still, you know, that is true.

[37:14]

It wants, and the rule wants, to purify the affection. And you see that. You see that in the example of Socrates in Augustine. There was this friendship. But he loved this friend as he, if he would never doubt it. That means he did not love him completely on the human plane. And that is what I would like to point out. That any distortion of affections really is subdued. It's not the truth. St. Augustine then, you know, through the grace of God, developed into a higher stage where in the Spirit, which flows forth from the heart of the risen Savior, he finds true friendship. And that true friendship is full friendship. And that is eternal, lasting.

[38:19]

And that is what we are after. What is the mood? What is the meaning of the Vita Communis? The meaning of the Vita Communis is that we arrive at the pure love. The pure love. The Puritas Colitis. You cannot imagine a Puritas Colitis in an icy. It's not Puritas Colitis. If that is so, if that were the idea of purity, it would destroy the heart. It would be puritas corpus. It would be the puritas of a corpse, but not the puritas of a heart. So we are after the puritas corpus. So the vita comunis is not arranged in such a way that every one of us should give up his heart. but should bring it, should bring it to his perfection.

[39:22]

Everything that is from God and in God and for God, that should be taken away. That should be brought, but that's a gain, that isn't a loss. So in that way the Vita Communis wants to lead us into the mystery of love. But of course purification is necessary. And I just give you to end this conference some things we simply have to observe. We want to come to that state in which in this community, for example, pure affections would write, and would for that matter be enjoyed by all, and in which pure afflictions, the pure affections in the vida communis, would carry the individual on its current into the eternal home.

[40:28]

And there is, for example, there are, of course, and you know that very well, there are impulsive things, the law of the flesh, which for that matter somehow has to die. And there is of course also in the field of affections, especially of affections of love, there is that sphere in which the individual really wants to take something for himself. Separating with vanity, others take it for themselves. There is the sphere of the many. But love of God is a bond of unity. And wherever love is not a bond of unity, it's bad. There is the fruit. It divides. For example, when one brother kind of pursues another brother with his affection,

[41:33]

And the other brother is pretty cool, maybe. And still continue, as I say, staring, doing little services, just for this one, not for the others. Spare, absolutely. Doesn't need any destruction. And not only for that individual, but for the whole. It's a wound. It doesn't need anyone. That has the taste of death in itself. That is, lovingly or the grass, it would never die. That means out-subjective, not in, not for death. So all that is what we call a magicia peculiaris. as formulated by St. Basil the Great in his room, where he says, in this life under a common rule, the law of charity does not authorize peculiar fetches.

[42:43]

Hence, as he says, the formation of clubs, or of sets. He said, you know, there is somebody, you know, kind of has, you know, around him, you know, a selected group. For the very reason that such groups do great harm to the general heart. A surplus of affection for one person shows inevitably a deficit in relation to others. And that's what disturbs the habitara in the womb. About that we must be absolutely clear. And that is especially the case, as I say, in absolutely grave ways, where one, let us say, is after another. That's a priori that.

[43:48]

That simply has to be put on the altar. That has to be killed. That's true. But that is a liberating death. Something much more beautiful comes out of it. There is another case, you know, where there is a spontaneous mutual reaction. That is, of course, very often is the case. Spontaneous mutual reaction. And now that's, for example, also is very often the case, and I speak of my own experience without blushing, for example, in this place like Sydney, or that's a college, or many young people get together. So it's a big choice there. And therefore the possibility of mutual, of mutual connection, affection of friends is very possible. And things, you know, that I would say also has in a certain way, has really a certain different atmosphere.

[44:59]

It is not all that matters. It's not if I think about it. and the relations, you know, and certain friendships, good relations that were formed, you know, with other alumni. Now that is there, it's completely different. One is not, for that matter, there in the community, in the family, to which one is bound with the powers of some profession. It's a different thing. And everybody who is there knows that he is there for a time. That it isn't his place where he stands. And therefore also the relations that form, they are for a time. Now we are here together in the same thing of study. And the same thing of being together here and, for example, also taking in whatever can be offered, say, by the Eternal City.

[46:03]

By Italy are all these various treasures, you know, that are there at the disposal of those who lived there for a time. And there, I would say, you know, one shouldn't be too much of a prudent. But still, you know, one should be, of course, on one's guard. Oh, that one doesn't. In that way, St. Augustine, as you remember, he calls that friendship, I think it's so beautiful, that he describes it with his own attitude. He says, in this first stage, where love for love's sake, and not the human person, was in view at all, love for love's sake. And he says, yes, but there was lacking, see, the modus, the measure, the measure from mind to mind. One would also say maybe the distance from mind to mind, which he calls that luminous wall which is fetched, that wall of light which is fetched.

[47:15]

So very, so deep, beautiful an expression. A luminous wall, that means a luminous, also a certain demarcation line. But this demarcation line is based on mutual reverence. Mutual reverence. You cannot, for that matter, you see, you cannot enjoy something beautiful if you want to eat it up. You have a wonderful apple, and for a moment you wait and say, What a wonderful color. What a wonderful form. But then as you go with your knife and you cut it up, that's completely then, then that's lost. And that's of course also in relation from man to man. Or can in that way enjoy the beauty of the other world? But that is a luminous world. The luminous world which is fresh.

[48:17]

Yet still one cannot say that this is a separation. A luminous wall is not a barbed wire. Unfortunately also, some people make barbed wires around it, but that is not the essence of monastic wisdom. So then we have this spontaneous affection. Now I say, now that impends in a certain way on the Ambiance is the milieu in which one lives, as for example a college. If one lives in one's own monastic family, the situation is different. There it is different. There that, for example here, we have a certain nature, which I often see, which I have to point out in the course of this retreat. and really recommend very seriously to your observance and respect. And there is the relation between the solemnly professed and novices.

[49:24]

That is because we don't have, at the present time now, it's better because there's St. John's and that is the place for the novitiate. You know very well that the Church, in her legislation, is very strict and very explicit about it. That the novitiate should have, novices should have a place by themselves. that the contact with the solemnly professed should be on a minimum. Now, we don't have that, for example, in recreation. I think it would be really a great loss for us at the present moment, especially not to have common recreations. But still, it also has its negative aspects. But I would really warn and I would get an urge from all the seniors to keep that separation. The seniors, the fathers, are not allowed on their own simply to approach or to talk to novices.

[50:33]

Of course, where something objectifying in a matter of arranging for this and that is concerned, yes. But as soon as it gets into anything personal, Neither should the novices go and select one senior as their special confidant. Nor should, on the other hand, seniors, out of their own initiative, go and pick out certain favorite juniors. That simply is disrupting. Doesn't eat anywhere. It's different there where, in certain cases, that's another thing, because as soon as the relation between seniors and juniors is concerned, you have very often the element of a certain spiritual guidance, where, for example, priests are concerned. Now, again, they are the church. It legislates also that there should be a freedom, that there should be a certain copia, confessor, as one says in canon law, so that juniors also have a certain choice in those things as far as the sacrament of confession is concerned.

[51:55]

It is also possible, and the rule allows for that, in the institution of the go-betweens, let us say, where there is a certain difficulty. And where somebody feels maybe more free to approach certain senior, for example, his confessor, you know, in certain matters, that is possible. But that has then to be done with the authorization of the superior, either the novice master or the superior of the house. So that has to have the seal of obedience. If it doesn't have that seal, it's bad. It leads to divisions. Leads then maybe as the danger itself that there may be somebody, you know, who has certain ideas in his head, you know, and wants to get over this idea, his ideas, Yom Kippur and so on.

[53:01]

And that leads then to confusion, that is chaos. And I urge you not to use or abuse the difficulty that we have in our wisdom set up in this direction. Whenever there is any special contact between a senior and a junior, in itself it is an exception, in itself it is a concession, it's always a deviation from the right order, And therefore it has to be done only for the judgment of the superior, and the superior himself also should remind himself that only for really great reasons that he has to think over before God he could allow any such revisions. But no senior can simply out of himself take over a junior under his wings, you know, and kind of indoctrinate him or any kind of that.

[54:06]

That is impossible. It cannot be done. And therefore do that because that's a great danger here. On the other hand, I must say, the common recreations, so on, I think if we wouldn't have them this moment, it would be considered by all as a loss. There again, you know, I mean, a thing like that, as much as a rule like the one I just explained, you know, constitutes, of course, a certain separation, a certain war. But that is in the order of things. A beginner and novice, a disciple, has to have, you know, one to be found. If he goes around and picks this one and that one, and one day it's this one and the next one, it's another and another month, it's another one, it's confusion. The house of God is simply not built up.

[55:10]

And I think you know it, you are not sure enough. You know that from your own experience. Then it is said, oh yes, it was not there again, you know, it's father so and so, and then it was and so on, you know, and then this kind of thing. It's better this. It's not, you know, the Holy Spirit that is poured out in our hearts, you know, it isn't. It's our human, for that matter, unpurified, affections which want to snatch out someone, to say. The matter of prestige, sometimes the satisfaction with goals, you know, goes with being, you know, considered by somebody else as an authority, you know, it's a certain flattery. thing, and all that, but that is, that is not, you know, in the light of the God. So, use this retreat, you know, again, to examine your consciousness in that direction, to observe the order.

[56:18]

The general rule is, and that's of course why I say, and also a recreation, if you are of a different nature, where a whole meets, you know, the whole group, you know, It's a general public. Our meeting in a generally public atmosphere within the monastery, that I think is again, you know, a difference. One there gets together for mutual relaxation, mutual encouragement, and if that is the way, again, you know, an instrument and a chance to manifest and to communicate one's goodness, one's positive, loving attitude to others, especially to juniors, fine. Yes, there is nothing. At least I can see. But if of course also those regulations can be that only in order to say certain people always look up more and more.

[57:29]

It's always, you know, not just, you know, two by two, you know, together and so on. Then again, of course, it's a danger. And then again, the Holy Spirit cannot circulate. And certain people feel excluded. In that way, they feel injured. And there, the vita communis, and that whole tax, that means wholeness, of the is destroyed. So let us be very conscientious in that. But always have before your arms the goal The goal is not, you know, to have every monk, you know, hanging in the monastic smoke, you know, as a dried fish. That is not the idea. No, that's not the idea.

[58:31]

But it is, you know, it's the monastic art, and you need to be realized. I think, just examine, just think about it yourself. If somebody, for example, has a piece there, And then, one writes a little note, one somehow lets the one know, you know, that one, that he is the object of special attention, of special praise. Wonderful. That's a pure thing. That's the Holy Spirit, you know, which is there. And then it's there for something that builds up. And I think we are entitled, you know, because this community here, and we have said that so often, we should keep to it. It's not the cold-cut institution. And the people who live there are not numbers, you know. Number one, number two, number three, number four, something like that, you know.

[59:36]

That's a long and long way, but that is just an expedient, you know. But otherwise, we thank God we have a name. And therefore, we live together for that matter as persons. But everyone who lives here has the right of access to all the goods of that place. And as soon as you give your art, you know, in priority to some selected individual, the others have a right to feel cheated. It's against poverty. It's against that foolishness of that only have and always only a communion that that sentence expresses. Let us therefore work in great sincerity also with the sacrifices.

[60:43]

Loneliness at times fills the heart. That also is an affective state which in the hands of the Holy Spirit is a tremendous means of purification. Loneliness. It reminds us and it's an invitation on the part of God. Consider Christ as the one who really fills your heart. So in that matter, anything that gap, you know, that is left in us by the fact that we have not the vis-a-vis and the life to can, which the sacrament of marriage provides for the ordinary Christian in the world. That gap, that must be a tremendous gap. gate open so that the whole flood of God's glory may enter into it.

[61:52]

But you see, then, this door and this gate must look towards the east, towards the west, towards the north, not towards the west, not the evening, not the summer, not the depressed state, you know, of a lonely hour. flopping around in the dark. That's it. So let us do that. Let us renew ourselves. Also be grateful to the fact that so much of that is really alive here in our little community. And also we see still the faults. It's lacking. It's human. At the same time we also see that much of the goodness of Christ is possessed by us in this family. So let us be filled, as we say today in the Song of Lords, with the amour in all these doors.

[62:56]

Let us be filled with the heart. Let us be filled with the good things of your house. Let us pray and look down from heaven, O Lord. Behold and visit this valley with thy white hand as planted. Strengthen the weak, relieve the contrite, confirm the small, build them up in love, cleanse them with purity, enlighten them with wisdom, keep them with rest. Lord Jesus, good shepherd, who didst lay down thy wife and sheep, Defend the purchase of thy blood. Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty. Seek the lost, convert the wandering. Bind up that which is broken. Put forth thine own hand for him, and touch the heart of each one of you.

[64:02]

May they feel the touch of thy hand, and receive the joy of the Holy Spirit, and abide in thy peace forever. Amen.

[64:11]

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