This bread thou art the true and living bread, thou that didst descend from heaven to give food to them that hunger, yea, to be thyself the food of them that live. Thou givest thyself in that bread wherewith hearts are made strong, that by virtue of this bread we may have strength to fast throughout these days, and are dedicated to thy name. without fainting of flesh and blood being fed by thee for thou feedest thy poor ones abundantly with heavenly loaves how didst make the number forty a mark for moses and elias who continued in fasting for forty days Thereafter, even thyself fasting, thou didst mark for us the same number of days of solemn fast. Therefore, what thou thyself in the weakness of our flesh didst fulfill through forty days and nights, let us fulfill in due order throughout the same number of days, through the same Jesus Christ.

[01:11]

Amen. days, you know the days which are so full of things that for us are really eager, it's full of joy also to be able to use them in order to talk over as it were or give to Euroconservation certain things, topics, and ideas which are important for the building of our community of Mount Xavier. You realize that there are many things which still need clarification so that our own ideas may

[02:12]

crystallize more. We are faced now with the task of building and architecture is a thing which forces man to be true because it demands a clear idea because only a clear idea can be really forcefully and well expressed in stone in the human dwelling so that is one reason why planning good building we should maybe make another little step should get together in the spirit of fraternal charity to listen together to God what His will is for our community life. May He give us the light to see it better.

[03:14]

Then there are other problems, shall we call them problems, which come up again and again in our community life. There is, for example, the problem of The relation between our monastic life as contemplative life earns the work which is being done and has to be done on the place. For example, the relation between also study and manually and the role that Lectio plays in our life, the importance of maturing. There, too, I think we can make progress in thinking these things over. Then there is the relation between our life as monks and

[04:23]

the apostolate. What is our apostolate here at Mount Saviour? What does God want us to do in the way of, say, radiating that life that he has given us, the outside? And there too in the past month questions have arisen The relation between the community and the guests is a topic which comes up again and again and sometimes it is a little controversial. So maybe we can use these days also to make another step in this direction to see that more clearly. also maybe to dissipate certain misunderstandings that may be there, because things have not been explained sufficiently.

[05:34]

Right away, of course, a thing like this, the question of monastic community and the gifts, for example, is a question which then again has its immediate repercussions in the way we build the monastery. While the whole question of manual labor and of the farm also again has its repercussions in the building line. How do we arrange, since now we have that opportunity, To do it, how do we make the best of this opportunity, arranging all things in such a way that the spirit of the community is really and truly expressed in it, so that the external form also may help the keeping of the inner spirit.

[06:37]

There is the very notion of monastic life as far as we call it. It is contemplative life. What does that mean for us? We have at random in the prime talks spoken about it. I'm sure you have thought about it during these months still. There is no clear setting forth of an application to our own life where we should live our monastic life as a contemplative life. What do we understand by that? So these topics, also there is the other topic which, as you know, is a very urgent one, and that is the question of the inner structure of the community as a social group.

[07:42]

The relation, what is the role, what is the relation, the function of the priest monks. the idea of the lay monks, the oblates, how do they all work together and form a unity. And you know very well that this Question of the Labors will be the central one, at least one of the most important items in this coming Congress of Habits. And of course, we are immediately involved in that. And it's a vital question for us. Therefore we must do everything in our power to present also the other habits with a clear idea of what we want, because otherwise again rumors and misunderstandings may obscure

[08:49]

the picture and then extreme reactions may arise which would do harm to the cause that we try to serve in this question so these questions you see there that I would like to talk over during these ember days and therefore you can see it's not in that way, a retreat in a sense, you know, in which we... But nevertheless, these questions that we just mentioned are certainly not only questions of organization and external questions, but they have to be carried by a certain spirit. And that is the first thing that we have to do, to go to the source of the spirit.

[09:53]

What is the spirit in which we try to carry out our life? And that is just this morning, just give a few ideas. Every recollection is always inuva dies nostros sicut a principio. Recollection means a going back to the beginning, a remembering. Inuva dies nostros sicut a principio. It's that verse that we sing every Sunday as the last of the catechists. renew our days as in the beginning. Now this beginning of our spiritual life as Christians is so beautifully set forth right in these days and in this very week because this week here moves between

[11:05]

the baptism of our Lord in the Jordan and the manifestation on Mount Tabor, the Transfiguration. The baptism of our Lord in the Jordan is the beginning. Why? Because it was from there that the Spirit led him into the desert that he may be tempted by the devil. So the baptism of our Lord in the Jordan, that is the one, the beginning, the transfiguration of Mount Tabor, that is the end. In this wonderful blessed week, we move from one to the other, imitating and following our Lord. together with Moses and Elias these two great exemplars also of our life the monastic life so to start I would recommend to you maybe to just stop a while today and to think

[12:29]

meditate on the baptism of our Lord in Jordan where He joined the sinners and then repeated as it were in Himself that judgment of the flood of those first 40 days of which we spoke on Sunday. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the word of god made man is the cosmos and his flesh being immersed in the jordan is he's taking upon himself the judgment of the flood the death the waters of death that cover him so it's an image of his personal acceptance of his mission as a Messiah in the sense of being the servant of God who takes upon himself the sins of the many and offers his life as a propitiation for our sins.

[13:41]

And then after This baptism then, as you can read in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, then he went straight forward out of the river and up to the bank of the river, a true resurrection and ascension. And then there the heavens opened and the dawn lighted upon him, the Holy Spirit, and the voice of the Father declaring, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And that's the beginning. of the glorious beginning of the 40 days because then right the spirit leads him into the desert and that is then the end of this week again because there

[14:44]

We are together with our Lord and with St. Peter, St. James and St. John on the Mount Tabor, and we hear again the voice of the Father. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am very pleased, hear ye him. So there was this manifestation on the very back of the Jordan and the other one on Mount Tabor, our highest, most solemn and significant manifestations, which in fact show us the true essence of Christianity, of our Christian life. Because, as we have seen that in the past so often, the Christian life is not simply doing good, being good as a human being, fulfilling the natural law, or to fulfill the positive divine manifestation.

[16:06]

The written law is not in any way something that would be simply the fulfillment of a neutral, so to speak, law. not that we do not live in the context to say of any kind of an abstract system but christianity is that certainly is the meaning of these two manifestations at the beginning and at the end of this week it is the sharing the communication of the inner divine life. And that is what I would like so much for you to truly make that an object of your loving meditation.

[17:09]

The voice of the Father saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You see, that leads you into the inner personal heart of our Christian religion, of our life as Christians. It's that loving gaze of the Father as a person who is well pleased in his song. therefore in that mutual love between father and son that relation of absolute peace which becomes visible in the dove of the Holy Spirit the dove being also as we have seen that before

[18:18]

the symbol of community life. The dove is the symbol of the people of God as a unity. Therefore, the symbol, one can say, of that fraternal love with which those love one another who enter and participate in that love with which the Father loves the Son, and with which the Son loves the Father. Those three things, all love, as it were, issuing forth from the Father, then resting in the Son, and then again returning to the Father. That also is the pattern of our life.

[19:24]

Therefore, our life as Christians must be a continuation. We are incorporated into Christ. We are in Christ because who has been immersed in the waters of the Jordan? And to whom is it said, this is my beloved Son? Not only to the world, but to the world made flesh. Therefore the flesh, the human nature, fully participates in that deep pleasure that the Father has, with which the Father's gaze dwells on the Son. It dwells on the Son made man. Therefore, it includes mankind, our human nature.

[20:28]

So that the beginning of our religious life, monastic life, is that we in Christ see ourselves as the object of the Father's love, the Son in whom the Father is well pleased. And that, as you see, is also the, in a special way, the life nerve of the Holy Room. The rule of St. Benedict really is the consistent application of this manifestation on the Jordan River and on the Mount Tabor. Because there every monk is placed into that relation of the Son to the Father.

[21:39]

as it is sacramentally evident, manifest, so to speak, in the relation between the monk and the abbot. So we take part, monastic obedience is taking part in that and becoming a part of that love with which the father is well pleased in his son. And that is, see, I say that because if you realize that, then you also see, I think, immediately that the monastic life is not in its, let's say, in its inner essence, the observance of, let us say, a system. The observance of a system.

[22:43]

let us say, the observance of a balanced way of life, as St. Benedict has put it down, laid down in the room. I say that on purpose because just in discussing and thinking about the way in which we build our monastery so that it may correspond to the idea of the rule of Saint Benedict. One can very often see that people get very much excited about certain external ways of doing things. and at the same time then violate or show clearly by the way in which they propose or also fight about it, clearly that the inner center of the monastic life, that filiatio, that entering into and living under the

[24:07]

loving gaze of the Heavenly Father as a son, that that is lacking. And that the, let us say, the system, the neutral system, is apt in some souls to kind of even kill that inner personal relation without which All our monastic life, of course, is merely an external, maybe interesting, maybe pleasing, not unpleasant, routine. And that's the dangerous thing. That the monastic life degenerates into an observance of a neutral law That's Lord, so be the rule. And that St.

[25:09]

Benedict has clearly forestalled, really, in his prologue to the rule. Because that prologue to the rule is a completely personal word. You could compare that prologue to the rule, really, in some way to the baptism of a mother. And you could compare that prologue to that word with which the public life of our Lord as Messiahs and as servant of God starts. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Somewhere the prologue is just that. It is that personal word of the Father to the son. That which engenders life, which pours out, say, the whole inner personal wealth of the father to the son.

[26:16]

And there is, in our days, we have spoken about that in other retreats. That seems to be an enormously important thing. Because we, in our monastic life, we are daily confronted, let's say, by a certain ceremonial how to do this or that. And I don't deny the importance of that at all. later I hope we have some opportunity to speak about the relation between the interior element and the external form in the monastic life to see the importance that the external form be observed also if it may not always correspondent be it say the true expression here of the feelings or the mind of those who perform this external ceremony but the at the beginning also of this little recollection that we have here together i would really implore you you know to uh

[27:36]

put yourself, sing as it were, into that mystery of the baptism and of the transfiguration. The voice of the Father as the way in which we participate in the inner life of the Divine Trinity. And then that person participation is really the beginning and the end of the entire modestic life. I have read in these last days two things that just by chance fell into my hands but which both are in their own way you know beautiful explanations and further developments of this thought one is and i think some of you have read it you know that is saint seraphim of the eastern church who and that dialogue he had with a russian

[28:52]

layman, there were the two, you know, sitting, a beautiful scene, sitting there in the winter time in the snow, and then talking about the essence of the Christian life. And they also, they start, St. Seraphim also starts in the same way, saying, now don't be mistaken, but Christianity is not doing this or that. Good work as a human being, but it is live and act in the Holy Spirit, not to do anything except in the Holy Spirit. And then he explains it, what that means. That, of course, is, you know, that's such a... it strikes what we leave, that is, with all power and force, is what hears that said, you know, that that applies to us as monks, not to do anything but in the Holy Spirit.

[30:04]

And St. Benedict has that clearly in the rule. If, for example, there is a concilium fatum, the council of the brethren, And they have to discuss certain, let us say, objective matters, business, to speak of the community. Then St. Benedict put all the emphasis on that, that this discussing business is done actually in the Holy Spirit. That is the reason why he also admonishes the monks when they give their opinion to do that in humility so that because otherwise the Holy Spirit would be destroyed. It would disappear as it were from this the very moment in which somebody

[31:08]

gives his opinion in a kind of, let us say, opinionated way, and in a kind of condescending way or anything like that, immediately it destroys the spirit. The Holy Spirit is not there. So, that's just one example, but also in for example in all other things meeting the meeting for example between uh superior and that that meeting is right away and both you know should be actually um alert to that is in the holy spirit As soon as that degenerates into kind of altercatio or so on, the Holy Spirit. Therefore, St. Benedict emphasizes, the monk should not fight with this aperture.

[32:11]

If the Holy Spirit is not there, then stop. Better not. Wait until the Holy Spirit comes again. So doing things actually in the Holy Spirit, And that for everything, also for the work. Soon as in the work and in the course of work, a dialogue or conversation arises, rage in itself again chases away the Holy Spirit, stop, something is wrong. Not to go any further, but immediately again, return, give, a place, give room to the Holy Spirit. Then, for example, in the monk and the guest, so often, you know, in our days, the relation between monk and guest, you know, is kind of approached in a, I want to say, in a kind of superficial way, you know, let us say, as an opportunity to kind of relax, you know,

[33:20]

to be one good old sailor, you know, with the guests, you know, right away, you know, to substituting the human for the Holy Spirit. And that, of course, then is dangerous, and that gives opportunity to the world, you know, to get in, and to, for the devil then, to spoil the relations. So that was one. Another one that I wanted to call your attention to, and maybe now or maybe later you could read it for yourselves. It's an article by Pierre Charlier in the Bible, what is it, Bible, Évite Chrétienne. and where he has a beautiful but very really deep exegesis of the third chapter of the first epistle of St. John. And there is in the third chapter that it starts, you know, with the seventh verse.

[34:27]

And there is Agape Troi, O Beloved, love one another you know and then the whole the following verses down to i think it's verse 40. and there you know where the explanation of that really is such a deep to my real final word you know about the uh meaning of that beautiful passage. And that passage is really, say, the explanation and application to us of the Theophany at the Lord's Baptism and at the Mount Tabor. Because there then we see how the agape of God, the Father, descending, you know, and being united to the Son, then becomes that we are taken into that very stream of love that comes from the Father to the Son.

[35:36]

And then our mutual fraternal love is the continuation of that love between the Father and the Son. And nothing in that way different from it, but the real manifestation of that love between father and son. So, very, really very beautiful article. It shows then also, and that is another one, you see, if one has a deep enough concept, you see, of the divine agape, the love between the father and the son, a love which is at the same time in the process of bringing forth, of engendering, you see, a generatio. One sees that, that love there is not in any way, you see, a feeling, a sentiment, but is a generatio, is therefore an ontological divine procession, as we call it, as we spoke.

[36:41]

Then one also sees, by the way, that this love between Father and Son has to find its continuation in the sacraments. The sacraments, the bread of life, the water of baptism, but especially the Eucharist, the bread of life, is the transposition or the elongation a continuation of that bond that binds the Father and the Son together to us as Christians and how that has to be and can be only done really in the sacramental order the sign which is at the same time a physical ontological reality and not only a moral symbol but a real being taken in into that process of being born again.

[37:48]

Maybe you could read these three things, you know, the baptism, Mount Tabor, and then also this little paragraph in the epistle, first epistle of St. John, third chapter, 7 to 14. To take that as, to say, as a general introduction to these days. hungry, was himself hungry. And he that being immortal was for us made mortal, and shall satisfy forever the empty soul in his eternity. The Lord's baptism at the beginning and the Transfiguration at the end of this week.

[39:01]

How the loving gaze of the Father is very pleased in the Son. And we should become conscious of that, beginning of our own life also as monks, there is that adoption of songs. And that adoption of songs means that really the Father's gaze rests on us also through the Lord Jesus Christ. that is a way in which we can again and again return into the peace of Christ and then our life consists in this that out of this living contact under this loving gaze of the Father we live in the Holy Spirit in that love which binds the Father and the Son together

[40:08]

Hell which seeks not its own but is ready to give its own life in death that so we may live. So that is also, I say, the beginning of the monastic life. Now tonight I just wanted to recall for your own refreshing of your memory the various elements that make up the monastic life unless we see it from the beginning i think there is one question which may be in the background here, all of us, because we started this whole question of the monastic life as contemplative life with also going into the pagan background and seeing in Plato's dialogues the, shall we say, pagan prelude to their

[41:27]

the perfect life, the vita contemplativa, or the philosophy, as monasticism also is called. And that certainly provoked in many minds the question now, how is, what is the similarity and what is the difference between the approach that we found in the dialogues of Plato hence the monastic idea of the contemplative life. In last analysis, the difference, of course, must lie in what we just said, that within Christianity the spiritual life really consists in that being taken into the life of the Trinity as manifested in the baptism And on Mount Tabor, there is the monastic idea.

[42:33]

There is the home of the monk on Mount Tabor. And of course, Mount Tabor is different from what Plato was looking forward to, from that flight of the world which he preached. to the philosopher. But in order to get enough material to make a good comparison later and to clarify maybe to a certain degree that question, let us just remind ourselves of what are the well-springs of the monastic life, the monastic enthusiasm. There was a time, especially under the influence of Protestant historical research, I wouldn't say so much historical research, but Protestant prejudice, which tried to eliminate the ascetical element from Christianity due to Luther's teaching about sanctification through faith alone and the rejection of works.

[43:51]

There was a time in which one looked for the sources of monasticism in some pagan tendencies outside the church, either in Neoplatonism or also in Buddhism, tendencies that came into the Near East from the Far East, especially from India, also Persia. But today one sees much more clearly that monasticism, for that matter, is essentially a genuine Christian movement, and that the wellsprings of monasticism are right in the very center of Christianity. And there's that one idea that we should always remember, and that is

[44:55]

the idea that with the descent of the Holy Spirit and with the entering into history of the Church as the prolongation of the glorified Christ here on earth, the idea of the fullness of the messianic age as something that now entered into our history That this was one, this may be the main wellspring of the monastic idea. That really through Christ's resurrection, through Pentecost, the powers of the new age have entered into history. Not only through in the glorified Lord in the head, but also in the body, the members, that the church is body of what head?

[46:01]

Of which head? Of the risen Savior, and therefore also carries the invisible marks that were of the new age. And that is one of the signs of the true and Catholic Church. Sanctity, the sancta ecclesia. But this sanctity of the Church is really the Holy Spirit indwelling, indwelling and staying, resting in the Church in its fullness. So there is, first of all, in monasticism as in early Christianity, because monasticism really is the homesickness of the apostolic church or the apostolic church in later generations, there is what we call the eschatological element.

[47:09]

The messianic age means the age which considers, sees the second coming of Christ as something close at hand, lives in the expectation of Christ's second coming. And in that expectation, in some way one can say, lives in the anticipation of the second coming. Not only the expectation, the anticipation of the second coming of Christ. The anticipation of divine judgment. the thought of the divine judgment becomes, in the one who loves the coming of Christ, this anticipation of the last judgment becomes a life-forming reality.

[48:27]

the idea of universal judgment of the church, but also the idea of the individual judgment of every soul to live in conspectum mortis. Both those things, the expectation of the universal judgment and the expectation of death, anticipated the constant remembrance having before our eyes living in the presence of that divine tribune that is one part certainly of the monastic life we can see that so clearly in the rule of Saint Benedict the virtue of humility really culminates in an attitude, even external attitude, which reflects that anticipation.

[49:39]

But not only that, not only the anticipation of divine judgment, but also the anticipation then of the new life, the heavenly life, the looking forward with great longing to the heavenly Jerusalem and have one's gaze fixed on that heavenly Jerusalem that descends at the end of history and have one's heart or as Saint Paul says, one's conversation in heaven There is again in monastic life so strongly that longing, and not only longing, but then again that longing becomes a power which now transforms our life. And that is what we call the vita angelica, the life of the angels.

[50:50]

in the Historia Monachoralis of Siakam. It's a nice word that I wanted to read to you. One can see them, the monks, in desertis dispersos, dispersed in the desert. tanquam Germanus Liberus Patrem suum Christum restulantes, as children in the expectation of the coming of Christ their Father, a insta exercitus rege, as an army waiting for the king, or as members of a well-ordered family waiting for the coming of the Lord and Liberatore, the one who sets them free.

[52:05]

Nulla aput eros solicitudo. no solicitude. Throw your worries on the Lord. Non vestimentis, non vestimenti, non decibis curva. No worry about clothing and about food. Sed unica inter himnos expectatio adventus Christi. But only in the singing of hymns, the expectation of the coming of Christ. That word from the Historia Lausica catches well the spirit of monasticism as a way of life which is actually determined, formed by the expectation of Christ's second coming.

[53:10]

That's one element. And the next one is the fleeing the world. Fleeing the world. This world by world, then, we understand this visible creation insofar as it is in maligno positus. insofar as it finds itself under the domination of the devil. Therefore, monasticism is the revival, the taking seriously the renouncement of baptism. Every Christian renounces the devil. and that's the monk does in a specially perfect, total way. But this renouncing of the world, as far as this world is under the influence of the devil, is and has as its purpose and is accompanied as a positive side of this negative,

[54:32]

Withdrawal from the world is sanctification for God. The sanctification. The separation is for the sake of sanctification. The withdrawal is for the sake of complete surrender. And therefore, this withdrawal takes the form of joining a new world, as it were. Joining a new world. That new world may be called correspondingly. For example, in the rule of Pacomius, the communion of saints. Or also the heaven on earth. That's the monastery. The monastery is separated from this visible world through what we may call the enclosure.

[55:34]

And there is a new world, heaven and earth, the communion of saints. But joining this new world of the monastery does analysis not only for the external and what may say organizational separation from the world. And also and mostly for the purpose of fighting the world in one's own heart. Fighting therefore those tendencies through which man is apt to become a slave of the devil, and that is, first of all, right. So, therefore, this withdrawal from the world for the sake of sanctification, which takes place in a new world, the communion of saints, the monastery,

[56:45]

which helps the individual to fight the world in his own heart. This withdrawal takes a concrete form, especially in two renunciations. One is the renunciation of property in poverty. Because property is one of the ways through which the owner is kept in an organizational relation to this world, to this world as dominated by the devil. That has the accent. because through property one is indebted and one is involved necessarily in the nets of legal duties that follow from the fact of the possession, ownership of property.

[58:05]

One is subject to taxes, to special services, to all kinds of obligations, to the defense of one's poverty against the source or injustices from the outside. So poverty, therefore, is one of the most powerful means through which the devil exercises his power over man. And therefore, the renunciation of property as the most important way of fleeing the world, of withdrawing. from this organized mundus in maligno positus.

[59:09]

Leave everything, give it to the poor. That was in St. Anthony the first spark that kindled in his soul and made him a monk so that he nudus so that he naked followed the naked Jesus. Therefore, let us renounce the world as those who follow the perfect Christ, as those who are perfect. Tell I of it. See, the renunciation of poverty puts the one who does it into the status of perfection. But then perfection, that word, should be understood in the original eschatological sense.

[60:16]

Telios is the one who lives in the end, in the telos. which Christ has brought to this world. And he applies that telos that Christ has brought fully to himself. One way in which he does it is renouncing poverty. That brings him to the end. That means it deprives him from the desire of continuing, preserving, enlarging his possessions, and takes him out of the law, which the ownership of things imposes upon him. In that way, he is naked, and therefore faces, naked faces, nothing but the second coming, the judgment.

[61:16]

has no other goal anywhere here on earth. The other way in which one flees or severs the links which binds one to this mundus is polyvirginity. Because the family, the blood, the continuation of the blood family of the generations, that is the other way in which man is kept in the finalities or in the aims of this world. Marriage, in that way, obliges man to take care of the family, of the children, and with that he is obliged and forced to continue as it were his own existence in his children here on this earth.

[62:33]

And he keeps up this bond of community of blood. That's the other thing which is cut off in becoming a monk. One dies. One dies in these two ways, becoming poor and in abdicating as well the right of continuing one's own existence in the family, the children. In that way, the monk is dead to this world, and therefore free, free for Christ. So leaving the organized family life, not only the life of ownership.

[63:44]

Now, then, another element of the monastic life, which also can be explained only out of the spirit of the new age, the age of the resurrection, that Christ has brought here on this earth is the, what do you want to call it, the aggressiveness against the devil. There is an aggressive spirit, the spirit of aggression, It's not only that monasticism does not live from exorcisms, as the original greats say, the mass of the faithful, but from aggression against the devil.

[64:48]

That is an important part of the monastic vocation. In the spirit of victory, which Christ has left to his apostles when he told them that they would have power over the evil spirits here in this world. So it's not only defense but attack against the devil which marks the life of the monk. This spirit, aggressive spirit against the devil, drives the monks into the desert. The desert is considered as the realm of the devil, the home of the devil, as we see in today's gospel.

[65:52]

When that unclean spirit was chased out, he went into the desert. And there he gathered seven other spirits, and then reinforced, they went down and attacked the soul again. So the monks go into the desert, and that's one of the historical reasons for the hermitical life. Hermit is the one who is Atleta Christi, the athlete of Christ, and who is strong enough, filled with the spirit of the resurrection, so that he can dare to meet the devil and fight him single-handed. devil is through the cross defeated therefore the one the Christian who lives the cross perfectly also has the power of Christ the risen Christ over the devil therefore they go into the desert

[67:19]

Then the monastic life is animated by a special zeal for, a special joy in the longing to be nourished on the pastures of Israel in the Holy Scriptures, in the Word of God. The monk and the word of God, those two form a special unity. The word of God becomes as it were again incarnate in the monk. Therefore the monk is called also in a special way to give a word, to give a logos. He takes Holy Scripture as strictly as his rule of life.

[68:29]

Holy Scripture is to him not only a matter of study, but is the source out of which he lives. Therefore, the monk tries to bring his heart into perfect conformity with the Word, Holy Scripture. For example, by learning the Holy Scripture by heart. This learning of Holy Scripture by heart is a part of that process in which the monk grows in purity of heart. in which he drives out the devil out of the depth of his soul, of his mind. The Word of Holy Scripture has that power of cleansing, of purifying.

[69:33]

Therefore the learning of Scripture by heart the constant dwelling, the soaking of the soul in the pictures and the thoughts of Holy Scripture. Not only that they dwell in the mind of the monk, in his memory, but also, as I said before, that they become his way of life, his form of life. Duce Evangelii, Ducatio, Ducatio Evangelii, under the guidance of the Gospel, he leads his life. Whatever you do, have an authority from the Scriptures for it. It's a word of St. Anthony. Then the monk and the martyr as a continuation of martyrdom, another one of these motifs, of these thriving ideas in the development of monasticism.

[70:47]

The martyr was considered the perfect Christian, the teleios. You can say in the most verbal sense of that word, teleios. He is perfect in Christ because he dies for Christ and therefore has accomplished the work of perfect agape as Christ himself is called the martyr, the faithful martyr in the apocalypse So the martyr is the one who shares in the most perfect way this innermost center of Christ's mission, his death. Now the ascetical life then, more and more,

[71:57]

after the persecutions begin to cease, arises as the continuation of the spirit of the martyrs in the church. A word of Sulpicius Severus, who expresses that so well. Licei ratio tempuris, non poturit prestal martyrium. although the situation of the time did not give him the opportunity to martyrdom. Gloria tamen martyris non cari. Nevertheless, he is not lacking, that's why, the glory of the martyr. Queer. He was able to be a martyr that he wanted to be.

[73:03]

The monk has the spirit of the martyr and the truth of Christ and to live the truth of Christ is for him more important than the life here on this earth. The beautiful sentence of St. Jerome. The Immaculate. service, hermitus immaculata, devote mentis, of a devout mind, quotidiano martyrio fest, is a daily martyrdom.

[74:40]

Then, finally, in modesticism, we not only see the fullness of the messianic age continued in the anticipation of its coming as judgment and as blessedness, as Visio arches the heavenly Jerusalem, Not only do we see in monasticism the life, the fullness of the messianic age in the renunciation, perfect renunciation of the world as far as it is under the domination of the devil through poverty and chastity.

[75:46]

And not only is monasticism the realization of the fullness of the messianic age through the triumphant, aggressive spirit with which the banner of the resurrection is lifted up against the devil, follows him into the desert. Ernst not only is the fullness of the messianic age in the monasticism as striving after perfection, a sense of complete absolute self-sacrifice in the footsteps of Christ's cross, as it is in the Martyr and in that Servitus Immaculata, but also in the fullness and variety of the Charisms.

[76:54]

Monasticism is the status, say, the home or the continuation of the Charismata, of those special manifestations extraordinary manifestation of the Holy Spirit which we find in the Apostolic Church. The working of miracles, the power over unclean spirits, the disgratio spiritu, the power of judging the spirits, also a new relation for example to the world of the wild beasts and a new and extraordinary manifestation of the spirit over the body with the visible even manifestations of glory of life

[78:11]

transfiguration, so to speak, of the bodily life. All those things are at home and continued in monasticism. Monasticism in some way is a finding again of the lost paradise, the return to paradise. And in a certain way, as an initial, in the way of an initial promise, that transfiguration of material things, which will become definite final with Christ's second coming, already starts in the earthly life of the most, in various forms. So in these ways you see monasticism lives as realization of that fullness of the spirit of the risen Christ here in this age.

[79:20]

Manifest, anticipating, carrying, preserving,

[79:25]

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