Chapter Seventy-Three
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
That the Whole Observance of Justice Is Not Laid Down in this Rule
NOW, we have set down this Rule so that, by observing it in monasteries, we may show that we have acquired at least some measure of moral integrity and the beginnings of the monastic life.
On the other hand, for someone who is rushing toward the perfection of the monastic life, there are the teachings of the holy Fathers, the observance of which carries a man to the heights of perfection. For what page or what utterance of the divinely inspired books of the Old and the New Testament is not a most exact guide for human life? Or, what book of the holy Catholic Fathers does not echo with directions to our Creator by a straight path? So, too, the Conferences of the Fathers, and their Institutes and their Lives, and the Rule of our holy Father, Basil—what are these for monks striving to live well and under obedience but the tools of the virtues? But for us lazy monks—leading poor lives marked by neglect—they provoke the blush of shame.
Therefore, whoever you are, hastening to your heavenly fatherland, with the help of Christ fulfill this little Rule that I have set down for beginners; and then with God’s help, upon those high peaks of doctrine and virtue which we have recounted above, you will at last arrive. Amen.