Vigils Reading

THE COMMON LIFE

By Baldwin of Ford

◊◊◊

There is still another sort of communion: that of those who live in a

[monastic] community. It is said of them: ‘The multitude of believers had but

one heart and one soul; no one said that any of the things he possessed was his

own, but they had everything in common.’ What makes the common life,

therefore, is one heart, one soul, and having everything in common. Such a life

is an earthly copy—so far as human weakness allows—of the life of the angels.

Since they have but one heart and one soul and all things in common,

there is concord and unanimity throughout, and they always put the general

profit and the common good before their own individual convenience. They so

far renounce themselves and what is theirs that none of them, if indeed he is

[truly] one of them, whether in [making] decisions or in [giving] advice,

presumes to make a stubborn defense of his own opinion, nor to strive hard

after his own will and the desires of his own heart, nor to have the least thing

which could be called his own. Instead, as servants of God, they humble

themselves for the sake of God under the hand of one of their fellow servants,

and in him all power is vested. His judgment alone determines the decisions,

regulates the will, and governs the needs of all. He alone can want something or

refuse it, for the others have renounced their own power and freedom [of will].

Thus, they are not permitted to want what they want, nor to be able [to do]

what they are able [to do], nor to feel what they feel, nor to be what they are, nor

to live by their own spirit, but by the Spirit of God. It is he who leads them to be

sons of God, and it is he who is their love, their bond, and their communion. The

greater their love, the stronger is their bond and the more perfect is their

communion: and conversely, the greater their communion, the stronger is their

bond and the more perfect is their love.