Vigils Reading

A reading from the Rule of

ST BENEDICT

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In choosing an abbot, the guiding principle should always be that the man

placed in office be the one selected either by the whole community acting

unanimously in the fear of God, or by some part of the community, no matter

how small, which possesses sounder judgment. Goodness of life and wisdom in

teaching must be the criteria for choosing the one to be made abbot even if he is

the last in community rank.

May God forbid that a whole community should conspire to elect a man

who goes along with its own evil ways. But if it does, and if the bishop of the

diocese or the abbots or Christians in the area come to know of these evil ways to

any extent, they must block the success of this wicked conspiracy, and set a

worthy steward in charge of God’s house. They may be sure that they will receive

a generous reward for this, if they do it with pure motives and zeal for God’s

honor. Conversely, they may be equally sure that to neglect to do so is sinful.

Once in office, the abbot must keep constantly in mind the nature of the

burden he has received, and remember to whom he will have to give an account

of his stewardship. Let him recognize that his goal must be profit for the monks,

not preeminence for himself. He ought, therefore, to be learned in divine law, so

that he has a treasury of knowledge from which he can bring out what is new

and what is old. He must be chaste, temperate and merciful. He should always

let mercy triumph over judgment so that he too may win mercy. He must hate

faults but love the brothers. When he must punish them, he should use

prudence and avoid extremes; otherwise, by rubbing too hard to remove the

rust, he may break the vessel. He is to distrust his own frailty and remember not

to crush the bruised reed. By this we do not mean that he should allow faults to

flourish, but rather, as we have already said, he should prune them away with

prudence and love as he see best for each individual. Let him strive to be love

rather than feared.

Excitable, anxious, extreme, obstinate, jealous or oversuspicious he must

not be. Such a man is never at rest. Instead, he must show forethought and

consideration in his orders, and whether the task he assigns concerns God or the

world, he should be discerning and moderate, bearing in mind the discretion of

holy Jacob, who said: If I drive my flocks too hard, they will all die in a single

day. Therefore, drawing on this and other examples of discretion, the mother of

virtues, he must so arrange everything that the strong have something to yearn

for and the weak nothing to run from.

He must, above all, keep this rule in every particular, so that when he has

ministered well he will hear from the Lord what that good servant heard who

gave his fellow servants grain at the proper time: I tell you solemnly, he said, he

sets him over all his possessions.