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Rule

St Columbanus, tr. Metlake, 1914; abridged

Chapter 9

Mortification is the most important part of the monastic rule. “Do nothing without counsel,” says the Holy Scripture.¹ Wherefore, if nothing is to be done without counsel, everything must be done with counsel. Hence Moses commanded: “Ask thy father, and he will declare to thee, the elders and they will tell thee”.² Though this may appear hard to the hard of heart, viz., that a man be always dependent on the will of another, it is nevertheless sweet to those that fear God, if it be practised to the letter and not in part only; for nothing is sweeter, nothing gives greater peace and security to the mind than a peaceful conscience, and nothing is better calculated to procure this peace of conscience than the renunciation of one’s own judgment. “There is greater danger in judging,” some one has said, “than in being judged.”³ The monk who always seeks counsel and acts on it, will never go wrong; for even though the counsel he receives be wrong, his faith and obedience will be right and will be rewarded. But if a person, whose duty it is to ask counsel, acts on his own impulse, he errs by the very fact that he presumes to judge for himself when he should have allowed others to judge for him; and even if what he does be good, it will profit him little, seeing that he swerved from the right course while doing it: he whose sole duty it is to obey, never dares to judge for himself.

If this be so, the monk must fly all pride of liberty, and learn to obey with true humility, without hesitation, without murmuring, for only then will the yoke of Christ be sweet and His burden light. Until he has learned the humility of Christ, he cannot taste the sweetness of the yoke of Christ nor the lightness of His burden. For the soul, harrassed with sin and toil, finds repose only in humility. Humility is its sole refreshment amidst so many evils. The more it withdraws itself from the vanity and uncertainty without, the more rest and refreshment will it find within. What before seemed bitter, and hard, and painful, will now be light, and smooth, and pleasant. Mortification is indeed intolerable to the proud and hard of heart, but a consolation to him who loves only what is meek and lowly. No one, however, it must be remembered, can attain to the full possession of the felicity of this martyrdom unless all his desires, all his aspirations be directed toward it, to the exclusion of every other aim whatsoever.

The mortification of the monk is threefold: he must never think what he pleases, never speak what he pleases, never go where he pleases. No matter how distasteful the command imposed on him may be, he shall always say to his superior: “Not as I will, but as thou wilt”,⁴ after the example of our Saviour, who says elsewhere: “I came down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him that sent Me”.⁵

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