Our Lord gave most of his assistance with persuasion rather than with admonition. Gentle showers soften the earth and thoroughly penetrate it, but a beating rain hardens and compresses the surface of the earth so that it will not be absorbed. A harsh statement evokes anger, and with it comes injury. Whenever a harsh word opens a door, anger enters in, and on the heels of anger, injury.

Anger even ruins the prudent: a soft answer turns away anger, but a painful word arouses rage. All things depend on our decision, certainly also to raise anger or to soothe. It is not the Lord who gets angry, but it is in our power to cause his anger or the opposite. And if anger even ruins the prudent, how much more will it ruin those about whom it was said [that] anger destroys the imprudent? And this certainly happens also to the prudent because of some negligence. But a soft answer turns away anger, that is, a way of answering in open humility and without any harshness.

We believe God is everywhere, and his eye beholds the good and wicked wherever they are: so we ought to be particularly assured of his special presence when we assist at the divine office. Therefore we must always remember the advice of the prophet, To serve God in fear, to sing wisely and that the angels are witnesses of what we sing.^[1] Let us then reflect what behavior is proper for appearing in the presence of God and the angels, and so sing our psalms that the mind may echo in harmony with the voice. RULE OF ST.

In every place the eyes of the Lord behold the good and the evil. And when we are gathered together with the brethren in one place and celebrate divine sacrifices with a priest of God, we ought to be mindful of modesty and discipline and not toss our prayers about at random with uncouth voices and not cast forth with turbulent loquaciousness our petition. Rather, our petition should be commended to God in modesty, because it is our heart, not our voice, that will be heard. God, who sees our thoughts, is not to be admonished by shouts, as the Lord proves when he says, Why do you think vainly in your hearts?^[1] And in another place, And all the churches shall know that I am a searcher of the desires and the heart.^[2]

Sanity of tongue is the tree of life. The tongue which does not sin by speaking makes use of sanity: indeed the illness of the tongue is its sin. The one who can check his tongue and does not sin with it is filled with the Holy Spirit.

True prudence is the knowledge of what to do and what not to do. One who possesses it never refrains from virtuous works and is never pierced by the deadly arrow of vice. Thus, he who understands words of prudence knows the difference between what is insidious, structured for deception, and what reminds us quietly about the best way to live life. Like the good practice of a banker, he will retain what is good and abstain from every form of evil.^[1] Grant such prudence to the builder of his house, that he would lay its foundation upon rock, that is, support it on faith in Christ, so that it will remain unmoved when the winds and rains and thunderstorms attack.^[2] For the Lord teaches us through this parable to remain immovable in the presence of temptations, both those of human and also of supernatural origin. Beyond this, he teaches us not to neglect the necessary things, but, having been equipped for the journey of life, to anticipate the coming of the bridegroom with eager hearts.

Prudence is that quality by which all things are accomplished through skillful industry, in the same way that malice is that quality whereby only evil is perpetrated. Because, therefore, every activity admits prudence and because evils likewise occur in all things, the name of prudence signifies two realities. Whoever uses cleverness and skill for the destruction of others is evil, but one who acts cleverly and shrewdly to avoid the harm that others have in store for him, directly and wisely detecting his own good, possesses a prudence that is worthy of praise. Attend diligently, therefore, to the voice of the prudent soul, and you will know that it contains a center in which the prudence which uses healthy counsel for its own benefit and that of its neighbor is to be praised. But the prudence which applies itself to the neighbor’s detriment, using its faculties for the purpose of destruction, becomes liable to condemnation.

The heart of the wise is always consistent, because, while it rests in good convictions, it directs itself constantly to good deeds. But the heart of the foolish is inconsistent, because, while it shows itself as variable and changeable, it never remains what it was.

We can discover many counsels about other things, also, as about prayer, for example: Good works are a prayer acceptable to the Lord, Scripture says. The way to pray is prescribed: If you see one naked, cover him, and do not look away from the members of your family. Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your garments shall speedily rise, and your justice shall go before your face, and the glory of God shall encircle you.^[1]

The church explains how it can please the Lord in the light of the living,^[1] which means in the brightness of the saints, among whom [the church] is made beautiful, spotless and without wrinkle. Whatever befalls them shines from its face. Just as a man’s healthy constitution makes his face more handsome, just as in Solomon’s words, When the heart rejoices the countenance flourishes, so the beauty of the features of holy church is diffused abroad when found in the merits of the blessed.

Those who live under discipline should avoid very carefully even such intemperate action as is commonly regarded lightly. Indulging in unrestrained and immoderate laughter is a sign of intemperance, of a want of control over one’s emotions and of failure to repress the soul’s frivolity by a stern use of reason. It is not unbecoming, however, to give evidence of merriment of soul by a cheerful smile, if only to illustrate that which is written, A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance; but raucous laughter and uncontrollable shaking of the body are not indicative of a well-regulated soul, or of personal dignity, or self-mastery.

Herbs with love are better than a fatted calf with deceit. This is reminiscent of what we said before, that herbs are not the Agape, but that meals should be taken with charity. A middle course is good in all things, and no less so in serving a banquet. Extremes, in fact, are dangerous, but the mean is good, and all that avoids dire need is a mean. Natural desires have a limit set to them by self-sufficiency.

Better is the hospitality of vegetables served with friendship and grace than a fatted calf served with enmity. Often we accept simpler, more frugal hospitality offered in good conscience—as guests at the table of those who are unable to furnish us with more—in preference to elevated words lifted up against the knowledge of God^[1] and proclaiming with ample plausibility a sentiment alien to the Father of our Lord Jesus who has given the law and the prophets.^[2]

Be content with what is your own and do not let your well-being be based on doing harm to your neighbor. You may find your livelihood in the simplicity of innocence. The person in possession of his own good knows nothing of waylaying others. He is not inflamed by the desires of the avaricious person, whose every gain is at the expense of virtue and a further incentive to cupidity. Therefore, should he come to know his blessings, the poor person is truly happy who lives righteously in a manner which is to be preferred to all the treasures of the world, because better a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasures without fear. How much under these circumstances does one need to support life? If you go beyond that little and seek that, also, which others find pleasure in possessing, that, too, has little to commend it: It is better to be invited to herbs with love than to a fatted calf with hatred.

Let us use our talents, therefore, for the acquisition of grace and the attainment of salvation, not to circumvent others who do us no harm.

When one invites to supper guests that are hungry and have an appetite, even if he lays a meager table it seems abundant owing to the anticipation of the guests who fall upon the dishes with great relish. In just the same way we too have confidence in your spiritual appetite and do not hang back, even if we have a poor and meager table, before laying it in customary manner before your good selves. This is what a certain sage also remarked: Better a meal of vegetables with love than a beast from the manger with enmity, suggesting that love has a different view of what is set forth, and to its eyes ordinary things appear rich and scraps seem generous.

It is better the hospitality with vegetables. I will explain what [Solomon] says. If one fears God and also enjoys the benevolence of people, it is still better for him to have little property than an abundance. Indeed, pleasure is not in abundance, but abundance is in pleasure, as Hesiod says. One who neglects offenses settles the future judgments about them. A stupid person does nothing sensibly, whereas the judicious one directs, that is, displays actions of free opinion. Those who despise consulting other people about what must be done, despise advice. It then happens that those people, who think they are something when they are nothing, wander in error.

There are those who are called the slothful in the book of Wisdom, who strew their path with thorns, who consider harmful to the soul a zeal for deeds in keeping with the commandments of God, the demurrers against the apostolic injunctions, who do not eat their own bread with dignity, but, fawning on others, make idleness the art of life. Then, there are the dreamers who consider the deceits of dreams more trustworthy than the teachings of the Gospels, calling fantasies revelations. Apart from these, there are those who stay in their own houses, and still others who consider being unsociable and brutish a virtue without recognizing the command to love and without knowing the fruit of long-suffering and humility.

The ways of those who do not work are strewn with thorns, but the ways of the strong are trodden down. Thus wandering from the king’s highway, they can never arrive at that metropolis to which our course should ever be directed without swerving. Ecclesiastes also significantly expressed this saying: The labor of fools wearies those who do not know how to go to the city;^[1] namely, that heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all.^[2]

If every evil word is an abomination to the Lord your God, how great an abomination must be supposed the evil word of denial and the evil word of publicly proclaiming another god and the evil oath by the fortune of people, something that has no existence.^[1]

If the prophet deems those guilty whom discipline has never reached, what should we think of those whom it has abandoned? Discerning between the acts of these two classes of people, the prophet authoritatively regards the fault of never having come to discipline as one less serious than that of having rejected her law. Notice his words: He that rejects instruction despises his own soul. The case truly is just what he says. For the person who has spurned the warnings of discipline in order to occupy himself with the devil’s business is indeed the foe of his own soul.

We are not harsh toward the impenitent. They are wicked to themselves, for those that spurn instruction hate themselves. Yet even in such cases we should seek in every way that healing come to those who are so completely perverted as not even to be conscious of their own ills and drunk with a drunkenness more fatal than that from wine, the drunkenness that comes from the darkness of evil.^[1]