Praying with the Bible: Lectio Divina

Daily Reading from the Rule of St Benedict

CHAPTER 2: WHAT AN ABBOT SHOULD BE LIKE continued
IN his teaching the Abbot ought always to keep to the apostolic rule: ‘Reprove, entreat, rebuke’. Suiting himself to the occasion, appealing now to fear, now to gentle persuasion, let him show the sternness of a master and the loving kindness of a father. Thus he must sternly rebuke the undisciplined and restless, but entreat the obedient, mild and patient to do still better; the negligent and contemptuous we advise him to rebuke and punish. He must not shut his eyes to the faults of offenders, but as soon as these show their heads let him do his best to cut them out by the roots, remembering the perilous state of Heli, the priest of Silo. Those of good upbringing and intelligence his first and second warnings should be by word of mouth; but the bad and the hard and the proud and the disobedient, these the chastisement of stripes on the body must bring under control at the very outset, as Scripture warns us: ‘The fool is not corrected with words’ (Prov. 18), and again, ‘If you beat your son with the rod, you will save his life from hell’ (Prov. 23).