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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 157: With What Kind of Disposition Must One Serve God? And in General What is This…
I deem a good disposition to be a desire of pleasing God, that is vehement, insatiable, firmly fixed, and unchangeable. It is attained by wise and continuous contemplation of the majesty of the glories of God, by good thoughts, and ceaseless remembrance of the blessings that have come to us from God. From this there is born in the soul fulfilment of the commandment:1 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind,”2 after the pattern of him that said: *“Like as the hart desireth the springs of water, so longeth my soul after thee, O God.”3 With such a disposition therefore should we serve God fulfilling the apostle’s words:4 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword, ete.”
Notes
- θεωρίᾳ (R. theoria, Lat. Interp. contemplatione); not yet differentiated from other forms of meditation.
- Mk. xii. 30 omit καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου*, ἰσχύος before διανοίας *.
- Ps. xlii. 1.
- Rom. viii. 35 omit 3 λιμός **.