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Shorter Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 206: The Lord Commands Us Not to Be Anxious What We are to Eat or Drink, or Wear.…

This commandment, like every commandment, extends unto death. For even the Lord was obedient unto death. And it is fulfilled by trusting in God. For when the Lord forbade anxiety, He added a promise: “For your Father knoweth what ye need before ye ask him.”¹ Similarly the apostle says: “We have had the answer of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead”²; as regards the decision and preparation of the soul, he was dying daily, but he was being preserved by the favour of God. Wherefore he said confidently: “As dying, and behold we live.”³ And such a purpose is assisted by a burning zeal and insatiable desire for the commandments of the Lord, for he that is held by. this will have no leisure to be distracted by the needs of the body.

Notes

Mt. vi. 8.
2 Cor. i. 9.
2 Cor. vi. 9.