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Shorter Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 302: Is It Right to Give to Outsiders Who are Needy Out of the Common Store?

Since the Lord said: “I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel’; and: ‘It is not meet to take the children’s bread and to cast it to the dogs,”² it is not necessary to take what is destined for those who are dedicated to God and spend it promiscuously. But whether it is possible to do what was said by the woman praised for her faith—”‘Yea, Lord, for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table”’³—that must be left to the judgment of the steward with the consent of those who come next to him in seniority, in order that from our superfluity the sun may arise on the evil and the good.”

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