Storms And Salvation

Vovistis vos Deo servire paternisque regi consiliis. Nolite vosmetipsos super rectores exaltare vesros, ne eorum judicare acta vel consilia; sed contenti tantummodo estote eorum judicio, quidquid agatis, regularisque vitae praeceptis, in quibus maxime humilitas obediendi cum charitate praecipitur. Hora vero vestra omnes animabus estris utiles inveniantur, vel in opere manuum, vel in lectionis studio, vel in orationis gratia. Oret operarius corde,ut duplici mercede dignus habeatur. Similiter in refectione corporis anima reficiatur in gratiarum actione Deo; vel si corpus labore afficiatur, mens compunctione confirmetur. Sic vero armatum monachum duplici suffragio, nil antiquus hostis, nocere poterit, qui quaerit per vagationem mentis mercedem minuere laborantis. Ego vero saeculi tempestatibus turbatus, casso multis in locis fabore desudavi; sed modo quasi naufragus, Deo miserante, ad portum dejectus quietis: in quo me fessus et vulneratum jacentem, deprecor, sanctarum assiduitate orationum vestram unanimitatem auxiliari, ut quandoque ad florentia virtutem rura pervenire merear, et bona securitate illi soli servire, in quo solo est totius spes salutis, sine quo nec cadens resurgere, nec bene stans firmo gradu stare poterit. Alcuinus, Epistola CXI, Ad Fratres in Gothia Source: Migne PL 100.335d-336a

You have vowed to serve God and to be ruled by paternal counsels. Do not, then, exalt yourselves over your directors, nor dispute their acts and counsels, but be content only with their judgements whatever you do, and with the regular precepts of the life in which humility commands obedience with love. But let all your hours be useful for your souls, either in manual labour, or in study, or in the grace of prayer. Let the worker pray with his heart that he shall be worthy of a twofold reward. Similarly in the refreshment of the body let the soul be refreshed in giving thanks to God, or if the body is wearied by labour let the mind be fortified with compunction. So the monk is armed with a double support, lest the ancient enemy be able to harm us, he who seeks through the wandering of the mind to deprive us of the reward of our labours. I also, troubled by the storms of the world, have exerted myself for nothing in many places, but like some shipwreck, by the mercy of God, I have been thrown up into a peaceful haven, in which, weary and prostate with wounds, I entreat that your unity be maintained by the diligence of holy prayers, so that I at some time might merit the virtue to come to the flowering country and serve that sun with good confidence, in which alone is all our hope of salvation, and without which one who is falling could never rise, nor would he ever have been able to stand firm. Alcuin of York, from Letter 111, To The Brothers in Gothia