Thoughts on Service

Vos autem, fratres, exhortamur in Domino ut propositum vestrum custodiatis, et usque in finem perseveretis: ac si qua opera vestra mater Ecclesia desideraverit, nec elatione avida suscipiatis, nec blandiente desidia respuatis; sed miti corde obtemperetis Deo, cum mansuetudine portantes eum qui vos regit, qui dirigit mites in iudicio, qui docet mansuetos vias suas . Nec vestrum otium necessitatibus Ecclesiae praeponatis, cui parturienti si nulli boni ministrare vellent, quomodo nasceremini, non inveniretis. Sicut autem inter ignem et aquam tenenda est via, ut nec exuratur homo nec demergatur; sic inter apicem superbiae et voraginem desidiae iter nostrum temperare debemus, sicut scriptum est: Non declinantes, neque ad dexteram, neque ad sinistram. Sunt enim qui dum nimis timent ne quasi in dexteram rapti extollantur, in sinistram lapsi demerguntur. Et sunt rursus qui dum nimis se auferunt a sinistra, ne torpida vacationis mollitie sorbeantur, ex altera parte iactantiae fastu corrupti atque consumpti, in favillam fumumque vanescunt. Sic ergo, dilectissimi, diligite otium, ut vos ab omni terrena delectatione refrenetis, et memineritis nullum locum esse, ubi non possit laqueos tendere qui timet ne revolemus ad Deum; et inimicum omnium bonorum, cuius captivi fuimus, iudicemus, nullamque nobis esse perfectam requiem cogitemus, donec transeat iniquitas, et in iudicium iustitia convertatur  Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, ex Epistola Abbati Eudoxio et Fratribus

We exhort you in the Lord, brethren, that you watch over your purpose, and persevere to the end, and if the Church, your Mother, desires your service, that you are neither taken up by excessive elation nor you refuse out of the attraction of indolence, but with gentle heart obey God, bearing him with gentleness who rules you, who teaches you the way of meekness. Do not choose your own leisure to the demands of the Church, for if no one wished to help in bringing forth the good how it would be born we do not know. As between fire and water hold to the way, that you are neither burnt nor drowned, so between the peak of pride and the chasm of laziness we should try to make our path; as it is written: 'Declining neither to the right nor the left.'  There are some who excessively fearing that by elevation they will be snatched by the right side fall to the left and are submerged. And again they are those who excessively shying away from the left side, lest they be absorbed in in the torpid softness of ease, are thrown to the other side and are corrupted and consumed by conceit, in the dust of that smoke vanishing. Therefore, beloved, hold dear leisure that you refrain from every worldly pleasure and remember that there is no place where he who fears we would fly to God does not set traps. Let us be aware of that enemy of all good, whose captives we were, and let us think none of us to be in perfect peace until iniquity has passed away. Saint Augustine of Hippo, from the Letter to the Abbot Eudoxus and the brothers with him.