Today, we have some instruction from the Letter to the Hebrews: ‘Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” spring up and cause trouble …’

St Benedict is relevant here: ‘Just as there is an evil zeal of bitterness which separates from God and leads to hell, so is there a good zeal which separates from evil and leads to God and life everlasting. Let monks, therefore, exercise this zeal with the most fervent love. Let them, that is, in honour prefer one another. Let them bear with the greatest patience one another’s infirmities, whether of body or character. Let them vie in paying obedience to one another. Let none follow what seems good for himself, but rather what is good for another. Let them practise fraternal charity with all purity. Let them fear and love God. Let them love their abbot with a sincere and humble charity. Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ; and may he bring us all alike to life everlasting’.

In fact, St Benedict says it all – may we indeed prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and so be brought to eternal life. May God bless you today in all that you carry out in His Name.