2009年8月11日 星期二

The Rule of St. Benedict - Chapter 58. The Procedure For Receiving Brothers

(17) When he is to be received, he comes before the whole community in the oratory and promises stability, fidelity to monastic life and obedience.
(18) This is done in the presence of God and His saints to impress on the novice that if he ever acts otherwise, he will surely be condemned by the one he mocks.
(19) He states his promise in a document drawn up in the name of the saints whose relics are there, and of the abbot, who is present.
(20) The novice writes out this document himself, or if he is illiterate, then he asks someone else to write it for him, but himself puts his mark to it and with his own hand lays it on the altar.
(21) After he has put it there, the novice himself begins the verse, "Receive me, Lord, as you have promised, and I shall live; do not disappoint me in my hope," (PS 118[119]:116).
(22) The whole community repeats the verse three times, and adds "Glory be to the Father."
(23) Then the novice prostrates himself at the feet of each monk to ask his prayers, and from that very day he is to be counted as one of the community.

(24) If he has any possessions, he should either give them to the poor beforehand, or make a formal donation of them to the monastery, without keeping back a single thing for himself,
(25) well aware that from that day he will not have even his own body at his disposal.
(26) Then and there in the oratory, he is to be stripped of everything of his own that he is wearing and clothed in what belongs to the monastery.
(27) The clothing taken from him is to be put away and kept safely in the wardrobe,
(28) so that, should he ever agree to the devil's suggestion and leave the monastery — which God forbid — he can be stripped of the clothing of the monastery before he is cast out.
(29) But that document of his which the abbot took from the altar should not be given back to him but kept in the monastery.

中文請參: http://stbenedictineoblatestw.blogspot.com/2009/04/24-25-26-27-28-29.html

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