Caput V. Reclusarum quarumdam avaritia.
The Vice of Greed in the Enclosure
Avarice creeps into the cloister as recluses neglect solitude to chase flocks, profits, and the endless thirst of buying and selling.
Then there are others who, although they avoid shameful talk, are still chatty all the same and constantly keep company with gossips, devoting their tongue, their ears, and the whole day to idleness and rumors. Others show little concern for such things (though this vice creeps through the recluses of our time almost universally), and they gape wide after money to be gathered in or after multiplying flocks, and with such anxiety over these matters they are stretched so thin that you would think them mothers or mistresses of households, not women dedicated to the solitary life. They look for pastures and shepherds for someone else, to manage and guard the flocks, and from the guardians they demand the profits or the price, the weight, or the head count. Then come buying and selling, so that money demands a heap of more money and only fuels the thirst for greed.
False Excuses for Hoarding
Wicked spirits disguise greed as charity, but a true recluse is called to receive the poor with her little gift rather than amass wealth to give away.
For such wicked spirits deceive, urging that it is useful and necessary to distribute alms, to nourish orphans, to show love to visiting parents or friends, and to welcome religious women. This is not your calling, which belongs much more to receiving the poor with the poor and giving them your little gift, than to rejecting all you have for Christ and seeking what belongs to others in order to give it away. It is a sign of great unfaithfulness if a recluse is anxious about tomorrow, when the Lord says, 'Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you' (Matt. 6, 33).
Freedom from Worldly Anxiety
The mind must be stripped of all worldly worry and set free from care.
So we need to make sure the mind is cleared of every worldly anxiety and set free from worry.12
Read the original Latin
Sunt aliae quae, licet turpia declinent, loquaces, tamen loquacibus assidue sociantur, nimium curiositati linguam et aures tota die otio rumoribusque dedentes. Aliae non multum ista curantes (quod fere vitium per omnes hujus temporis serpit inclusas), pecuniae congregandae vel multiplicandis pecoribus inhiant: tantaque cum hac sollicitudine in his extenduntur, ut eas matres vel dominas familiarum existimes, non anachoretas. Quaerunt aliquibus pascua, pastores, qui procurent, qui custodiant greges; fructus vel pretium vel pondus, vel numerum a custodibus expetunt. Sequitur emptio et venditio, ut nummus nummo cumulum exigat, et avaritiae sitim accendat. Fallit enim tales spiritus nequam, pro impertiendis eleemosynis vel orphanis alendis, pro advenientium parentum vel amicorum charitate, et religiosarum feminarum susceptione, hoc utile esse ac necessarium suadentes. Non est hoc tuum, ad quam magis pertinet, ut pauper cum pauperibus stipem accipias, quam reiictis omnibus tuis pro Christo aliena quaerere, ut eroges. Magnae infidelitatis signum est, si inclusa de crastino sit sollicita, cum Dominus dicat: Primum quaerite regnum Dei, et haec omnia adjicientur vobis (Matth. VI, 33).
Quapropter providendum est ut mens omni rerum temporalium cura exuatur, et exoneretur sollicitudine.
Notes
- 1 ↩Mens rendered as 'mind' rather than 'soul' to preserve the cognitive/volitional sense of interior attention rather than the broader spiritual person.
- 2 ↩Quapropter ('for this reason') carries inferential force, linking this sentence to the preceding critique of avaricious recluses. Ut clause read as purpose/result with providendum est.
De institutione inclusarum (A Rule of Life for a Recluse) companion
A rule only lives if you keep it daily
Chosen Portion gives your new rule its anchor: one free devotional portion every day.
Aelred built his sister's day around fixed times of prayer and meditation; Chosen Portion supplies the fixed daily portion that makes a modern rule of life keepable.
- Anchor your rule with a fixed 10-minute daily portion
- Practice Aelred's threefold meditation with guided daily prompts
- Review and adjust your one-page rule after 30 days of tracked practice