Regula, caput XXX
The Rule Confirmed by the Pope
Christ instructs the bride to work toward papal confirmation of the rule, promising grace, help, and peace wherever monasteries of this order are founded.
Christ, speaking to the bride, tells her that she herself should work in such a way that the aforementioned rule may be confirmed through the lord pope, promising grace and help to all who enter this religious order, and an increase of peace and harmony in that country where any monastery of this order shall have been founded.
God's Sovereign Will in Timing
The divine voice explains that all things occur according to God's will, including the timing of the rule's confirmation, and that the Holy Spirit's inward witness will reveal its origin to the pope.
Then the voice that had spoken before replied, saying: 'I am without beginning and without end, and I have ordered all things according to my will, and just as it pleased me, I made all things.' So if anyone were to ask why I didn't create heaven and earth and everything in them sooner, the answer would be that such was my will. In the same way, if someone were to ask why I didn't give or choose to confirm this rule sooner, the answer is that I willed it so. Doesn't Scripture say: 'The Spirit breathes where it wishes'?✦ That is truly how it is. For the Spirit itself breathes in different ways, where it wills and when it wills. Such consolations will follow, so that the whole heart is suddenly filled with a joy that comes to the heart from no worldly or bodily source, but from the grace of the Spirit breathing at that moment. Therefore, if the pope senses such things in his heart when he hears this rule read before him, then he can understand where the rule came from.
Witnesses and the Promise of Peace
Christ assures that illuminated friends and three specific witnesses will support the rule's confirmation, promises peace wherever its monasteries are established, and teaches that God often works through humble means rather than instant power.
How truly many are my friends — clergy and laypeople alike — whose hearts I've illuminated with my love. They believe without a doubt that I came from God, and they recognize the things I've been graciously enabled to do with you, who created all things and freed humankind from hell. And if some who are with the pope happen to be unable to believe these things, then three witnesses will come to the pope — people born in the same kingdom as you are — who know about you and grasp more fully what has been done with you: namely, one bishop, one monk, and one priest. You recognize all three of these. The pope should also consider this: if someone possessed a great deal of gold, and it would be no less available because some of it were given to others, it wouldn't be right to refuse to give from it to those who asked for nothing except God's honor and the salvation of souls. By this 'gold' I mean the authority the pope holds from me, so that he may confirm this rule. I who said 'I am the good shepherd' — I myself want to save all who enter that rule, from all mortal enemies. And in every kingdom, land, or city where monasteries of this rule have been built with my vicar's permission, after the monastery I first established is completed, peace and harmony will grow there. You, to whom the rule has been given — do all you can to bring it to the pope. I am now the same one I was when I told my disciples to go into the city and bring a donkey to me — yet I could easily have managed for that donkey to stand before me right away.
Labor, Reward, and Cooperation with Grace
Christ explains that greater spiritual labor merits greater reward, and calls the bride to work diligently while trusting God to accomplish all things in due time.
I could also do it this way, so that the rule would come before the pope in an instant and he would immediately confirm it. But this is justice: that for greater spiritual labor of the body, a greater reward is repaid to the soul. Therefore, you work and cooperate as much as you can; I, however, will accomplish it when it pleases me.
Read the original Latin
Christus loquens sponse dicit ei, quod ipsa laboret taliter, quod dicta regula per dominum papam confirmetur, promittens graciam et adiutorium omnibus intrantibus istam religionem et augmentum pacis et concordie in patria illa, vbi aliquod monasterium istius religionis fundatum fuerit.
Deinde vox, que prius loquebatur, respondit dicens: "Ego sine principio sum et sine fine et omnia secundum voluntatem meam ordinaui et, sicut michi placuit, omnia feci. Vnde, si quis interrogaret, quare non prius creaui celum et terram et omnia, que in eis sunt, respondendum esset, quia sic fuit voluntas mea. Similiter, si quereretur, quare non prius istam regulam dedi aut confirmari eam volui, respondendum est, quia sic volui. Nonne dicit scriptura: 'Spiritus, vbi vult, spirat.' Sic vere est. Ipse enim spirat diuersis modis, vbi vult et quando vult. Ipsum tales sequentur consolaciones, vt totum cor repentina repletur leticia, que de nullis mundanis seu corporalibus rebus cordi aduenit sed ex Spiritus gracia tunc inspirantis. Ergo, si papa talia in corde suo senserit, quando hanc regulam coram se legi audierit, tunc intelligere potest, vnde regula venerit.
Quam vere multi amici mei, tam clerici quam laici, quorum corda caritate mea illuminaui, credunt indubitanter ex me venisse et cognoscunt ea, que tecum dignatus sum facere, qui omnia creaui et hominem de inferno liberaui. Et si forte aliqui cum papa existentes ista credere non potuerint, tunc venient ad papam tres testes, qui in eodem regno nati sunt quo et tu, qui de te sciunt et, quid tecum actum est, plenius agnoscunt, videlicet vnus episcopus, vnus monachus vnusque sacerdos; istos tres tu omnes agnoscis. Consideret eciam papa, quod, si aliquis multum aurum possideret, quod ex hoc non minus fieret, quod de illo aliquibus aliis daretur, non esset iustum eis de illo non dare, qui ad nichil aliud nisi ad honorem Dei et animarum salutem de eo aliquid postularent. Per hoc aurum intelligo auctoritatem, quam habet papa ex parte mea, vt confirmet hanc regulam. Ego, qui dixi: 'Ego sum pastor bonus', ego ipse omnes eos seruare volo, qui in eam intrauerint, pro omnibus mortalibus inimicis. Et in omni regno seu terra aut ciuitate, in quibus monasteria huius regule cum vicarii mei licencia constructa fuerint, postquam consumatum est monasterium, quod primum constitui, augebitur ibi pax et concordia. Tu, cui regula data est, conare, quantum poteris, vt ad papam perueniat. Ego iam idem sum, qui fui, quando discipulis meis mandaui in ciuitatem ire et asinum michi adducere; tamen hoc bene potuissem, quod statim staret asinus coram me.
Ita eciam hoc modo possem, vt regula in vno puncto ante papam veniret et ipse confestim eam confirmaret. Sed hoc iusticia est, vt pro maiori corporis spirituali labore rependatur anime maior merces. Labora igitur tu et cooperare, quantum poteris; ego autem perficiam, dum michi placuerit."
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.3.8 — The Spirit blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Regula Sancti Salvatoris companion
Let the app keep the daily part of your rule
Chosen Portion delivers your daily reading and prayer portion automatically — the one rule item you never have to plan.
Birgitta's Rule fixed a daily rhythm of prayer and reading for her order, and the Chosen Portion app supplies that same fixed daily portion for readers outside the cloister.
- One fixed daily devotional slot handled for you, about 10 minutes
- Read the full 34-chapter Regula Salvatoris in modern English inside the app
- Track a 30-day streak while you test your draft rule