Verba matris ad filiam, quomodo per talentum dona spiritussancti designantur, et qualiter sanctus Benedictus sibi donum spiritussancti datum multiplicauit et per que spiritussanctus vel spiritus diabolicus hominis animam ingreditur.
The Stewardship of Grace
The Mother explains that spiritual gifts are talents to be multiplied through service and detachment, as exemplified by Saint Benedict.
The Mother says, "Daughter, it is written that the one who received five talents earned five more." After all, what is a talent if not a gift of the Holy Spirit? For some receive knowledge, others wealth, and others influence among the rich; yet all must return double the profit to their Lord—for instance, by using knowledge to live usefully for themselves and by instructing others. This means using your wealth and other gifts reasonably, and helping others with mercy. That good abbot Benedict multiplied the gift of grace he had received when he despised everything fleeting, forced his flesh to serve his soul, and put nothing before divine love.
The Example of the Desert
Benedict's withdrawal into the wilderness demonstrates how a heart filled with God transforms the world and inspires others toward perfection.
Fearing that his ears might be stained by idle talk and his eyes by the sight of things that delight the senses, he fled into the wilderness, imitating the one who, while still unborn, leaped for joy within his mother’s womb at the arrival of his most merciful Redeemer. Benedict would have reached heaven even without the desert, because the world was dead to him and his heart was entirely full of God. But it pleased God to call Benedict to the mountain so that, as he became known to many, more people might be stirred by his example to a life of perfection.
Discernment of Spirits
The text contrasts the fire of the Holy Spirit, which purifies and warms the soul, with the destructive influence of the diabolical spirit.
This blessed man’s body was like a sack of earth, holding within it the fire of the Holy Spirit, which drove the devil’s fire out of his heart. For just as physical fire is kindled by two things—namely, air and the breath of a person—so the Holy Spirit enters a person’s soul, stirring the mind toward God through personal inspiration, or through some human action, or through divine speech. In the same way, the diabolical spirit visits its own, but they differ incomparably. The Holy Spirit warms the soul to seek God, but doesn't burn it with carnal desire. It shines with the purity of modesty, yet it doesn't cloud the mind with malice. The wicked spirit, however, burns the mind toward carnal things and makes it intolerably bitter. It also clouds the soul through a lack of self-awareness and drags it down inconsolably toward earthly things.
Kindling the Fire of Community
Benedict's rule serves to gather individual sparks into a communal fire, though the current state of the faithful requires a return to that original heat.
So, to ensure that the good fire within Benedict would set others ablaze, God called him to the mountain. There, having gathered many sparks to himself, he used the Spirit of God to turn them into a great bonfire, and he composed a rule for them based on that same Spirit, through which many have been made perfect, just as Benedict was. But now, many torches taken from Saint Benedict’s fire lie scattered everywhere, having coldness instead of heat and darkness instead of light; yet if they were gathered together in the fire, they would everywhere give off flame and heat from themselves.
Read the original Latin
Mater loquitur: "Filia, scriptum est, quod qui quinque talenta acceperat, alia quinque lucratus est. Quid enim est talentum nisi donum spiritussancti? Nam alij accipiunt scientiam, alij diuitias, alij apud diuites familiaritatem et tamen omnes duplum reportare debent Domino suo lucrum, scilicet de scientia viuendo utiliter sibi et alios instruendo,
de diuitijs et ceteris donis utendo rationabiliter et alijs misericorditer subueniendo. Sic ille bonus abbas Benedictus donum gratie, quod acceperat, multiplicauit, quando omne contempsit, quod transitorium erat, quando carnem suam seruire coegit anime, quando nichil preposuit diuine caritati.
Qui insuper timens, ne aures macularentur auditu inani, oculi visione delectabilium fugit in heremum imitans illum, qui nondum natus exultando intra viscera materna cognouit aduentum sui pijssimi redemptoris.
Qui quidem Benedictus eciam sine heremo obtinuisset celum, quia mundus erat ei mortuus et cor eius totum plenum Deo. Sed placuit Deo vocare Benedictum in montem, ut cum pluribus innotesceret, plures eius exemplo ad perfectionis vitam incitarentur
Huius beati viri corpus erat quasi saccus terre, in quo claudebatur ignis spiritussancti, qui exclusit ab eius corde dyabolicum ignem. Sicut enim ignis corporalis ex duobus accenditur, ex aere scilicet et flatu hominis, sic spiritussanctus ingreditur animam hominis vel per inspirationem personalem aut per aliquam operationem humanam seu locutionem diuinam mentem excitat ad Deum.
Similiter spiritus dyabolicus visitat suos, sed differunt incomparabiliter. Nam spiritussanctus calefacit animam ad querendum Deum, sed non comburit carnaliter.
Lucet eciam puritate modestie sed non obfuscat mentem malicia. Spiritus vero nequam comburit mentem ad carnalia et amaricat intolerabiliter. Obfuscat quoque animam per inconsiderationem sui et deprimit eam inconsolabiliter ad terrena.
Ergo, ut ignis iste bonus, qui erat in Benedicto, igniret plures, vocauit Deus Benedictum in montem, qui conuocatis ad se pluribus scintillis fecit de eis per spiritum Dei maximum rogum et composuit eis regulam de spiritu Dei, per quam multi perfecti facti sunt sicut Benedictus.
Nunc autem multe faces proiecte de rogo sancti Benedicti iacent, ubique disperse habentes pro calore frigiditatem, pro luce tenebras, que si in igne iacerent conglobate, darent ubique ex se flammam et calorem."
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