Chapter 58: The reception of candidates for the community (paragraphs 1-3)

The entry of postulants into the monastic life should not be made too easy, but we should follow St John's precept to make trial of the spirits to see if they are from God. (From para. 1 of Ch. 58 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

The trials of my spirit, of my faith, are often those self-generated trials of my own obsessions, fears, sense of alienation. I must not give up on my pilgrimage of mediation, so that I may be led to realize the already-present resources of love.