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 are often those self-generated trials of my own obsessions, fears, fantasies, sense of isolation. I must not give up on the path of meditation, so that the waywardness of the ego does not distract me from the Source of love.