Letter 48: 1. When we reflect upon the undisturbed rest which you enjoy in Christ, we also, although engaged in labours manifold and arduous, find rest with you, beloved. We are one body under one Head, so that you share our toils, and we share your repose: for if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or if one member be honoured, all the memb...

Augustine to Eudoxius and the brothers with him, greetings. I write to you not as a bishop issuing commands but as a brother offering encouragement — because the life you have chosen, the monastic life, deserves all the encouragement a fellow servant of Christ can give. You have withdrawn from the world's noise. You have surrendered the pursuit of wealth, reputation, and comfort. You spend your days in prayer, in reading, in manual labor, and in the slow, patient work of remaking your souls. This is no small thing. The world calls it foolishness — but the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men [1 Corinthians 1:25]. But I must warn you: the dangers of the monastic life are not the same as the dangers of the world, but they are no less real. In the world, the great temptation is pleasure. In the monastery, the great temptation is pride. The man who has given up everything can easily begin to believe he is better than those who have not. And spiritual pride is the deadliest of all sins — because it disguises itself as virtue. Watch yourselves. Serve one another. The one who cooks is not less holy than the one who reads. The one who sweeps is not less devoted than the one who prays. The entire life is prayer, if it is lived for God. And do not isolate yourselves from the Church. The monastery exists within the Church, not apart from it. When the bishop needs you — to teach, to serve, to go where he sends you — go. The contemplative life is not an escape from service but a preparation for it. I hold you all in my prayers. Pray for me. The burden of the episcopate is heavier than you know, and I envy you your quiet — though I know it is not as quiet as it looks. Farewell, beloved brothers.

Letter 48 (A.D. 398) To My Lord Eudoxius, My Brother and Fellow-Presbyter, Beloved and Longed For, and to the Brethren Who are with Him, Augustine and the Brethren Who are Here Send Greeting. 1. When we reflect upon the undisturbed rest which you enjoy in Christ, we also, although engaged in labours manifold and arduous, find rest with you, beloved. We are one body under one Head, so that you share our toils, and we share your repose: for if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. 1 Corinthians 12:26 Therefore we earnestly exhort and beseech you, by the deep humility and most compassionate majesty of Christ, to be mindful of us in your holy intercessions; for we believe you to be more lively and undistracted in prayer than we can be, whose prayers are often marred and weakened by the darkness and confusion arising from secular occupations: not that we have these on our own account, but we can scarcely breathe for the pressure of such duties imposed upon us by men compelling us, so to speak, to go with them one mile, with whom we are commanded by our Lord to go farther than they ask. Matthew 5:41 We believe, nevertheless, that He before whom the sighing of the prisoner comes will look on us persevering in the ministry in which He was pleased to put us, with promise of reward, and, by the assistance of your prayers, will set us free from all distress. 2. We exhort you in the Lord, brethren, to be steadfast in your purpose, and persevere to the end; and if the Church, your Mother, calls you to active service, guard against accepting it, on the one hand, with too eager elation of spirit, or declining it, on the other, under the solicitations of indolence; and obey God with a lowly heart, submitting yourselves in meekness to Him who governs you, who will guide the meek in judgment, and will teach them His way. Do not prefer your own ease to the claims of the Church; for if no good men were willing to minister to her in her bringing forth of her spiritual children, the beginning of your own spiritual life would have been impossible. As men must keep the way carefully in walking between fire and water, so as to be neither burned nor drowned, so must we order our steps between the pinnacle of pride and the whirlpool of indolence; as it is written, declining neither to the right hand nor to the left. Deuteronomy 17:11 For some, while guarding too anxiously against being lifted up and raised, as it were, to the dangerous heights on the right hand, have fallen and been engulphed in the depths on the left. Again, others, while turning too eagerly from the danger on the left hand of being immersed in the torpid effeminacy of inaction, are, on the other hand, so destroyed and consumed by the extravagance of self-conceit, that they vanish into ashes and smoke. See then, beloved, that in your love of ease you restrain yourselves from all mere earthly delight, and remember that there is no place where the fowler who fears lest we fly back to God may not lay snares for us; let us account him whose captives we once were to be the sworn enemy of all good men; let us never consider ourselves in possession of perfect peace until iniquity shall have ceased, and judgment shall have returned unto righteousness. 3. Moreover, when you are exerting yourselves with energy and fervour, whatever you do, whether labouring diligently in prayer, fasting, or almsgiving, or distributing to the poor, or forgiving injuries, as God also for Christ's sake has forgiven us, Ephesians 4:32 or subduing evil habits, and chastening the body and bringing it into subjection, 1 Corinthians 9:27 or bearing tribulation, and especially bearing with one another in love (for what can he bear who is not patient with his brother?), or guarding against the craft and wiles of the tempter, and by the shield of faith averting and extinguishing his fiery darts, Ephesians 6:16 or singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, or with voices in harmony with your hearts; Ephesians 5:19 — whatever you do, I say, do all to the glory of God, 1 Corinthians 10:31 who works all in all, 1 Corinthians 12:6 and be so fervent in Spirit Romans 12:11 that your soul may make her boast in the Lord. Such is the course of those who walk in the straight way, whose eyes are ever upon the Lord, for He shall pluck their feet out of the net. Such a course is neither interrupted by business, nor benumbed by leisure, neither boisterous nor languid, neither presumptuous nor desponding, neither reckless nor supine. These things do, and the God of peace shall be with you. Philippians 4:9 4. Let your charity prevent you from accounting me forward in wishing to address you by letter. I remind you of these things, not because I think you come short in them, but because I thought that I would be much commended unto God by you, if, in doing your duty to Him, you do it with a remembrance of my exhortation. For good report, even before the coming of the brethren Eustasius and Andreas from you, had brought to us, as they did, the good savour of Christ, which is yielded by your holy conversation. Of these, Eustasius has gone before us to that land of rest, on the shore of which beat no rude waves such as those which encompass your island home, and in which he does not regret Caprera, for the homely raiment with which it furnished him he wears no more.

EPISTOLA 48 Scripta forte a. 398. A. Eudoxio, abbati monachorum Caprariae insulae, hortans ut otio ad pietatem non ad ignaviam utantur neque, sicubi Ecclesia illorum operam requirat, detrectent (n. 1-2) admonens Dei gloriam semper quaerendam (n. 3-4).   Domino dilecto et exoptatissimo fratri et compresbytero Euxodio et qui tecum sunt fratribus, Augustinus, et qui mecum sunt fratres, in Domino salutem Bonorum diffusio in membra mystici corporis. 1. Quando quietem vestram cogitamus, quam habetis in Christo, etiam nos, quamvis in laboribus variis asperisque versemur, in vestra caritate requiescimus. Unum enim corpus sub uno capite sumus, ut et vos in nobis negotiosi, et nos in vobis otiosi simus, quia si patitur unum membrum, compatiuntur omnia membra; et si glorificatur unum membrum, congaudent omnia membra 1. Admonemus ergo et petimus et obsecramus per Christi altissimam humilitatem et misericordissimam celsitudinem, ut nostri memores sitis in sanctis orationibus vestris, quas vos vigilantiores et magis sobrias habere credimus: nostras enim saepe sauciat et debilitat caligo et tumultus saecularium actionum; quas etsi nostras non habemus, eorum tamen qui nos angariant mille passus, et iubemur ire cum eis alia duo 2, tantae nobis ingeruntur ut vix respirare possimus: credentes tamen quod ille in cuius conspectu intrat gemitus compeditorum 3, perseverantes nos in eo ministerio, in quo dignatus est collocare cum promissa mercede, adiuvantibus orationibus vestris ab omni angustia liberabit. Recte pergendum inter actionem et contemplationem. 2. Vos autem, fratres, exhortamur in Domino ut propositum vestrum custodiatis, et usque in finem perseveretis 4: ac si qua opera vestra mater Ecclesia desideraverit, nec elatione avida suscipiatis, nec blandiente desidia respuatis; sed miti corde obtemperetis Deo, cum mansuetudine portantes eum qui vos regit, qui dirigit mites in iudicio, qui docet mansuetos vias suas 5. Nec vestrum otium necessitatibus Ecclesiae praeponatis, cui parturienti si nulli boni ministrare vellent, quomodo nasceremini, non inveniretis. Sicut autem inter ignem et aquam tenenda est via, ut nec exuratur homo nec demergatur; sic inter apicem superbiae et voraginem desidiae iter nostrum temperare debemus, sicut scriptum est: Non declinantes, neque ad dexteram, neque ad sinistram 6. Sunt enim qui dum nimis timent ne quasi in dexteram rapti extollantur, in sinistram lapsi demerguntur. Et sunt rursus qui dum nimis se auferunt a sinistra, ne torpida vacationis mollitie sorbeantur, ex altera parte iactantiae fastu corrupti atque consumpti, in favillam fumumque vanescunt. Sic ergo, dilectissimi, diligite otium, ut vos ab omni terrena delectatione refrenetis, et memineritis nullum locum esse, ubi non possit laqueos tendere qui timet ne revolemus ad Deum; et inimicum omnium bonorum, cuius captivi fuimus, iudicemus, nullamque nobis esse perfectam requiem cogitemus, donec transeat iniquitas, et in iudicium iustitia convertatur 7. Dei gloria semper quaerenda, bono consilio. 3. Item cum aliquid strenue atque alacriter agitis et impigre operamini, sive in orationibus, sive in ieiuniis, sive in elemosynis; vel tribuentes aliquid indigentibus, vel donantes iniurias, sicut et Deus in Christo donavit nobis 8; sive domantes perniciosas consuetudines, castigantesque corpus, et servituti subiicientes 9; sive sufferentes tribulationem, et ante omnia vos ipsos invicem in dilectione; quid enim sufferat qui fratrem non suffert? sive prospicientes astutiam atque insidias tentatoris, et scuto fidei iacula eius ignita repellentes et exstinguentes 10; sive cantantes et psallentes in cordibus vestris Domino 11, vel vocibus a corde non dissonis, omnia in gloriam Dei facite, qui operatur omnia in omnibus 12; atque ita fervete spiritu 13 ut in Domino laudetur anima vestra 14. Ipsa est enim actio recti itineris, quae oculos semper habet ad Dominum, quoniam ipse evellet de laqueo pedes 15. Talis actio nec frigitur negotio, nec frigida est otio, nec turbulenta, nec marcida est; nec audax, nec fugax; nec praeceps, nec iacens. Haec agite, et Deus pacis erit vobiscum 16. A. hortari, non vituperare voluisse. 4. Nec importunum me existimet Caritas vestra, quia vobis vel per epistolam loqui volui. Non enim hoc vos monui, quod vos non arbitror facere; sed credidi me non parum commendari Deo a vobis, si ea quae munere illius facitis, cum allocutionis nostrae memoria faciatis. Nam et ante iam fama, et nunc fratres qui venerunt a vobis, Eustasius et Andreas, bonum Christi odorem 17 de vestra sancta conversatione ad nos attulerunt. Quorum Eustasius in eam requiem praecessit, quae nullis fluctibus sicut insula tunditur, nec Caprariam desiderat, quia nec cilicio iam quaerit indui.