Letter 295

295. To Monks

I think that by the grace of God you need no other exhortation, after the words we spoke to you in person, urging you all to take up the common life together in imitation of the apostolic manner of living—which indeed you received as a good teaching, and for which you gave thanks to the Lord. Since, then, what we spoke were not mere words, but teachings that ought to issue in deeds, for the benefit of you who accept them, for the repose of us who proposed the counsel, and for the glory and praise of Christ, whose name is called upon us—for this reason I have sent our most beloved brother, that he may both make known the willing, rouse the sluggish, and bring to light for us any who hold out against us.

For great is my desire both to see you gathered together, and to hear concerning you that you do not love the unwitnessed life, but rather that you all accept being guardians of one another's strictness and witnesses of what is rightly done. For thus each one will receive in full both the reward for himself and that for his brother's progress; and this it befits you to furnish to one another in word and deed, through continual converse and exhortation. And above all we urge you to remember the faith of the fathers, and not to be shaken by those who attempt to lead you about in your quietude—knowing that neither strictness of life by itself, unless it be enlightened by faith in God, is profitable, nor a right confession, if it be without a share in good works, will be able to present us to the Lord; but both must go together, that the man of God may be complete, and that our life may not be lame for want of the one. For it is faith that saves us, as the Apostle says, working through love.