“Let us therefore aim at that which is never to have an end, where is blessed eternity and eternal blessedness. That ye may deserve to attain to this, let no labour affright you, no blandishments of this life keep you back. Let there always burn in your hearts the love of Him that appeared as their companion on the way to the two apostles, who, when He was removed from their carnal eyes, said ‘Did not our hearts burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?’ In the writings of the holy fathers let us seek Him whom they, not yet learned in the Scriptures, understood. Now all is open; now He has opened the meaning of Whom it was said ‘Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.’ Now the gospel truth shines forth in all the world; now the enigmas of the prophets are clearer than the sun in the churches of Christ. This light of truth follow ye with your whole soul and understand Christ; in it love Christ, follow Christ; that cleaving to His most sacred footsteps ye may merit to have in His most holy presence life eternal. “Be mindful of the apostolic mandate,[286] ‘My brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable; always in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.’ Be stedfast in your own place and in the devotion of your purpose. Leave not your most holy father. Stand about his sepulchre, that he may offer your prayers to Almighty God. Desire not the vanities of the world, but love celestial blessings. ‘And,’ as the teacher of the Gentiles says,[287] ‘be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ It is a base thing for a monk to lose the spiritual warfare and to immerse himself in the affairs of the world. “Let there be no murmurings among you, no hatreds, no envyings, no evil speakings.[288] Judge not one another. Let everything be done in humility and concord, in obedience to those set over you, not to the eye only but from the heart, as in the presence of God. Let your obedience, your love, your humility be known to all, that very many may be taught by your good examples and may advance in the salvation of their souls. “If the venerable father Bouulf,[289] my most loved friend, is unable by reason of his weakness to observe the full hardness of the life by rule, judge ye not him, but obey him from your heart and love him as a father, for he will have to give account of your souls. He labours for you in wanderings and journeyings, that you may live quiet and keep the life by rule and have what is necessary for your bodies. Do you act as very dear sons. Fear God, love God, and have care of your most holy father in your prayers, that he may live in long prosperity with you, and that he with you and you with him may merit to have everlasting life.