And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.
Read Chapter 3
Basil the Great
AD 379
We are convinced that action taken by one or two pious men is done through the counsel of the Spirit. Since there is no human motive placed before their eyes, and saintly men are moved to action not with an aim of personal advantage but after having proposed to themselves what is pleasing to God, it is evident that it is the Lord who directs their hearts. And whenever spiritual men are the initiators of plans, and the people of the Lord follow them in harmony of thought, who will doubt that the plan has been arrived at in communion with our Lord Jesus Christ, who poured out his blood for the churches? Letters
so that you may be patient among the adversities of the world, just as Christ bore patiently the reproaches, the mockeries, the scourging, and the Cross. Or, as some manuscripts have it, "in the expectation of Christ," that you may await the coming of Christ in judgment.
Again he commends them, and prays, showing his concern for them. For when he is about to enter upon reproof, he previously smooths down their minds, by saying, I am confident that you will hear, and by requesting prayers from them, and by again invoking upon them infinite blessings.
But the Lord, he says, direct your hearts into the love of God. For there are many things that turn us aside from love, and there are many paths that draw us away from thence. In the first place the path of Mammon, laying, as it were, certain shameless hands upon our soul, and tenaciously holding it in its grasp, draws and drags us thence even against our will. Then vainglory and often afflictions and temptations, turn us aside. For this reason we need, as a certain wind, the assistance of God, that our sail may be impelled, as by some strong wind, to the love of God. For tell me not, I love Him, even more than myself. These are words. Show it to me by your works, if you love Him more than yourself. Love...
