1. When we think of the peace that you enjoy in Christ, we too, though harassed by manifold irksome tasks, find peace in your affection. For we are one body under one head, so that you share our occupation and we share your relaxation, since “if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, and if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” a So we exhort and beg and beseech you by Christ's profound humility and compassionate exaltation to remember us in your holy prayers; yours are, we are confident, more watchful and composed, for ours are often crippled and weakened by the gloom and bustle of worldly affairs. Not that we have any of our own, but those who compel us to go a mile and we are bidden to go with them other twain b impose so many burdens on us that we have scarcely time to draw our breath; yet we are confident that He “before whom comes the sighing of the prisoner” c will deliver us, by the help of your prayers, from every distress, while we endure in that ministry in which fie has pleased to place us with the promise of reward.
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. 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, tanta nobis ingeruntur, ut vix respirare possimus, credentes tamen, quod ille, in cuius conspectu intrat gemitus conpeditorum, perseverantes nos in eo ministerio, in quo conlocare dignatus est cum promissa mercede, adiuvantibus orationibus vestris ab omni angustia liberabit.
2. We exhort you in the Lord, brethren, to maintain your purpose and to persevere unto the end, d and if the Church, your mother, seeks any service from you. not to undertake it with eager elation nor to refuse it under the solicitation of indolence, but submit to God with lowly heart, suffering with meekness Him who governs you, “who guides the meek in judgement and will teach them His ways.” e And do not place your own ease before the Church's needs, for if no good men were willing to minister to her in her travail, you would find no means of being born yourselves. But just as a man must hold the path between fire and water if he would avoid either burning or drowning, so should we regulate our way between the peak of pride and the gulf of sloth, as it is written “declining neither to the right hand nor to the left.” a For there are some who, over-afraid of being snatched up and borne, as it were, to the right hand, slip and sink down upon the left; and there are some again who, while withdrawing too far from the left hand from fear of being engulfed in the slothful weakness of indolence, are corrupted and destroyed on the other side by the arrogance of boastfulness and vanish away into smoke and ashes. So then, beloved, do you love ease in such fashion as to restrain yourselves from every earthly delight, and remember that there is no spot free from a possible snare laid by him whose fear it is that we may take our flight back to God; let us reckon him whose prisoners we once were to be the foe of all good men, and bear in mind that there is no perfect rest for us “until iniquity has ceased and judgement shall return unto righteousness.” b
2. Vos autem, fratres, exhortamur in domino, ut propositum vestrum custodiatis et usque in finem perseveretis 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, docebit mansuetos vias suas. Nec vestrum otium necessitatibus ecclesiae praeponatis, cui parturienti si nulli boni ministrare vellent, quo modo 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. 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 mollitia sorbeantur, ex altera parte iactantiae fastu corrupti atque consumpti in fumum favillamque 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 esse nobis perfectam requiem cogitetis, donec transeat iniquitas et in iudicium iustitia convertatur.
3. Likewise, when you do anything with vigour and fervour and are unweariedly labouring in prayer or in fasting or in almsgiving or bestowing something on the needy or forgiving injuries, “as God also for Christ's sake hath forgiven us,” c or subduing evil habits and “chastening the body and bringing it into subjection,” d or bearing tribulation and (before anything else) " bearing one another in love "—for what can he endure, who does not endure his brother?—or looking out for the craftiness and guile of the tempter and " with the shield of faith " averting and “quenching his fiery darts,” e or " singing and making melody to the Lord in your heart " f or with voices in harmony with your heart: “do all to the glory of God, g who worketh all in all,” h and be so " fervent in spirit " i that “your soul may make her boast in the Lord.” j For on the straight path that is the behaviour of those “whose eyes are ever upon the Lord, for He shall pluck their feet out of the net.” a Such behaviour is neither parched by business nor chilled by ease, neither boisterous nor enervated, neither reckless nor runaway, neither headstrong nor supine. “These things do, and the God of peace shall be with you.” b Let your Charity not think me troublesome in wishing to have converse with you even by letter.
3. Item cum aliquid strenue atque alacriter agitis et inpigre operamini sive in orationibus sive in ieiuniis sive in elemosynis vel tribuentes aliquid indigentibus vel donantes iniurias, sicut et deus in Christo donavit nobis, sive edomantes perniciosas consuetudines castigantesque corpus et servituti subicientes sive sufferentes tribulationem et ante omnia vos ipsos invicem in dilectionem—quid enim sufferat, qui fratrem non suffert?—sive prospicientes astutiam atque insidias temptatoris et scuto fidei iacula eius ignita repellentes et extinguentes sive cantantes et psallentes in cordibus vestris domino vel vocibus a corde non dissonis: omnia in gloriam dei facite, qui operatur omnia in omnibus, atque ita ferventes spiritu, ut in domino laudetur anima vestra. Ipsa est enim actio recti itineris, quae oculos semper habet ad dominum, quoniam ipse evellet de laqueo pedes. 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.
4. I have given you these admonishments, not with the idea that you are failing to perform them, but in the belief that if what you do by His favour you do in remembrance of my exhortation, I have no slight commendation to God from you. For a good savour of Christ from your holy conduct had already reached me, first through rumour and now through the brethren, Eustasius and Andrew, who have come from you. Of these Eustasius has gone before us to that rest, which no waves beat upon as they do upon your island, nor does he long for Caprera, for in its hair-cloth he seeks no more his raiment. c Earth quakes and the heavens shake at the most glaring criminality and shocking barbarity of your fiendish conduct, winch has made your streets and shrines run red with blood and resound with cries of murder.
4. Nec importunum me existimet caritas vestra, quia vobiscum loqui vel per epistulam 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 adlocutionis nostrae memoria faciatis. Nam et ante iam fama et nunc fratres, qui venerunt a vobis, Eustasius et Andreas bonum Christi odorem de vestra sancta conversatione ad nos adtulerunt. Quorum Eustasius in eam requiem praecessit, quae nullis fluctibus sicut insula tunditur, nec Caprariam desiderat, quia nec cilicio iam quaerit indui.