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| Chapter XI. Of the Spiritual Girdle and its Mystical Meaning.
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Chapter XI.
Of the Spiritual Girdle and its Mystical
Meaning.667
Clad, therefore, in these
vestments, the soldier of Christ should know first of all that he is
protected by the girdle tied round him, not only that he may be ready
in mind for all the work and business of the monastery, but also that
he may always go without being hindered by his dress. For he will be
proved to be the more ardent in purity of heart for spiritual progress
and the knowledge of Divine things in proportion as he is the more
earnest in his zeal for obedience and work. Secondly, he should realize
that in the actual wearing of the girdle there is no small mystery
declaring what is demanded of him. For the girding of the loins and
binding them round with a dead skin signifies that he bears about the
mortification of those members in which are contained the seeds of lust
and lasciviousness, always knowing that the command of the gospel,
which says, “Let your loins be girt about,”668
is applied to him by the Apostle’s
interpretation; to wit, “Mortify your members which are upon the
earth; fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil
concupiscence.”669
And so we find in
Holy Scripture that only those were girt with the girdle in whom the
seeds of carnal lust are found to
be destroyed, and who sing with might and
main this utterance of the blessed David: “For I am become like a
bottle in the frost,”670
because when the
sinful flesh is destroyed in the inmost parts they can distend by the
power of the spirit the dead skin of the outward man. And therefore he
significantly adds “in the frost,” because they are never
satisfied merely with the mortification of the heart, but also have the
motions of the outward man and the incentives of nature itself frozen
by the approach of the frost of continence from without, if only, as
the Apostle says, they no longer allow any reign of sin in their mortal
body, nor wear a flesh that resists the spirit.671
| 671 Cf. Rom. vi. 12; Gal. v. 17. S. Benedict’s rule about the
dress of the monks is as follows: “Let the dress of the brethren
be adapted to the character of the place or climate in which they live,
as more clothing is required in cold than in hot countries. Hence we
leave this to the abbot to determine. However, in temperate climates we
are of the opinion that it will be enough for each monk to have a hood
and a frock, a rough one for the winter, and in the summer a simple or
old one; a scapular also for work; and the cover of the feet, shoes and
socks. And the monks are not to complain of the colour or size of these
articles, but to be satisfied with whatever can be found or got
cheapest in the country where they live.” Regula S. Bened. c.
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