TOWARDS THE END OF HIS LIFE, St Aelred received a request from his sister, an anchorite, for a rule of life. This is his reply. The topics he addresses include the liturgy of the hours, fasting, almsgiving, the place of work and recreation, and the seasons of the year. The section on the virtues and prayer opens on the subject of chastity, and, with the conversational simplicity one would expect in a letter written to a near relative, Aelred goes on to speak of that chaste austerity which a recluse is to observe in her dress, her surroundings, her diet.
A particularly delightful allegory of fine linen leads on to the subject of clothes. A recluse must make herself a wedding gown of virtues, beautiful in its many-coloured diversity as that worn by the queen-mother in Ahab’s wedding psalm. The gown must have a golden hem, for the hem, being “the last end of the cloth”, is an image of Saint Paul’s finis precepti est charitas – “the purpose of our charge is charity.” Aelred then develops a meditation on Our Lord’s life in the gospel, which is surely one of the most beautiful ever written. This is in turn rounded off with the Saint’s account of his own life.
Paperback Book has 64 Pages and is in Good Used Condition
| Condition | Good |
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