Chapter 133

Externals in the Rules Can Be Changed

Let us bless the Lord both for dryness and for consolation. But where does one live evenly? Both inside and outside everything flows changingly. Stand, watch, and discern how you ought to conduct yourself in all things. Discernment was given to man for that.

May your prayer be perfected! You change something in your rules—good. Let the painful turning of the heart to God and kneeling in worship not depart, but the external can be changed, adapting as seems better. Test all things and hold to what is good (cf.: 1 Thess. 5:21).

(Letter 730. Vol. 4, p. 217)