"When we realize that we are responsible to all men for all and everything, for all human sins, national and individual, only then the aim of our seclusion is attained. For know, dear ones, that every one of us is undoubtedly responsible for all men and everything on earth, not merely through the general sinfulness of creation, but each one personally for all mankind and every individual man. This knowledge is the crown of life for the monk and for every man. For monks are not a special sort of men, but only what all men ought to be. Only through that knowledge, our heart grows soft with infinite, universal, inexhaustible love. Then every one of you will have the power to win over the whole world by love and to wash away the sins of the world with your tears". Be proud neither to the little nor to the great. Hate not those who reject you, who insult you, who abuse and slander you. Hate not the atheists, the teachers of evil, the materialists--and I mean not only the good ones--for there are many good ones among them, especially in our day--hate not even the wicked ones. Remember them in your prayers thus: 'Save, O Lord, all those who have none to pray for them, save too all those who will not pray.'"
-- Words of the Elder, from his farewell to the cloistered monks, in The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky
Head of a Franciscan Monk, by Pieter Paul Rubens
*Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.
-- #12 from the Fourteen Precepts of Thich Nhat Hanh
