Apocalipse 18

Apocalipse 18:4-5

Of all the ornaments of the church our company of monks and virgins is one of the finest.… Let us pass now to the cottage inn that sheltered Christ and Mary.… The stall where he cried as a babe can best be honored by silence, for words are inadequate to speak its praise. Where are the spacious porticoes? Where are the gilded ceilings?… Behold, in this poor crevice of the earth the Creator of the heavens was born; here he was wrapped in swaddling clothes; here he was seen by the shepherds; here he was pointed out by the star; here he was adored by the wise men.… Read the Apocalypse of John, and consider what is sung therein of the woman arrayed in purple and of the blasphemy written upon her brow.… "Come out of her, my people," so the Lord says, "that you be not partakers of her sins and that you receive not of her plagues." … It is true that Rome has a holy church, trophies of apostles and martyrs, a true confession of Christ. The faith has been preached there by an apostle, heathenism has been trodden down, the name of Christian is daily exalted higher and higher. But the display, power and size of the city, the seeing and being seen, the paying and the receiving of visits, the alternate flattery and detraction, talking and listening, as well as the necessity of facing so great a throng even when one is least in the mood to do so—all these things are alike foreign to the principles and fatal to the repose of the monastic life.… But in the cottage of Christ all is simple and rustic, except for the chanting of psalms everything is completely silent. — LETTER 46.10-12