The toolbox

Benedict enumerates the tools of the spiritual life:

• Love God
• Love your neighbor
• Keep the 10 commandments
• Do the works of corporal mercy
• Hold your anger
• Hold your tongue
• Be a peacemaker
• Place your hope only in God
• Fear the Lord
• Listen
• Pray  
• Obey
• Request forgiveness when you fail 
• Never lose hope

Micah 6:6-8

⁶“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” ⁸He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?