For bedding let this suffice: a mattress, a blanket, a coverlet and a pillow. The beds, moreover, are to be examined frequently by the Abbot, to see if any private property be found in them. If anyone should be found to have something that he did not receive from the Abbot, let him undergo the most severe discipline. And in order that this vice of private ownership may be cut out by the roots, the Abbot should provide all the necessary articles: cowl, tunic, stockings, shoes, belt, knife, stylus, needle, handkerchief, writing tablets; that all pretext of need may be taken away. Yet the Abbot should always keep in mind the sentence from the Acts of the Apostles that "distribution was made to each according as anyone had need" (Acts 4:35). In this manner, therefore, let the Abbot consider weaknesses of the needy and not the ill-will of the envious. But in all his decisions let him think about the retribution of God.

What is our list of necessary articles?

How deeply are we entwined in the vice of private property?

Whatever separates us - distracts us - from God is a sin.

A vice is a habit that inclines us toward sin.

We are to cultivate habits that incline us toward God.

In accumulating private property as a defense against fear, we practice a vice.

To accumulate private property as an end in itself, is not so far from the sin of idolatry.