Abbot John Welcomes the Tithes

My children, I am truly delighted with the dutiful generosity of your gifts. I gratefully accept your devout offering, whose distribution has been entrusted to me, because you are offering your firstfruits and tithes for the good and use of the needy, as a sacrifice of sweet fragrance to the Lord. You believe that by offering them, the abundance of your crops and all your possessions, from which you have set these apart for the Lord, will be richly blessed; and that you yourselves, according to the faith of his command, will be enriched with every good thing many times over even in this world: “Honor the Lord from your righteous labors, and offer to him from the fruits of your righteousness, so that your barns may be full of plenty of wheat, and your vats may overflow with wine.” And as you faithfully carry out this service, you may know that you have fulfilled the righteousness of the old law. Those who lived under it in those days inevitably incurred guilt if they broke it, while if they kept it they still could not reach the height of perfection. [a]