We need the gifts of others to make up for what is lacking in ourselves. (Commentary on the Psalms, 125, 13).
There were other joys to be found in my friends’ company which still more powerfully captivated my mind - the charms of talking and laughing together and kindly giving way to each other’s wishes, reading well written books together, sharing jokes and delighting to honour one another, disagreeing occasionally but without rancour, as a person might disagree with himself, and lending piquancy by that rare disagreement to our much more frequent accord. We would teach and learn from each other, sadly missing any who were absent and blithely welcoming them when they returned. Such signs of friendship sprang from the hearts of friends who loved and knew their love returned, signs to be read in smiles, words, glances and a thousand gracious gestures. So were sparks kindled and our minds were fused inseparably, out of many becoming one. (Confessions, 4, 8, 13).
You are all to live together, therefore, one in mind and one in heart and honour God in each other because each of you has become His temple. (Rule, 1, 8).
Where there is no envy or fear, differences, far from creating divisions, foster harmony. (Holy Virginity, 29).
A community is a group of individuals bound together by the harmony and communion as to the things they look for and they love. In order to discover the character of a community we have only to observe what they love. (The City of God, 19, 24).
In an orchestra there are many different instruments. But all are tuned so carefully and played in harmony that the audience only hears one melody. This must be our ideal: to be an orchestra for the Lord (Commentary on the Psalms, 150, 8).
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