Spiritual Friendship: Learning to Be Friends with God and One Another

Chapter 8 Giving and Receiving between Spiritual Friends (Book 3.97–134)

Chapter Summary There is a right time to correct a friend, and a time to be silent (Job 2:11−13). This chapter’s practical instructions include wisdom on how to know the difference between the two. It concludes Aelred’s final conversation about spiritual friendship. In the last chapter, Aelred discussed the joy and happiness that spiritual friendship brings to those who experience it. In this chapter, he talks about several practical topics related to friendship. First, spiritual friends are generous to one another with both tangible and intangible assets (3.97−103); Aelred reminds us that a “friend in need is a friend indeed.” He then talks about the importance of speaking the truth in love to a friend when a friend is in the wrong (3.104−109). Aelred believes that giving loving correction is one of the most important gifts friends can give one another, but he also shows that

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