CAPUT XXXVIII. Quid soleat impedire illud internum gaudium
The Intoxication of the Stable Heart
The heart must be gathered into stable desire for one true joy to receive the intoxicating sweetness of contemplation.
Those who are still tossed about by the waves of fleshly desires certainly don't deserve to get drunk on this sweetness: "You visited the earth," he says, "and you made it drunk."✦ What do you think is the reason the Lord is said to have made only the earth drunk—why not the sea as well? But we know that the mind that surges through shifting desires, still battered by the storm of worldly cares, is not admitted to that interior joy, and is not given to drink from that torrent of delight—how much less is it made drunk?✦1 We know that the sea is always tossing, but the earth stands forever.✦ So too the other elements are always in motion, and while the earth alone stands firm, the rest don't know how to stand still. What, then, should we take the earth to mean, if not the fixed stability of the heart? Whoever longs to be—or believes he will be—made drunk by that cup of true sobriety must therefore rein in the restlessness of the heart and gather the movements of thoughts and affections into the desire for one true joy.2 This is that truly blessed land—namely, the mind's tranquil stability—when the mind is wholly gathered into itself and is fixed immovably in one desire for eternity.
The Promised Land of Rest
The stable heart is the promised land seen by the meek, the Psalmist, and Issachar; we must pass from exile to this homeland and desire it.
This is the land that Truth promised when he said: Blessed are the meek, for they will possess the land. This is the land the Psalmist was both urging and promising when he said: Live in the land, and you will enjoy its riches.3 This is the land that Issachar—the strong donkey—saw and longed for, and for whose delights he burned with a remarkable fire. As it is written: Issachar, a strong donkey dwelling between the borders, saw that rest was good and the land was excellent; so he put his shoulder to the load and became a servant to tribute.4 So we must journey from land to land—from a foreign land to our own, from exile to our homeland, from one nation to another, from a kingdom to a different people, from the land of the dying to the land of the living—if we want to experience true interior joy. Let us desire that land too, the one this Issachar saw and longed for. For if he had not seen it, he would not have known it; and if he had not known it, he would not have desired it.
Read the original Latin
Hac utique dulcedine inebriari non merentur, qui adhuc carnalium desideriorum fluctibus agitantur: Visitasti, inquit, terram, et inebriasti eam. Quid putas est causae, quod solam terram Dominus dicitur inebriasse, cur non etiam et mare? Sed scimus quia mens, quae per varia desideria fluctuat, quam adhuc saecularium curarum procella exagitat, ad illud internum gaudium non admittitur, et illo torrente voluptatis non potatur, quanto minus inebriatur? Scimus quia mare semper fluctuat, terra autem in aeternum stat. Sic et caetera elementa semper in motu sunt, et sola terra stante, stare caetera nesciunt. Quid igitur per terram, nisi fixam cordis stabilitatem debemus accipere? debet igitur fluctuationem cordis restringere, et ad unius veri gaudii desiderium cogitationum affectionumque motus colligere, qui se cupit, vel credit illo verae sobrietatis poculo inebriandum fore. Haec est illa vere beata terra, mentis videlicet stabilitas tranquilla, quando mens in seipsa tota colligitur, et in uno aeternitatis desiderio immobiliter figitur.
Haec est illa terra quam Veritas promittebat, cum dicebat: Beati mites, quoniam ipsi possidebunt terram. Haec est illa terra de qua Psalmista promittens admonebat, et admonens promittebat: Inhabita, inquit, terram, et pasceris in divitiis ejus. Haec est illa terra quam iste Issachar, asinus fortis, vidit et concupivit, et in ejus concupiscentias mirabiliter exarsit: Issachar, inquit, asinus fortis habitans inter terminos, vidit requiem quod esset bona, et terram quod esset optima, et supposuit humerum suum ad portandum, et factus est tributis serviens. Oportet ergo nos transire de terra ad terram, de terra aliena ad terram propriam, de exsilio ad patriam, de gente ad gentem, et de regno ad populum alterum, de terra morientium ad terram viventium, si volumus experiendo nosse verum et internum gaudium. Concupiscamus et nos terram illam quam Issachar iste vidit, et concupivit. Si enim non vidisset, non cognovisset; et si non cognovisset, non concupisset.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.65.10;Ps.66.9 — You visit the earth and water it; you enrich it greatly. The stream of God is full of water; you prepare their grain, for so you prepare it. Ps.66.9 — who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip
- ↩Ps.36.9;Ps.37.8 — They drink their fill of the abundance of your house, and from your river of delights you give them drink. Ps.37.8 — Refrain from anger and abandon wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.
- ↩Eccl.1.4 — A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.
Notes
- 1 ↩voluptatis here is the Psalm's divine delight (torrens voluptatis), not carnal pleasure; rendered 'delight' to keep that spiritual sense.
- 2 ↩verae sobrietatis poculo is the deliberate mystical paradox of spiritual inebriation as true sobriety; 'cup of true sobriety' keeps that force.
- 3 ↩promittens admonebat / admonens promittebat is a deliberate chiasmus; rendered to keep both promise and admonition active in each clause.
- 4 ↩concupivit / concupiscentias here name holy longing for the blessed land, not disordered lust; rendered as 'longed for' / 'delights'.
Benjamin Minor (The Twelve Patriarchs / Preparation of the Mind for Contemplation) companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent