CAPUT LXXIII. Quam sit arduum, vel difficile gratiam contemplationis obtinere
The Unappeasable Longing
The soul burns with unappeasable longing for the sweetness of contemplation, counted more precious than any other sweetness, so that Rachel cannot moderate her striving or her pain.
But we know it nonetheless (since Scripture has taught us this as well): hope deferred afflicts the soul. For nothing moves the soul like an impatient longing. But what is more wholesome to seek than the sweetness of this vision? What is felt more sweetly? What does the soul experience with more delight? Rachel knows this, for it cannot even be hidden from reason, because compared to this sweetness, every other sweetness is bitter.1 That is why she can neither relax her striving nor temper her desire. Hence that great anxiety of a woman in labor, and the immensity of her pain.
Grace Beyond All Effort
The pain of desire grows daily through unceasing effort and impatience, yet the gift of contemplation is not won by human industry but given by God to those who strive with burning desire.
Where else, after all, do you think such great pain comes from, if not from unceasing effort and impatient desire? It grows every day: from desire comes toil, and from toil comes pain. It keeps growing without rest: from effort comes desire, and from desire comes effort. Yet Rachel knows this work is beyond her strength, and still she cannot moderate her effort or her desire. For the mind can never attain so great a grace by its own effort. This gift is God's, not a matter of human merit. But without a doubt, no one receives such a grace—and so great a grace—without immense effort and burning desire. Rachel knows these things, and so she multiplies her effort and kindles her desire more sharply with each passing day.
The Birth of Benjamin and the Death of Rachel
In the final anguish of striving, Benjamin is born and Rachel dies, for the mind carried beyond itself in ecstasy surpasses all the limits of human reason.
In the intense anxiety of this daily striving—in such a profound pain—Benjamin is born and Rachel dies, because when the human mind is carried beyond itself, it moves past every narrow limit of human reasoning. Every human power of reason gives way before what the mind, raised above itself and carried off in ecstasy, sees of the light of the Godhead. After all, what is Rachel's death if not the failure of reason?
Read the original Latin
Sed scimus nihilominus (nam et hoc, Scriptura docente, didicimus): Quia spes quae differtur, affligit animum. Nihil enim sic afficit animum, quomodo impatiens desiderium. Quid autem hujus visionis dulcedine expetitur salubrius? quid sentitur suavius? quid animus experitur jucundius? Novit hoc Rachel, nam nec rationem hoc latere potest, quia in hujus suavitatis comparatione omnis dulcedo amare est. Hinc est quod nec studium suum laxare, nec desiderium suum temperare potest. Hinc illa tanta parientis anxietas et doloris immensitas.
Unde namque putas tanta doloris magnitudo, nisi ex indesinenti studio, et impatienti desiderio? Crescit quotidie, et ex desiderio labor, et ex labore dolor. Augmentatur assidue, et ex studio desiderium et ex desiderio studium. Scit tamen Rachel hoc negotium supra vires suas esse, nec tamen valet studium suum, vel desiderium temperare. Ad tantam namque gratiam, nunquam pertingit mens per propriam industriam. Dei est hoc donum, non hominis meritum. Sed absque dubio talem, tantamque gratiam accipit nemo, sine ingenti studio et ardenti desiderio. Novit haec Rachel, et idcirco studium multiplicat, et desiderium suum quotidianis incrementis acrius inflammat.
In tanta namque quotidiani conatus anxietate, in hujusmodi doloris immensitate, et Benjamin nascitur, et Rachel moritur, quia cum mens hominis supra seipsam rapitur, omnes humanae ratiocinationis, angustias supergreditur. Ad illud enim quod supra se elevata, et in extasi rapta, de divinitatis lumine conspicit, omnis humana ratio succumbit. Quid est enim Rachelis interitus, nisi rationis defectus?
Notes
- 1 ↩amare is taken as 'bitter' (from amarus), not the infinitive 'to love'; the contrast with suavitas/dulcedo requires the bitter sense.
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