CAPUT LXXVII. Quod frustra nitimur ad summa sine praeveniente gratia
Truth Leads to the Mountain
Truth is the sole guide to the spiritual mountain, and Christ Himself is that truth, calling all who desire ascent to follow Him.
Do you see that only truth leads you and brings you onto this mountain? She herself leads; she is the one who brings you all the way.1 I gladly follow the truth; I do not distrust a guide like that.2 Truth knows how to lead; truth does not know how to lead astray. But what is truth? What do you say, good Teacher, Teacher Christ—what is truth? I am, he says, the way, the truth, and the life. So let whoever wants to climb the mountain follow the truth.
Following Christ to the Summit
The Gospel account of the Transfiguration shows Christ leading his disciples up the mountain, illustrating that only those who follow Christ—who is truth—can safely reach the heights.
Follow Christ, you who long to climb this mountain, whoever you are. Have we learned this from the evangelist's teaching?3 Because Jesus took his disciples—namely Peter, James, and John—and led them up a high mountain by themselves.✦ So Jesus's disciples are led upward and apart, so they can reach this high mountain. It's a steep path, a hidden path unknown to many, that leads to the summit of this mountain. Only those, I think, run without going astray; only those who follow Christ and are led by the truth arrive without hindrance.4 Whoever you are, you who hurry toward the heights, go safely if truth goes ahead of you—for without it you labor in vain. Truth is as unwilling to deceive as it is unable to be deceived. So follow Christ, if you don't want to go astray.
Read the original Latin
Videsne quod nonnisi veritas in hunc montem deducit, et adducit? Ipsa ducit, ipsa est quae perducit. Libenter sequor veritatem non habeo suspectum talem ducem. Novit veritas ducere, nescit veritas seducere. Sed quid est veritas? Quid tu dicis, doctor bone, doctor Christe, quid est veritas? Ego sum, inquit, via, veritas et vita. Sequatur ergo veritatem, qui vult ascendere in montem.
Sequere Christum, quicunque cupis ascendere in montem istum. Docente evangelista, didicimus? Quia assumpsit Jesus discipulos suos, Petrum videlicet, Jacobum et Joannem, et duxit eos in montem excelsum seorsum. Ducuntur ergo discipuli Jesu sursum et seorsum, ut possint apprehendere montem istum excelsum. Via ardua, via secreta et multis incognita, quae ducit ad montis hujus fastigia. Illi soli ut arbitror, sine errore currunt, illi soli sine impedimento perveniunt, qui Christum sequuntur, qui a veritate ducuntur. Quisquis ad alta properas, securus eas, si te praecedit veritas: nam sine ipsa frustra laboras. Tam non vult fallere, quam non valet veritas falli.
Christum ergo sequere, si non vis errare.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.17.1;Mark.9.2;Luke.9.28 — And after six days Jesus takes Peter and James and John his brother and leads them up into a high mountain by themselves. Mark.9.2 — And after six days Jesus takes Peter and James and John, and leads them up onto a high mountain, privately, alone, and he was transfigured before them. Luke.9.28 — Now about eight days after these sayings, taking Peter and John and James, he went up on the mountain to pray.
Notes
- 1 ↩Ipsa is feminine and tracks veritas (truth). Later sentences identify Truth with Christ; the feminine personification is retained here for fidelity to the Latin.
- 2 ↩Source lacks punctuation between veritatem and non; sense is two coordinated clauses (I gladly follow the truth; I do not hold such a guide under suspicion).
- 3 ↩Docente evangelista is an ablative absolute: 'with the evangelist teaching' / 'as the evangelist teaches.' Rendered as the source of what we have learned, leading into the Transfiguration citation that follows.
- 4 ↩ut arbitror is parenthetical ('as I judge/think'), not purpose ut. The two qui-clauses identify the same people in parallel: those who follow Christ and are led by truth.
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