CAPUT LXXXIII. Quod illa mens divinas revelationes percipit, quae in intimis stare consuevit
The Mountain of Revelation
Divine revelation is given on a mountain, calling the soul to ascend through self-knowledge to knowledge of God, a journey from Joseph to Benjamin.
It's only right that a revelation like this was given only on a mountain, for the profound loftiness of this mystery, and its lofty depth, shouldn't have been shown in a valley. For those who are still down in the low places—whether in their way of life or in their thoughts—show themselves unworthy of the honor of this gift.1 So let a person rise to a high heart; let him climb this mountain if he wants to grasp those things, if he wants to know what lies beyond human understanding.✦ Let him climb through himself above himself. Through knowledge of himself, to knowledge of God. First, let a person learn—in the image of God, in God's likeness—what he ought to think about God.✦ Climbing the mountain, as has been said, belongs to knowledge of oneself; the things that take place above the mountain lead to knowledge of God. There is no doubt that the former belongs to Joseph, and the latter to Benjamin.2
The Order of Ascent
Self-knowledge must precede contemplation; the mind must first gather itself and learn its own state before it can receive divine instruction and ascend to God.
Joseph has to be born before Benjamin. How can a mind that doesn't lift itself to consider itself fly, on the wing of contemplation, to the things above it? The Lord came down on this mountain; Moses went up. On this mountain the Lord taught about the construction of the tabernacle, and Moses learned. What is understood by the tabernacle of the covenant, if not the state of perfection?3 So the one who climbs the mountain, who pays careful attention, who seeks longer, who at last finds what he is—still has to know by divine revelation what he ought to be, what kind of building of the mind he must prepare for God, and with what services he ought to please God. So when do you think a mind still scattered through various desires, still pulled this way and that by various thoughts, will deserve to receive this grace? If it cannot yet gather itself into one, if it doesn't yet know how to enter into itself, when will it be able to climb by contemplation to the things above itself?
Read the original Latin
Merito talis revelatio non est facta nisi in monte neque enim mysterii hujus, tam profunda sublimitas, et tam sublimis profunditas debuit manifestari in valle. Qui enim conversatione vel cogitatione adhuc in imo sunt, hujus muneris dignatione indignos se ostendunt. Ascendat ergo homo ad cor altum ascendat in montem istum, si vult illa capere, si vult illa cognoscere, quae sunt supra sensum humanum. Ascendat per semetipsum supra semetipsum. Per cognitionem sui, ad cognitionem Dei. Discat prius homo in Dei imagine, discat in ejus similitudine quid debeat de Deo cogitare. Montis ascensio, ut dictum est, pertinet ad cognitionem sui, ea quae supra montem geruntur, provehunt ad cognitionem Dei. Illud ad Joseph, ista ad Benjamin pertinere dubium non est.
Ante Benjamin Joseph nasci necesse est. Mens quae se ad sui considerationem non sublevat, quomodo ad ea quae supra ipsam sunt, penna contemplationis evolat? In hunc montem Dominus descendit, Moyses ascendit. In hoc monte, de tabernaculi constructione, Dominus docuit, Moyses didicit. Quid per tabernaculum foederis, nisi status intelligitur perfectionis? Qui igitur montem ascendit, qui diligenter attendit, qui diutius quaerit, qui tandem invenit qualis sit, restat ut ex divina revelatione cognoscat qualis esse debeat, quale mentis aedificium Deo praeparare, quibus obsequiis Deum placare oporteat. Mens igitur, quae adhuc per varia desideria spargitur, quae variis cogitationibus huc illucque distrahitur, quando putas hanc gratiam accipere merebitur? Quae nondum potest seipsam in unum colligere, quae necdum novit, ad semetipsam intrare, quando poterit, ad ea quae supra seipsam sunt contemplatione ascendere?
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.64.7 — They search out iniquities; we have completed a careful search; and the inward part of a man, and the heart, are deep.
- ↩Gen.1.26-Gen.1.27 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Notes
- 1 ↩conversatione here means manner of life/conduct, not modern 'conversation'; dignatione is the gracious bestowal/honor of the gift.
- 2 ↩In Richard of St. Victor's allegory, Joseph stands for rational self-knowledge/discretion and Benjamin for contemplative ecstasy or divine knowledge; illud/ista pick up the self-knowledge vs. God-knowledge pair just stated.
- 3 ↩status perfectionis rendered as 'state of perfection' (settled condition of spiritual maturity), not mere moral improvement.
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