Item de tribus verbis.
The Outward and Inward Word
Hugh distinguishes between God's outward word in visible works and inward word in unseen wisdom, showing how creation reveals the Creator.
There is one kind of word that belongs to a human being, and another that belongs to God: the work of God is not God, and yet another word of God is God. But the work of God, because it is visible, is called an outward word, as it were the utterance of the mouth. The wisdom of God, however, because it is invisible, is called an inward word, as it were the conception of the mind. And just as a spoken voice perishes at once, yet the understanding endures, so what God has made is subject to change, but what is God is not changed. And just as the thought of the heart is known through the utterance of the voice, so in his own work the wisdom of the Creator is revealed.
The Work That Speaks of God
The beautiful work of creation proclaims God's power and wisdom, and divine wisdom fills all things wholly in every part and in the whole.
For this work — a beautiful work! A work worthy of God the Maker, a work that befits the wise one, a work that no one except the Almighty could make; and so by its very appearance, as if by a voice, it proclaims the power of its Founder and speaks of his wisdom. This wisdom so filled all things with life that it dwells in the things it made — whole in each individual part and whole in the whole collection, no less in the whole and no less in each part; and so the whole is not greater, nor are the parts less, because both the whole and each part speak the entire wisdom.
The Word Beyond Words
The created word and the uncreated Word are contrasted, and all passing things are shown to be less than an instant compared to the eternal, just as with the wood of the ark.
The Word, then, speaks a word: the word that was made is the Word that made; the word that passes away is the word that does not receive change; the word perceived by the senses is the word seen with a pure heart; the word of beauty, the word of surpassing beauty; the word that delights the eyes of the body is the word that illuminates the eyes of the heart; the word created, the word not created but born, not uttered from the mouth but poured forth from the heart, not ceasing once sent out but remaining, begotten. So if you compare the work of Wisdom with itself, everything that passes away into what does not know change is less than a single moment's instant of time, however long, compared against it — that instant which does not exceed the narrow bounds of time. So it is with the wood.
Read the original Latin
Aliud est verbum hominis, aliud est verbum Dei, opus Dei non Deus, atque aliud verbum Dei Deus. Sed opus Dei, quia visibile est, extrinsecum verbum dicitur, quasi oris prolatio. Sapientia vero Dei, quia invisibilis est, intrinsecum verbum appellatur, quasi mentis conceptio. Et sicut vox prolata statim perit, intellectus autem permanet, sic quod Deus fecit variatur, quod est Deus non mutatur. Et sicut per prolationem vocis cognoscitur cogitatio cordis, sic in opere suo manifestatur sapientia Creatoris. Opus enim hoc, opus pulchrum. Opus Deo opifice dignum, opus quod sapientem deceat, opus quod nemo nisi omnipotens, facere queat, et ideo specie sua tanquam voce quadam virtutem sui conditoris protestatur, et sapientiam loquitur. Quae sapientia sic fecundavit universa, ut habitet in eis quae fecit, in singulis tota, et in toto tota, nec minor in toto, nec minor in singulis, et ideo non totum majus, non singula minus, quia totum totam, et singula totam loquuntur sapientiam.
Verbum igitur loquitur verbum, sed verbum quod factum est verbum quod fecit, verbum quod transit, verbum quod mutabilitatem non recipit; verbum quod sensu percipitur, verbum quod mundo corde videtur; verbum pulchrum, verbum pulcherrimum; verbum quod oculos corporis delectat, verbum quod oculos cordis illuminat, verbum creatum, verbum non creatum, sed natum, non ore prolatum, sed de corde eructatum, non quod desinit emissum, sed quod permanet genitum. Propterea si sapientiae opus suum comparas, minus est omne quod transit ad id quod mutabilitatem nescit, quam vel unius momenti instans tempori quamtumvis diuturno comparatum, quod temporis angustias non excedit. Sic est de ligno.
De Arca Noe Morali et Mystica (On the Moral and Mystical Ark of Noah) companion
Keep the ark under construction
Hugh's method only works with daily practice — the Chosen Portion app gives you a short, structured devotional every morning, free.
Hugh's daily discipline of ordered meditation continues in Chosen Portion, which serves one structured devotional portion each day so the mind returns to the same interior work Hugh prescribed.
- A 10-minute structured meditation delivered each morning
- Progress through classic texts like Hugh's in small daily portions
- Build a 30-day streak of ordered prayer instead of improvised moments