De quatuor modis exeundi per actionem.
The Two Realms of Action
Human action is divided into carnal and spiritual kinds, and in both people go out either toward good or toward evil.
There are four ways we go out through action. Actions are of two kinds: some are carnal—that is, they serve the body's needs; others are spiritual, serving the training of the mind. People go out to both—to good and to evil.
Unclean Going Out
Those who go out to satisfy earthly pleasure in outward actions are like the unclean animals leaving the ark.
Those who go out to satisfy earthly pleasure through outward actions are like the unclean animals that came out of the ark.
Clean Going Out
Those who govern bodily impulses for the sake of necessity are like the clean animals that went out from the ark.
But those who manage these same impulses for the sake of necessity are animals, yes, but clean ones.
Noah's Obedient Going Out
Spiritual leaders who go out from inner stillness not from ambition but from obedience are like Noah leaving the ark to offer sacrifice, and through abstinence they increasingly put to death the impulses of the flesh.
Those who take on the care of spiritual leadership — which is, to be clear, a spiritual action — and who go out into public life not from ambition but from the command of obedience, leaving behind the secrecy of inner stillness, are like Noah, who went out from the ark and offered sacrifice. For such people often, through abstinence, more and more put to death within themselves every impulse of the flesh, precisely because they recognize that through their outward occupation they have endured greater losses of inner stillness.
Ham's Prideful Going Out
Those who accept ecclesiastical honor for personal glory and refuse to serve the weak are like Ham, who mocked his father's nakedness and deserved a curse.
But those who accept positions of honor in the Church for their own glory, and when they see themselves placed in high regard look down on others, and refuse out of compassion to come down to the weaker members placed in the Church — they are like Ham, who mocked the nakedness of his father and for this deserved to receive a sentence of curse.
Read the original Latin
Quatuor autem modis eximus per actionem. Actiones namque aliae sunt carnales, id est quae ad usum corporis pertinent; aliae spirituales, qua pertinent ad instructionem mentis. Ad utrasque boni et mali exeunt. Qui ad explendam voluptatem terrenis actionibus foris inserviunt, similes sunt immundis animalibus, quae de arca exierunt. Qui autem eas ad usum necessitatis administrant, animalia quidem sunt, sed munda. Qui vero ecclesiastici regiminis curam, quae videlicet actio spiritualis est, agendam suscipiunt, et a secreto internae quietis, non ex ambitione, sed ex praecepto obedientiae ad publicum prodeunt; similes sunt Noe, qui exiens de arca sacrificium obtulit, quia saepe tales eo magis per abstinentiam omnes in se carnis motus occidunt, quo graviora internae quietis damna per occupationem se pertulisse cognoscunt. Illi autem qui propter gloriam propriam honores in Ecclesia suscipiunt, et cum se in sublimi positos vident, caeteros despiciunt, et infirmioribus quibusque in Ecclesia positis ex compassione condescendere nolunt, similes sunt Cham, qui denudati patris verenda derisit, et ab hoc meruit sententiam maledictionis accipere.
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.
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