Liber Quintus, Caput II. Assignat varios considerationis gradus.
Three Rungs of the Contemplative Life
Bernard distinguishes three ascending degrees of contemplation—using the senses for salvation, reasoning toward invisible things, and soaring beyond all sense by sudden leaps—and shows how the highest contemplation masters sensuality by strength, freedom, or purity.
Great is the one who works to spend the use of the senses — as it were, the resources of certain citizens — by dispensing them for his own salvation and that of many others. No less is the one who, by philosophizing, establishes this step for himself toward those invisible things — except that one is known to be sweeter, the other more useful; one happier, the other stronger. But greatest of all is the one who, having scorned the very use of things and of the senses — as far as human frailty allows — is accustomed at times to fly away by contemplating toward those lofty things, not by step-by-step grades but by unexpected leaps.1 I think those raptures of Paul belong to this highest kind.✦ It is a rapture, not an ascent: for he himself testifies that he was caught up rather than that he ascended.✦ This is why he used to say: Whether we go beyond ourselves in mind, it is for God.✦2 Furthermore, these three things work in this way: when contemplation — though still in the place of its pilgrimage — has been made superior by zeal for virtue and by the help of grace, it either presses down sensuality so it does not grow insolent, or restrains it so it does not wander off, or flees it so it does not become stained.3 In the first, more powerful; in the second, more free; in the third, more pure.
The Twin Wings of Soaring
The soaring flight of contemplation is born from the joined wings of purity and eagerness.
That soaring flight comes, after all, from the twin wings of purity and eagerness together.
Naming the Three Considerations
Bernard names the three considerations—dispensative, estimative, and speculative—defines each by its work, and shows that only the speculative gives the others their true fruit.
Do you want these kinds of consideration distinguished by their own names? Let's call them, if you like, the first dispensative, the second estimative, and the third speculative. Their definitions will explain the meanings of these names. Dispensative consideration uses the senses and material things in an orderly and communal way to earn God's favor. Estimative consideration searches and weighs everything wisely and carefully to track God down. Speculative consideration gathers itself into itself and, insofar as it is divinely helped, withdraws from human affairs to contemplate God. I think you'll carefully notice that this is the fruit of the other two: without reference to this one, they can seem to be what they're called, but they aren't. And the first indeed sows much without the aim of this one, and reaps nothing; the second, unless it directs itself toward that one, goes but doesn't arrive.
The Slow Arrival at Tasting God
The first stage equips, the second discerns, and the third savors God; yet the earlier stages also lead to this tasting, though more slowly and with greater effort or stillness.
So what the first stage equips, the second discerns, the third savors. Yet the other stages also lead to this tasting, though more slowly: only, the first arrives with greater effort, the second with greater stillness.
Read the original Latin
Magnus ille, qui usum sensuum, quasdam veluti civium opes, expendere satagit, dispensando in suam et multorum salutem. Nec ille minor qui hunc sibi gradum ad illa invisibilia philosophando constituit: nisi quod hoc dulcius, illud utilius; hoc felicius, illud fortius esse constat. At omnium maximus, qui spreto ipso usu rerum et sensuum, quantum quidem humanae fragilitati fas est, non ascensoriis gradibus, sed inopinatis excessibus, avolare interdum contemplando ad illa sublimia consuevit. Ad hoc ultimum genus illos pertinere reor excessus Pauli. Excessus, non ascensus: nam raptum potius fuisse, quam ascendisse ipse se perhibet. Inde est quod dicebat: Sive mente excedimus, Deo. Porro haec tria ita contingunt, cum consideratio, etsi in loco peregrinationis suae, virtutis studio, et adjutorio gratiae facta superior, sensualitatem aut premit ne insolescat, aut cogit ne evagetur, aut fugit ne inquinet. In primo potentior, in secundo liberior, in tertio purior.
Puritatis siquidem et alacritatis pariter alis fit ille volatus.
Vis tibi has considerationis species propriis distingui nominibus? Dicamus, si placet, primam dispensativam, secundam aestimativam, tertiam speculativam. Horum nominum rationes definitiones declarabunt. Dispensativa est consideratio sensibus sensibilibusque rebus ordinate et socialiter utens ad promerendum Deum. Aestimativa est consideratio prudenter ac diligenter quaeque scrutans et ponderans ad vestigandum Deum. Speculativa est consideratio se in se colligens, et, quantum divinitus adjuvatur, rebus humanis eximens ad contemplandum Deum. Puto vigilanter advertis aliarum hanc esse fructum: caeteras, si non referantur ad istam, quod dicuntur videri posse, sed non esse. Et prior quidem absque intuitu hujus multa serit, et nihil metit: sequens vero nisi ad istam se dirigat, vadit, sed non evadit.
Ergo quod prima aptat, secunda odorat, tertia gustat. Ad quem tamen gustum perducunt et caeterae, etsi tardius: nisi quod prima laboriosius, secunda quietius pervenitur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩2Cor.12.2-2Cor.12.4 — I know a person in Christ fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know; God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. 2Cor.12.3 — And I know that such a person—whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know; God knows— 2Cor.12.4 — that he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a person to speak.
- ↩2Cor.12.2-2Cor.12.4 — I know a person in Christ fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know; God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. 2Cor.12.3 — And I know that such a person—whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know; God knows— 2Cor.12.4 — that he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a person to speak.
- ↩2Cor.5.13 — For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you.
Notes
- 1 ↩ascensoriis gradibus rendered as 'step-by-step grades' to capture the sense of a graded, sequential ascent; excessibus rendered as 'leaps' to convey sudden, unmediated transcendence.
- 2 ↩The Latin 'Sive mente excedimus, Deo' is elliptical. The rendering takes it as Paul's claim that any ecstatic going-beyond of the mind is directed toward or belongs to God.
- 3 ↩The three actions (premit, cogit, fugit) describe how elevated contemplation governs the lower sensory nature: suppressing pride, restraining wandering, and avoiding defilement.
De consideratione (On Consideration) companion
Make consideration a daily appointment
Bernard told Eugene to set aside time every day. Chosen Portion holds that time for you, free.
Bernard's core prescription — a fixed daily time reserved for examining the soul — is exactly the habit Chosen Portion installs with its daily devotional portion.
- One 10-minute daily portion for self-examination and prayer
- Reflection prompts drawn from historic texts, not improvised journaling
- A visible streak that protects the daily interval Bernard insisted on