Liber Primus, Caput VII. Pietati et rerum aeternarum considerationi in primis vacandum esse.
The Call to Reserve Time for Reflection
Bernard warns that while outward duties may press upon us, we must not surrender ourselves entirely to activity but reserve time for reflection.
But there's a difference between being pulled into these matters on the side, when some pressing cause demands it, and throwing yourself into them on your own initiative, as though they were great and worthy undertakings pursued with such effort and intention. And so I would say these things and countless others like them, if I were saying things that are strong, if I were saying things that are right, if I were saying things that are pure. But now, since these are evil days, for the present it is enough to have been warned: not to give yourself over entirely or always to activity, but to set aside something of yourself and your heart and your time for reflection.✦ I say this looking at necessity, not at what is fair — although there's nothing unfair about yielding to necessity.
Piety as the Highest Priority
Piety, effective for all things, must be preferred above every circumstance and is defined as giving oneself to reflection.
For if I could say what I ought, sound reason itself shows beyond any dispute that piety — which is effective for everything — should be preferred above absolutely everything and in every circumstance, and should be cultivated either alone or above all else. You ask what piety is? Giving yourself to reflection. You might say that in this I disagree with the one who defines piety as the worship of God.
Be Still and Know
True worship of God is found in stillness and contemplation, as the Psalm commands: 'Be still, and know that I am God.'
That's not the case. If you think carefully about it, I've expressed his meaning in my own words — though only in part. What's more relevant to the worship of God than what he himself urges in the Psalm? Be still, and know that I am God.✦ And surely that is the foremost element within the aspects of contemplation.
Contemplation Orders All Things
Contemplation foresees and pre-orders action, cleansing the mind at its source and preventing rash or dangerous undertakings.
After all, what is so powerful for every purpose as that which, by a kind of generous anticipation, makes even the aspects of action its own — going before them, as it were, and preordering what must be done? Necessarily so — otherwise, things that could have been helpful if foreseen and thought through beforehand may instead become rushed and more dangerous. And I have no doubt this has frequently happened to you, if you recall the causes at work in your own actions, and in every major undertaking or weighty deliberation. And first of all, contemplation cleanses its very source — that is, the mind from which it arises.
The Fruits of Contemplation
Contemplation guides emotion, corrects character, orders life, discerns truth from falsehood, and foresees adversity with fortitude and prudence.
Then it guides your emotions, directs your actions, corrects your excesses, shapes your character, honors and orders your life, and finally bestows knowledge of both divine and human things alike. This is what separates what compels confused things, gathers what gapes open, collects what is scattered, searches into what is hidden, tracks what is true, examines what is probable, and investigates what is feigned and counterfeit. This is what pre-orders things to be done and reconsiders things already done, so that nothing remains in the mind either uncorrected or in need of correction. This is what foresees adversity in prosperous times and, in adversity, seems almost unaware of it: the one belongs to fortitude, the other to prudence.
Read the original Latin
Sed aliud est incidenter excurrere in ista, causa quidem urgente, aliud ultro incumbere istis, tanquam magnis dignisque tali et talium intentione rebus. Itaque haec et innumera talia dicerem, si fortia dicerem, si recta, si sincera. Nunc autem quoniam dies mali sunt, sufficit interim admonitum esse, non totum te, nec semper dare actioni: sed considerationi aliquid tui et cordis, et temporis sequestrare. Hoc autem dico necessitatem intuens, non aequitatem: quanquam non sit praeter aequum, necessitati cedere. Nam si liceret quod deceret, absolute per omnia et in omnibus praeferendam, et vel solam, vel maxime colendam eam, quae ad omnia valet, id est pietatem, prorsus irrefragabilis ratio monstrat. Quid sit pietas quaeris? Vacare considerationi. Dicas forsitan in hoc dissentire me ab illo, qui pietatem definit cultum Dei.
Non est ita. Si bene consideras, illius sensum meis expressi verbis, etsi tamen ex parte. Quid tam pertinens ad cultum Dei, quam quod ipse hortatur in Psalmo. Vacate, et videte quoniam ego sum Deus? quod sane in partibus considerationis praecipuum est. Quid denique tam valens ad omnia, quam quae ipsius quoque actionis partes benigna quadam praesumptione suas facit, praeagendo quodammodo, et praeordinando quae agenda sunt? Necessario sane; ne forte quae et praevisa et praemeditata poterant esse proficuo, praecipitata magis periculo fiant: quod tibimet, si recordaris in ipsis actionibus causarum, et in magnis quibusque negotiis, magnarumve consiliis rerum frequenter accidisse non ambigo. Et primum quidem ipsum fontem suum, id est mentem, de qua oritur, purificat consideratio.
Deinde regit affectus, dirigit actus, corrigit excessus, componit mores, vitam honestat et ordinat, postremo divinarum pariter et humanarum rerum scientiam confert. Haec est quae confusa disterminat, hiantia cogit, sparsa colligit, secreta rimatur, vera vestigat, verisimilia examinat, ficta et fucata explorat. Haec est quae agenda praeordinat, acta recogitat, ut nihil in mente resideat aut incorrectum, aut correctione egens. Haec est quae in prosperis adversa praesentit, in adversis quasi non sentit: quorum alterum fortitudinis; alterum prudentiae est.
Scripture echoes
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