De studio vel meditacione.
The Nature and Blessing of Meditation
Meditation is defined as deliberate reflection that begins in reading but transcends it, completing learning and offering deep consolation, as affirmed by Jerome's counsel on Scripture.
Meditation, as Hugo says, 'is frequent reflection with deliberation, which prudently investigates the cause and origin and manner and usefulness of each thing.'1 It starts with reading, but it isn't bound by any rules or precepts of reading.2 . . . So the beginning of learning lies in reading; its completion in meditation — which, once a person has learned to love it intimately, makes life deeply pleasant and provides the greatest consolation in times of trouble.3 This is from Hugo.4 Hence also that saying of Jerome on the letter to the Ephesians: 'If there is anything,' he says, 'that can hold a wise man in this life and persuade him to remain steady in heart amid the pressures and storms of the world, I consider that to be the foremost thing — meditation and knowledge of the Scriptures.'56
Ruminating on What We Have Read
Drawing on Ambrose, the reader is urged not to read carelessly but to recall and inwardly digest what has been read, like animals chewing the cud.
And so, as Ambrose says of the blessed Immaculate One, "let us not pass through what we read in a perfunctory way." . . But even when the book is no longer in our hands, let us call to mind what we have read, and like animals — . . what is clean. .
Memory as Treasury and Meditation Without Books
Bernard of Clairvaux teaches that daily reading should deposit spiritual food in memory for meditation, which can advance the wise even beyond books.
. Let us draw from the storehouse of our memory spiritual food to meditate upon. Likewise, blessed Bernard writes in his letter to the Carthusians: 'From daily reading, something must be committed to the belly of memory, . . something that suits your purpose and advances your intention, something that holds your mind so that you have no desire to think about other things.' These are Bernard's words. Therefore, through meditation a wise person can advance even without books, and sometimes make better progress.
Learning from Things Themselves
Varro and Aristotle are cited to show that direct engagement with reality teaches more than books alone, which contain only starting principles.
As Varro tells his Athenian reader: 'It makes a great deal of difference whether you look at the thing itself or examine books.' . . Of course, the records of the sciences are nothing but poor things, containing only the principles to be investigated, so that from these the mind may take the beginnings of engaging in business. . . . And that's why studies are interrupted only so much, lest they be neglected.
The Woods and the Stones: Creation as Teacher
Nature delights in variety, and Bernard teaches that woods and stones instruct more than teachers, as Isaac went out to meditate in the field.
. . Nature does love variety. That's from Varro. Along the same lines, Aristotle — as we read — said this when Alexander asked him by what teacher he might make progress in learning: 'Things themselves, which have never learned how to lie.' And so Isaac went out to meditate in the field, as we read in Genesis 28.✦ And so blessed Bernard, in his letter to Henry, says: 'Believe one who has experience.' You'll find more in the woods than in books.
Meditation Through the Night
Bernard counsels carrying meditation into sleep so that even dreams are holy, and Cicero defines study as the mind's constant application.
Wood and stone will teach you things you could never hear from teachers. These words are from Blessed Bernard. The same Bernard, in his letter to the Carthusians: "Therefore, when you are about to go to sleep, always carry something in memory or meditation into which you may gently fall asleep — something that it will not hurt to even dream about, and that, receiving you as you wake, may restore you to the state of yesterday's intention." For so the night will be bright as day for you, and your night will be counted as illumination in your delights. Because earnest meditation powerfully focuses the mind on the things to be investigated, in accord with that saying of Cicero's: "Study is the constant and vehement application of the mind to some matter." Occupation, etc. Occupation, etc. Occupation, etc.
Moderating Study and Sleep in the Young
Excessive study must be moderated in youth to avoid harming body and mind, and the times for study and sleep must be rightly ordered.
This especially needs to be moderated in boys and young men, so that excessive strain doesn't harm the body, or even destroy the brain's memory center, or rob sleep of its nourishment, following that passage from Ecclesiasticus 31: 'Sleeplessness devoted to honor will waste the flesh, and the thought of it will steal away sleep.' So then, the periods of study and of sleep should be moderated, so that sleep isn't indulged during the time set aside for study, nor is the time owed to sleep or reading devoted to study. Whence the Apostle Peter says in the Itinerary: 'Great care must be taken,' he says, 'lest anyone, presuming on these periods which are customarily kept for study, add to sleep and diminish the time for watching.' This too should be observed, that sleep isn't interrupted by food that hasn't yet been digested, lest the undigested body weigh down the mind and the raw vapor rising from it render the inner sense confused and clouded. So it is right that this portion be fostered in its proper time, so that, once what is owed to it has been sufficiently fulfilled, the body may be able to render the mind its just service in the remaining hours. These are his. Likewise Cassian in Book 3 of the Institutes of Monks: 'It is fitting with every diligence to guard …' .
Guarding Against Excessive Daytime Sleep
Cassian warns against reclaiming at night the sleep lost through daytime idleness, lest the body be denied what is necessary.
. We shouldn't take back the sleep we've withdrawn from the night during the day, driven by the weariness and emptiness of our waking hours, and seem to have taken away not so much rest from the body as the time of quiet and the refreshment of the night. . . For the whole will without doubt be compelled to render to this flesh, whoever has not reasonably withdrawn a part from it, but has attempted to deny it the whole, and — . . he will have wished to cut away not what is superfluous, but what is necessary.
The Sweetness of Wisdom and the Danger of Difficult Matters
Love of wisdom may rightly diminish sleep and food, but the young must avoid overly difficult meditation, and Hugh of St. Victor describes how reading supplies material while meditation fits it together.
This is Cassian. It shouldn't surprise you if meditation on or study of wisdom — because of love and the mind's intense application — reduces or takes away sleep and even food. As Lactantius says in his book On False Religion: 'No food for the soul is sweeter than the knowledge of truth.' . . But ignorance of oneself is the cause of corruption. In short, younger people must beware not only of excessively prolonging their vigils in reading or meditation, but also of meditation on difficult subjects itself — in line with that saying of blessed Bernard quoted above. 'Meditation on difficult matters,' he says, 'weary the mind — they do not restore a tender spirit. They break resolve and dull the senses.' So, as Hugh says in his treatise On Threefold Meditation: 'Reading supplies the material for coming to know the truth; meditation fits it together.'
A Brief Conclusion
The chapter closes with a succinct statement that enough has been said on reading and meditation.
Let these remarks on reading and meditation suffice.
Read the original Latin
Meditacio autem, ut dicit hugo, ‘est frequens cogitacio cum consilio , que causam et originem ac modum et utilitatem cuiusque rei prudenter inuestigat. Hec principium sumit a lectione, nullis tamen restringitur regulis ut preceptis lectionis. . . . Principium ergo doctrine est in lectione, consummacio in meditatione, quam cum quis familiarius amare didicerit, iocundam ualde reddit uitam et maximam in tribulacione prestat consolacionem.’ Hec hugo. Hinc est et illud ieronimi super epistolam ad ephesios: ‘Si quicquam est,’ inquit, ‘quod in hac uita sapientem uirum teneat et inter pressuras ac turbines mundi equo animo manere persuadeat, id esse uel primum reor meditacionem et scienciam scripturarum.’
Itaque, sicut dicit ambrosius super beati immaculati, ‘non perfunctorie transeamus, que legimus . . . sed eciam, cum abest codex manibus, ea, que legimus, in memoriam reuocemus et tanquam animalia . . . munda . .
. de nostre memorie thesauro ruminandum nobis pabulum spirituale promamus.’ Item beatus bernardus in epistola ad cartusienses: ‘De cotidiana,’ inquit, ‘lectione dimittendum est aliquid in ventrem memorie, . . . quod proposito conueniat et intencioni proficiat, quodque animum detineat, ut aliena cogitare non libeat.’ Hec bernardus. Igitur in meditacione potest homo sapiens eciam sine libris et aliquando melius proficere.
ut enim dicit uarro ad atheniensem auditorem: ‘multum interest, utrum rem ipsam aut libros inspicias . . . nempe non nisi paupercula sunt scienciarum monimenta, que inquirendorum principia continent, ut ab hiis sumat animus negociandi principia. . . . Et ideo tantum studia intermittantur, ne obmittantur .
. . Gaudet quippe natura varietate.’ Hec uarro. Cui consonat, quod aristotiles, ut legitur, alexandro sciscitante, quo docente scientem se proficeretur, ‘rebus,’ inquit, ‘ipsis, que non nouerunt mentiri.’ unde et ysaac egressus est ad meditandum in agro, sicut legitur in genesi xxviii. Hinc et beatus bernardus in epistola ad henricum: ‘Experto,’ inquit, ‘crede. Aliquid amplius inuenies in siluis quam in libris.
ligna lapidesque docebunt te, que non posses a magistris audire.’ hec beatus bernardus. Idem in epistola ad cartusienses: ‘Iturus igitur ad sompnum semper aliquid memoria uel cogitacione defer, in qua placide obdormias, quod non nunquam etiam sompniare iuuet, quod eciam euigilantem te excipiens in statum hesterne intencionis restituat. Sic enim tibi nox sicut dies illuminabitur et nox illuminacio tua in deliciis tuis conputabitur.’ Quia uero studiosa meditacio uehementer animum applicat circa inuestiganda, iuxta illud tullij: ‘studium est assidua et uehemens animi ad rem aliquam applicata . . . occupacio etc.
,’ moderanda est precipue in pueris ac iuuenibus, ne nimia uexacione corpori noceat, vel etiam cellulam cerebri memorialem destruat, uel sompni nutrimentum auferat, iuxta illud ecclesiastici xxxi: ‘uigilia honestatis tabefaciet carnes et cogitatus illius auferet sompnium.’ Sic itaque spacia studij et sompni moderentur, ut nec tempore studio deputato sompno indulgeatur, nec tempore sompno debito lectioni uel studio insistatur. unde petrus apostolus in itinerario: ‘Curandum est,’ inquit, ‘magnopere, ne quis presumens ex hiis spaciis, que ad studendum habere solet, sompno addat et vigilandi tempus imminuat. Illud quoque est obseruandum, ne forte si nondum decoctis cibis interrumpantur sompni, mentem aggrauet corpus indigestum et crudos exhalans spiritus sensum interiorem confusum reddat et turbidum. Rectum ergo est, ut spacio conpetenti pars ista foueatur, quo menti corpus in reliquis possit iustum exhibere ministerium expletis sufficienter hiis, que sibi debentur.’ hec ille. Item cassianus in libro de institutis monachorum iiio: ‘Omni obseruatione conuenit custodire . .
. ne sompnum, quem nocti subtraximus, resumere per diem uigiliarum lassitudine et inanitate conpulsi non tam requiem corpori subtraxisse, quam quietis tempus ac refectionem nocturnam uideamur conmutasse . . . Totum enim huic carni procul dubio cogetur reddere, quisquis ei non racionabiliter partem subtrahere, sed totum temptauerit denegare et . . . non superflua, sed necessaria uoluerit amputare.’
hec cassianus. Non est autem mirandum, si meditacio uel studium sapiencie propter amorem ac uehementem animi applicacionem minuit uel aufert sompnum et eciam cibum, quia, sicut dicit lactancius in libro de falsa religione: ‘nullus est suauior anime cibus quam cognicio veritatis . . . ignorancia uero sui causa est prauitatis.’ Denique non solum cauenda est iunioribus nimia uigiliarum in lectione uel meditacione protractio, sed etiam ipsa rerum difficilium meditacio, iuxta illud beati bernardi superius positum. ‘Difficilium,’ inquit, ‘meditacio scripturarum fatigat, non reficit teneriorem animum, frangit intencionem, hebetat sensum.’ Itaque, sicut dicit hugo in tractatu de triplici meditacione, ‘lectio quidem materiam ad veritatem cognoscendam ministrat, meditacio uero coaptat.’
hec de lectione et meditacione sufficiant.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.24.63 — And Isaac went out to walk in the field toward evening, and he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, camels were coming.
Notes
- 1 ↩Cogitacio rendered as 'reflection' rather than 'thought' to capture the sustained, deliberate quality of meditacio. Consilio rendered as 'deliberation' to convey purposeful reasoning.
- 2 ↩Hec ('this') refers back to meditacio from the previous sentence. Principium sumit a lectione: 'takes its beginning from reading' — the metaphor of drawing a starting point from lectio is preserved.
- 3 ↩Familiarius amare didicerit: 'has learned to love it intimately' — familiarius conveys a personal, close acquaintance. Iocundam ualde reddit uitam: 'makes life deeply pleasant' — ualde intensifies iocundam. Consolacionem rendered as 'consolation' in keeping with the devotional register.
- 4 ↩Hec hugo: a source attribution formula. The preceding quotation (s1 and s6) is attributed to Hugo of St. Victor or a similar Hugo.
- 5 ↩Pressuras ac turbines mundi: 'the pressures and storms of the world' — pressuras as external burdens, turbines as violent upheavals. Equo animo manere: 'remain steady in heart' — equo animo is an idiom for composure. Vel primum reor: 'I consider that to be the foremost thing' — vel here has the sense of 'indeed' or 'even,' intensifying primum.
- 6 ↩The quotation is attributed to Jerome's commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians. The reference is to Jerome's Commentarii in Epistolam ad Ephesios.
De eruditione filiorum nobilium (On the Education of Noble Children) companion
Formation starts with the parents' own practice
Model a daily devotional habit your children can see — Chosen Portion makes it a free 10-minute routine.
Vincent taught that children are formed by the daily practices of their household; Chosen Portion gives parents the daily devotional practice that anchors that household rhythm.
- A short daily devotional you can read before the kids wake up
- Family-friendly portions from the same historic tradition Vincent drew on
- Build a visible 30-day habit your children can imitate