De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae
Praying for the Unrepentant
We must never cease praying for those who die without repentance, following Paul's example of mourning for the unrepentant.
But far be it from us to stop praying even for such people — whether openly or in the quiet of our own hearts — when even Paul mourned for those he knew to be dead without repentance.✦
The Limits of Exclusion
Even those who exclude themselves from common prayer cannot be entirely shut out from the reach of loving affection.
For even though they shut themselves out of the common prayers, they cannot entirely shut themselves out of the affections.
The Danger of Being Beyond the Church's Open Prayers
Those for whom the Church cannot pray openly face grave peril, since the Church confidently prays even for Jews, heretics, and pagans, yet on Good Friday omits the excommunicated entirely.
Let them consider, nevertheless, what danger they are in — those for whom the Church does not dare to pray openly — when the same Church prays confidently even for Jews, for heretics, and for pagans. For when on Good Friday prayer is offered by name for all manner of evils, no mention whatsoever is made of the excommunicated.
Read the original Latin
Absit autem a nobis, ut etiam pro talibus, etsi palam non praesumimus, vel in cordibus nostris orare cessemus, cum Paulus eos quoque lugeret, quos sine paenitentia mortuos sciret. Etsi enim a communibus orationibus ipsi se excludunt, sed ab affectibus omnino non possunt. Viderint tamen in quanto periculo sint, pro quibus Ecclesia palam orare non audeat, quae fidenter etiam pro Iudaeis, pro haereticis, pro gentilibus orat. Cum enim in Parasceve nominatim oretur pro quibuslibet malis, nulla tamen mentio fit de excommunicatis.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Cor.5.1-1Cor.5.5;2Cor.7.9-2Cor.7.10 — It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even among the Gentiles—that a man has his father's wife! 1Cor.5.2 — And you are arrogant. Should you not rather have mourned, so that the one who did this deed might be removed from among you? 1Cor.5.3 — For though I am absent in body, yet present in spirit, I have already passed judgment on the one who did this deed, just as if I were present. 1Cor.5.4 — When you are gathered in the name of our Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, 1Cor.5.5 — Hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. 2Cor.7.9 — Now I rejoice—not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved unto repentance; for you were grieved according to God, so that in nothing you might be put to loss by us. 2Cor.7.10 — For grief in a godly way produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but the grief of the world produces death.
De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae (On the Steps of Humility and Pride) companion
Humility is climbed one day at a time
Take the next step each morning with a free daily devotional in Chosen Portion.
Bernard frames humility as a ladder climbed by small repeated acts; Chosen Portion turns that into practice with one daily devotional step at a time.
- A daily 10-minute portion focused on one virtue at a time
- Re-take the 12-step self-check monthly and see real movement
- Historic texts like Bernard's, one readable portion per day