Caput XLIV. Administratio temporalium haud convenit caenobitis, multoque minus virgini reclusae.
The Sickness of the Sluggish Soul
Spiritually lazy souls reject heavenly nourishment and envy those engaged in worldly affairs, embracing bitterness instead of purity.
For there are certain people who, lazy and sluggish about spiritual things — like a sinful people — feel sick at the thought of heavenly manna, and when they see others busy with worldly affairs, they envy them, tear them down, murmur against them, and carry around goads of jealousy and bitterness in exchange for the very filth by which they themselves are defiled. If any of them should happen to have taken on some administration of temporal matters, it can fittingly be said of them: "Those who were nourished in scarlet have embraced dung" (Lam.✦12 4:5).✦
The Recluse's Freedom from Worldly Care
If even monastics must limit their temporal engagements, a recluse who has wholly forsaken the world must be all the more detached from all worldly matters.
Since, then, even those who live in monasteries — who share no small part in Martha's busyness — are not permitted to be occupied with a great many things, how much less for you, who have stripped yourself entirely away from the world, and to whom it is not only not permitted to possess worldly things, but not even to see or hear them.✦345
Read the original Latin
Sunt enim quidam, qui circa spiritualia desides et pigri instar populi peccatoris, super manna coeleste nauseant, videntesque alios circa temporalia occupatos, invident, detrahunt, murmurant, et pro stercoribus, quibus ipsi foedantur, zeli et amaritudinum stimulos ferunt: de quibus si forte aliquam temporalium dispensationem fuerint adepti, convenienter dici potest: Qui nutriti erant in croceis, amplexati sunt stercora (Thren. IV, 5). Cum igitur nec illis, qui in coenobiis sunt, quibus in Martha non parva communio est, circa plurima occupari conceditur; quanto minus tibi, quae te totam de saeculo exuisti, cui non solum possidere, sed nec videre, nec audire licet quae saeculi sunt.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Lam.4.5 — Those who once dined on delicacies now perish in the streets; those who were raised in scarlet now embrace ash heaps.
- ↩Lam.4.5 — Those who once dined on delicacies now perish in the streets; those who were raised in scarlet now embrace ash heaps.
- ↩Luke.10.40 — But Martha was distracted by much service. She came up and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me."
Notes
- 1 ↩Quotation from Lamentations 4:5 (Vulgate numbering). The scarlet garments signify luxury and privilege; the dung signifies the degradation that follows spiritual unfaithfulness.
- 2 ↩pro stercoribus, quibus ipsi foedantur: ablative of exchange — they bear goads of jealousy 'in exchange for' the filth defiling them.
- 3 ↩in Martha: ablative of reference — 'in (the person of) Martha,' i.e., sharing Martha's active, worldly role (cf. Luke 10:40).
- 4 ↩non solum…sed nec: the correlative is rendered 'not only not…but not even' to preserve the force of the triple negation (nec…nec…nec) on possidere, videre, audire.
- 5 ↩Cum igitur: concessive-causal cum with inferential igitur; rendered 'Since, then' to capture both the logical resumption and the concessive nuance.
De institutione inclusarum (A Rule of Life for a Recluse) companion
A rule only lives if you keep it daily
Chosen Portion gives your new rule its anchor: one free devotional portion every day.
Aelred built his sister's day around fixed times of prayer and meditation; Chosen Portion supplies the fixed daily portion that makes a modern rule of life keepable.
- Anchor your rule with a fixed 10-minute daily portion
- Practice Aelred's threefold meditation with guided daily prompts
- Review and adjust your one-page rule after 30 days of tracked practice