Caput LXVI. De mundi et rerum praesentium contemptu.
The Unstable World and the Need for Interior Variety
Because nothing in this wretched life is stable or eternal, the soul must be nourished by variety, moving from past recollection to present experience so as to deepen love of God.
But because in this wretched life nothing is stable and nothing is eternal — because a human being never stays in the same condition — it's necessary that while we live, our soul be fed on a certain variety. So let us move from the recollection of past things to the experience of present ones, in order that from these too we all may be able to understand how much God is to be loved by us.
Detachment from the World and the Heavenly Heart
The recluse is urged to pour out all affection on God, despise the world and fleshly love, live as a citizen of heaven, and remember that the heart follows its treasure.
Turn all these things over in your mind, so that your whole affection may be poured out into him. Let the world become worthless to you; let all fleshly love grow sordid. You should not consider yourself to be in this world — you who have transferred your love to those who are in the heavens and who live for God. Where your treasure is, there also is your heart.
Daily Death and Freedom from Anxious Care
By imagining oneself dying daily, the recluse is freed from hoarding wealth and from fear of future want.
Do not enclose your mind with silver idols in a cheap purse — your mind, which can never fly across to heaven weighed down by a mass of coins: imagine yourself dying daily, and you won't think about tomorrow. Let not the barrenness of future time frighten you; let not the fear of future hunger cast down your mind.
God Alone as All in All
The recluse is to place all trust in God, who feeds the birds and clothes the lilies, making Him sole granary, storehouse, and riches — and here the chapter on present things concludes.
But put your whole trust in him alone, who feeds the birds and clothes the lilies.✦1 Let him be your granary, your storehouse, your purse, your riches; let him alone be your all in all.✦2 And let this much suffice for now concerning present things.
Read the original Latin
Verum quia in hac misera vita nihil stabile, nihil aeternum est, nunquam in eodem statu permanet homo; necesse est, ut anima nostra, dum vivimus, quadam varietate pascatur. Unde a praeteritorum recordatione ad experientiam praesentium transeamus, ut ex his quoque quantum a nobis sit Deus diligendus, omnes intelligere valeamus. Haec omnia revolve animo, ut in eum totus tuus resolvatur affectus. Vilescat tibi mundus, omnis amor carnalis sordescat. Nescias te esse in hoc mundo, quae ad illos, qui in coelis sunt et Deo vivunt, tuum amorem transtulisti. Ubi est thesaurus tuus, ibi et cor tuum. Noli cum argenteis simulacris vili marsupio tuum includere animum, qui nunquam cum nummorum pondere poterit transvolare ad coelum: puta te quotidie morituram, et de crastino non cogitabis. Non te futuri temporis sterilitas terreat, non futurae famis timor tuam mentem dejiciat.
Sed ex ipso tota fiducia tua pendeat, qui aves pascit et lilia vestit. Ipse sit horreum tuum, ipse apotheca, ipse marsupium, ipse divitiae tuae, ipse solus sit tibi omnia in omnibus. Et haec interim de praesentibus satis sint.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.6.26-Matt.6.28 — Look at the birds of the air: they do not reap, nor gather into barns, nor store away grain — and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth far more than they? Matt.6.27 — And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his lifespan? Matt.6.28 — And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they do not toil, nor do they spin.
- ↩1Cor.15.28;Col.3.11 — When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all. Col.3.11 — where there is no Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free—but Christ is all and in all.
Notes
- 1 ↩Allusion to Matthew 6:26–28 (Sermon on the Mount): 'Behold the birds of the air… Consider the lilies of the field.' Candidate scripture allusion pending Moses resolution.
- 2 ↩Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:28 and Colossians 3:11, where God/Christ is 'all in all.' The phrase here functions as a devotional summation. Candidate scripture allusion pending Moses resolution.
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