Quid singulis temporibus agendum
The Rhythm of Night and Day
The monastic life follows a sacred rhythm: night is given to silence, rest, and private prayer, while day calls the community together for labor, mutual edification, and the visible imitation of good works.
In the same way, the times for acting must also be distinguished. The way of living at night is one thing; the way of living during the day is another. Night is a time for silence and rest. Day is a time for labor, for activity, and for work. At night people ought to be alone with themselves, either refreshing their weary limbs with sleep, or exercising their minds in silence through prayers or holy meditations. But during the day they come together from their private quarters into one place, and they show themselves to one another, to be seen and imitated. Then is the time for examples of good works; then is the time for giving and receiving words of exhortation, one from another. Then anyone who pries into others' conduct is rightly called shameless; then anyone who pretends not to imitate the good deeds of others, as far as it is fitting to do so, is deservedly called sluggish and useless.
Before and After the Table; Feast Days and Work Days
Just as conduct must shift before and after meals, so too feast days and ordinary work days each demand their own spirit, posture, and discipline — and the worldly mind fails at both by refusing rest on feasts and shirking labor on work days.
And yet our expression after we've eaten shouldn't be the same as it was before we took food. Before a meal it's fitting that we be more cheerful, so that our very abstinence doesn't seem harsh and burdensome; but afterward, more restrained and quiet, so that we aren't thought to have inflamed ourselves with the vice of gluttony through overindulgence. Before a meal is the time for teaching and prayer; afterward, for work — because then too the mind needs exercise, while it's still light and ready for spiritual study, and then the flesh must be held in check, when the heat of its impulse has been further stirred up by food. In the same way, feast days require a different kind of study and a different manner of conduct, and they call for a different spirit than days in which one is free to work. On those days we should gather at church more eagerly and gladly, attend to the celebration of the divine mysteries with greater devotion, and persevere longer in prayer — showing greater devotion to divine worship through our bearing, our walk, and our demeanor: doing nothing that isn't holy, nothing that isn't set apart for God, nothing that isn't ordered. We should restrain the tongue from idle talk, keep our feet from wandering and roaming, compose our eyes, bow our heads, lift up our minds — and, in a word, dedicate every action and every movement of heart and body alike to the service of God, and (as I might put it) honor feast days with a certain newness of life.1 But on the other days, when work is permitted, no one should appear idle at all; rather, each person should apply themselves to the task assigned to them — not the one they've chosen for themselves — working to the extent that their knowledge and physical strength allow. For just as the rest of leisure adds beauty to feast days, so labor in work adorns ordinary days — with the result that on feast days, anyone who refuses to rest becomes the judge of their own vanity, and on workdays, anyone who hasn't been diligent becomes a witness to their own laziness. Worldly minds are driven by vanity so that they won't even rest on those days, and bound by laziness so that they won't exert themselves in good work on the others.
The Necessity of Right Timing
Discernment of times is essential to the spiritual life, for even a good deed done at the wrong moment becomes blameworthy.
So discernment of times is not something to be treated carelessly in the work of doing good; for just as a bad deed is praiseworthy at no time, so a good deed is judged somewhat worthy of blame if it is not done at the right moment.23
Read the original Latin
Similiter quoque et tempora agendi discernenda sunt. Alius est modus vivendi in nocte, alius in die. Nox tempus est silentii et quietis. Dies tempus laboris, et motionis, et operis. In nocte secum debent esse homines, et aut fessa membra somno reficere, aut orationibus vel meditationibus sanctis in silentio animum exercere. In die vero de secreto suo in unum coeunt, et mutuo videndos se et imitandos ostendunt. Tunc exempla bonorum operum, tunc exhortationes verborum dare et accipere alium alii et alium ab alio licet. Tunc qui alienos actus scrutatur, impudens jure dicitur; tunc qui alienos actus (quantum expedit) imitari dissimulat, torpens et inutilis merito nominatur.
Sed nec eadem esse debet facies nostra postquam refecti sumus, quae fuit priusquam cibum sumpsimus. Ante sumptum cibum magis hilares nos esse convenit, ne ipsa nostra abstinentia gravis et molesta videatur; post vero magis modestos et tacitos, ne per gulae vitium crapula nos inflammasse putetur. Ante sumptum cibum, doctrinae et orationis tempus est; post vero operis, quia et tunc exercendus est animus, dum adhuc ad studium spiritale levis est, et tunc reprimenda est caro, quando calor incentivi ejus per cibum amplius excitatus est. Sic et festi dies aliud studium et alium conversationis modum exigunt, atque alium ii in quibus operari licet, exposcunt. In illis nos oportet ad ecclesiam studiosius et alacrius convenire, et ad celebranda divina mysteria devotius intendere, atque in oratione diutius perseverare, habitu, incessu et acte majorem devotionem erga cultum divinum demonstrare, nihil non sanctum, nihil non divinum; nihil non ordinatum agere, linguam a vanitoquio cohibere, pedes ab excursu et discursu stringere, oculos comprimere, vultum inclinare, mentem erigere, omnem denique actum et omnem motum cordis pariter et corporis ministerio divino mancipare, atque (ut ita dicam) quadam conversationis novitate festos dies honorare. In caeteris vero diebus quibus operari licet, nullus omnino otiosus apparere, sed unusquisque in eo quod sibi injunctum fuerit, non quod ipse elegerit, opere (quantum scientiae et virium suarum possibilitas suppetit) sese debet exercere. Quantum enim decoris addit diebus festis quies vacationis, tantum ornamenti confert diebus caeteris labor operis; ita ut et in illis quisquis noluerit esse quietus, judex sit vanitatis suae, et in istis qui non fuerit studiosus, testis pigritiae. Carnales siquidem mentes, ne vel in illis diebus quiescant, vanitas exagitat, vel ne in istis in bono opere se exerceant, pigritia ligat.
Quapropter non negligenter quidem habenda est in bono opere discretio temporum; quia, sicut malum opus nullo tempore laudabile est, ita bonum opus quodammodo reprehensione dignum judicatur, si tempore opportuno factum non est.
Notes
- 1 ↩vanitoquio (a rare compound: vani- + loquium) rendered as 'idle talk' to capture speech that is both vain and frivolous.
- 2 ↩Quapropter ('for which reason / so') carries the force of a conclusion drawn from the preceding section's discussion of feast days and workdays; rendered as 'So' to preserve the logical link without stiffness.
- 3 ↩Discretio temporum ('discernment of times') preserves the full phrase rather than collapsing it into 'timing' or 'good judgment,' since the Latin points to a spiritual discipline of reading the right moment, not merely practical prudence.
De Institutione Novitiorum (On the Instruction of Novices) companion
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