De modo meditandi vitam Christi, et de conclusione opusculi
A Method for Meditating on Christ's Life
The author presents a practical method for meditating on the Gospel narrative, advising the reader to imagine themselves present at Christ's life events and to follow a weekly schedule of meditations.
But I want to hand you a method you can follow in meditating on the things I've said: so that if you ever imagine you've grasped and reached everything you'll find above, you don't overlook it all as though beneath some great weight — especially since I believe the meditations laid out above fit within the space of a single week. So you should know that for meditation it's enough to focus only on what the Lord did, or what happened concerning him, or what was said about him according to the Gospel narrative — picturing yourself as present there, as though these things were happening right before you, just as they naturally come to mind when you think them over simply and attentively. As for the moral reflections and authorities I've included in this work for your instruction, it isn't helpful to bring them into your meditation, unless some virtue to be embraced or vice to be shunned presents itself right at the first thought that arises. So in meditating on these things, you can then spend an hour on the moral reflections and authorities afterward within the same day, and commit them carefully to memory. And this is altogether fitting to do, because they are most beautiful and can shape your whole spiritual life, as it were. Divide the meditations then like this: on Monday, beginning the meditation, continue up to the flight of the Lord into Egypt. And after that event has passed, on Tuesday, returning to it, you'll meditate up to the opening of the scroll. .
The Weekly Rhythm of Meditation
The weekly meditation plan is completed, assigning each day from Monday to Sunday to successive events in Christ's life from the flight into Egypt through the Resurrection.
. On the day of the synagogue; on Wednesday, from there up to the ministry of Mary and Martha; on Thursday from there, onward. Up through the Passion on Friday; and on Friday and Saturday, up to the Resurrection; but on Sunday itself, the Resurrection, and all the way to the end. And so you should do this through individual weeks, to make the meditations familiar to you: because the more you do, the more easily and more joyfully they will come to you. Gladly dwell with the Lord Jesus, and strive to place the life of him — as the Gospel — in your heart inseparably, for the imitation of blessed Cecilia.
Bernard of Clairvaux and the Sealed Book
The author turns to Bernard of Clairvaux, drawing on his commentary on the Song of Songs to explain how the Bridegroom's name shines like oil, feeds like food, and soothes like medicine.
For the rest, it's time to seal the book; but let that not be done by my words — let it come from the breasts of father Bernard, from which I have plucked for you so many flowers, and so beautiful. Let the conclusion be made in the name of him who is the sealed book, our Lord Jesus Christ, to whose praise the whole book is written.✦ Whence blessed Bernard, as far as the present subject matter is concerned, speaks thus on that word: 'Oil poured out is your name.' Without doubt there's a likeness between the oil and the name of the Bridegroom, and the Holy Spirit did not compare them to each other idly.✦ I, however, say that in the threefold quality of oil — which shines, feeds, and anoints — if you do not have it better: it cherished the fire, nourished the flesh, soothed the pain; light, food, medicine.
The Name of Jesus as Light
Drawing on Bernard and Scripture, the author shows how the name of Jesus is a light that has enlightened the whole world and transforms believers from darkness into light.
See now the very same thing concerning the Bridegroom's name: preaching shines, reflection feeds. u. 6. — s Epfies. There. Calling on it soothes and anoints. And let us run through the wonderful folds of the throat. Where do you think such a great and sudden light of faith came into the whole world, if not from the preaching of Jesus? Has not God called us in the light of this name into his wonderful light?✦ Since we have been enlightened by these things, and seeing the light in that very light, Paul may rightly say: 'You were once darkness, but now — light in the Lord.'✦
The Name of Jesus as Food and Medicine
The name of Jesus is shown to be not only light but also spiritual food and medicine, nourishing the mind and seasoning all reading, discourse, and thought.
And further on: 'The name of Jesus isn't only light — it's also food.' Aren't you strengthened every single time you call it to mind? What so richly nourishes the mind of one who meditates? What so restores the practiced senses, strengthens the virtues, enlivens good and honorable character, and fosters pure affections? Every food of the soul is dry if it isn't poured over with that oil; it's tasteless if it isn't seasoned with this salt. If you write, it has no savor for me, unless I read Jesus there. If you argue or discuss, it holds no meaning for me, unless Jesus is heard there. Jesus is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, and jubilation in the heart — but he is also Jesus the medicine.
The Healing Power of Jesus' Name in Affliction
The author offers a series of rhetorical invocations showing how calling on Jesus' name heals sadness, dispels despair, restores tears, drives away fear, and supplies fortitude in doubt and adversity.
Is any of you sad? Let him come into the heart of Jesus, and from there leap into his mouth. And look: at the rising of this name, which is light, every cloud scatters and the sky clears. Whoever slips into sin runs further, besides, into the snare of death through despair. Won't anyone who calls on the name of Jesus immediately breathe back to life? Who was ever standing before the saving face of this name and was visited, as so often happens, by hardness of heart, the torpor of sloth, the rancor of the soul, and the listlessness of acedia? When Jesus is invoked, for someone whose fountain of tears had perhaps dried up, didn't it immediately burst forth more abundant and flow yet sweeter? When someone is trembling and anxious in danger, doesn't the invoking of that powerful name immediately supply confidence and drive fear away? When someone is burning and wavering in doubt, doesn't fortitude spring forth at the invoking of that glorious name? When someone is distrustful in adversity, if the name of help has sounded, has fortitude been lacking? Surely these are the diseases and weaknesses of the soul — and that name is the medicine. In short, you're free to put it to the test.
Jesus' Name as Remedy for the Soul's Diseases
The healing power of Jesus' name is extended to every vice—anger, pride, envy, lust, greed—and the reader is invited to test this remedy, drawing both moral example from Christ the man and divine help from Christ the mighty one.
"Call upon me," he says, "in the day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you will honor me."✦ Nothing so restrains the surge of anger, calms the swelling of pride, heals the wound of envy, checks the flow of self-indulgence, extinguishes the flame of lust, tempers the pull of greed, and puts to flight the itch of every kind of unseemliness. For when I name Jesus, I set before myself a man — meek and humble in heart, kind, sober, chaste, merciful, and marked by every purity and holiness — and that same person does not possess the thing that this is.✦ Nor if— —nor was it present. There. Goes. Freed. God almighty, who by his own example may heal me, and may strengthen me by his help. All these things resound to me when Jesus has sounded forth. So I take for myself examples from the man, and help from the mighty one—the former as coloring agents, the latter as the material with which I sharpen them—and I make a compound that no physician could make the like of.
Treasuring the Name of Jesus
The reader is urged to keep the name of Jesus always close, as a seal upon the heart and arm, a remedy for every spiritual plague, and a means of correcting all crooked actions, culminating in a Christological hymn of praise.
This is the remedy you have, O my soul — a treasure stored in the vessel of this name, which is Jesus: truly a healing one, and one that will never be found powerless against any plague of yours. Let it always be in your bosom, always in your hand, so that all your senses and actions may be directed toward Jesus. In fact, you are invited: 'Set me,' he says, 'as a seal upon your arm.'✦ But this, another time. Now indeed you have that from which both your arm and your heart may be healed. You have, I say, in the name of Jesus the means by which you may correct your crooked actions or bring your less-than-perfect ones to completion, and likewise the means by which you may guard your senses lest they be corrupted — or if they are corrupted, heal them. The same one says: 'How beautiful you are to your angels, Lord Jesus, in the form of God, in the day of your eternity, in the splendors of the saints — begotten before Lucifer, splendor and figure of the substance of the Father, and indeed unending, the very least adorned, the brightness of eternal life!'✦ How beautiful you are to me, beyond even the very placing of your beauty!
The Beauty of the Self-Emptying Christ
In a final lyrical meditation, the author marvels at the beauty of Christ who emptied himself, shining all the more brightly, rising as the star from Jacob and the flower from Jesse's root.
For once you emptied yourself, once you stripped away the natural rays, the unfailing light, there piety shone all the brighter, there love blazed more strongly, there grace radiated more fully. How dear you rise to me, star from Jacob! How bright the flower you come forth from Jesse's root! How pleasant your light in you —
Read the original Latin
Volo autem tibi tradere modum, quem teneas in meditando praedicta: ne si forte teipsam crederes pertingere et extendi ad omnia, quae supra reperies, quasi per molem gravem negligereris, maxime cum credam meditationibus praedictis unius hebdomadae spatium convenire. Igitur scire debes, quod meditari sufficit solum factum quod Dominus fecit vel circa eum contigit fieri vel dici secundum liistoriam cvangelicam, te ibidem prKsentem exhibendo, ac si in tua praesentia fierent, prout simpliciler animo in dictis cogitanti occurrit. Moralitates autem et auctoritates, quas ad tuam instructionem in hoc opere posui, non expedit in meditationem adduci, nisi si qua virtus amplectenda, vel vitium detestandum, ipsa prima facie cogitationis occurrnt. Eh'ges ergo in his meditandis, ahquam horam quieam, postea infra diem poteris discere moraUtatem et auctoritates, et eas studiose memoria3 commendare. Quod omninote facere convenit, quia pulcherrimas sunt, et qucB tequasi in tota vita spirituaU valeant informare. jodita- Meditationes vero sic divide, ut die Lunae in"">"' cipiens, procurras usque ad fugam Domini in ihrjsti iEgyptum. Et eo ibi dimisso, die Martis, pro eo * "^" rediens, mediteris usque ad apertionem libri " dies. .
. f ebdo- m synagoga; die Mercuru exmde, usque m minadae nisterium Mariae et Marthae; die Jovis abinde, listrilenda;. usquc ad passioucm; die Veneris et Sabbati, usque ad resurrectionem; die vero Dominica, ipsam resurrectionem, et usque in finem; et sic per singulas hebdomadas facias, ut ipsa meditationes tibi reddas famihares: quod quanto magis facies, tanto facilius tibi occurrent, atque jucundius. Libenter converseris cum Domino Jesu, et vitam ipsius tanquam Evangelium, ad imitationem bealae Caeciliae, in corde studeas inseparabiliter coUocare. onciu- De caetero tempus est signandi librum; sed ne y^°*' meis verbis, illud fiat de uberibus patris Bernardi, de quibus tibi tot flores, et tam pulchros decerpsi. Fiat conclusio in nomine illius, qui est liber signatus, Dominus noster Jesus Christus, ad cujus laudem totus est liber. Unde beatus Bernardus, quantum ad praesentem materiam spectat, sic ait super illo verbo: Oleum effusum nomen tuum ': " Est proculdubio inter oleum et nomen Sponsi simililudo, nec otiose Spiritus sanctus alterutrum comparavit. Ego autem dico in triplici qualitale olei, quod lucet, pascit, et ungit, si vos non melius habeatis; fovit ignem, nulrit carnem, lenit dolorem; lux, Jeno- cibus, medicina.
Vide idem nunc de Sponsi no^' ^®" mine: lucet praedicatum, pascit recogitatum. u. 6. — s Epfies. , Ibicl. , invocatum lenit et ungit. Et percurramus sin- su mira gula. ' Unde, putas, in toto orbe tanta et tam ®°"=°'^'^subita fidei lux, nisi de praedicato Jesu?
Nonne in hujus nominis luce Deus nos vocavit in admirabile lumen suum? Quibus illuminatis, et in lumine isto videntibus lumen, dicat merito Paulus ^: Fuistis aliquando tenebrce, nunc autem hix in Domino. " Et infra: " Nec tantum lux est nomen Jesu, sed et cibus est. An non toties confortaris, quoties recordaris? Quid aeque mentem cogitantis impinguat, quid ita exercitatos reparat sensus, virtutes roborat, vegetat bonos mores atque honestos, castas fovet affectiones? Aridus est omnis animae cibus, si non oleo isto infunditur: insipidus est, si non hoc sale conditur. Si scribas, non sapit mihi, nisi legero ibi Jesum. Si disputes aut conferas, non Discursapit mihi, nisi sonuerit ibi Jesus.
Jesns mel in ^"' ^^ ore, in aure melos, in corde jubilus; sed est et Jesupuimedicina. Tristatur aliquis vestrum? veniat in ^^^J^^^ cor Jesus, et inde saliat in os. Et ecce ad exortum nominis hujus, quod est lumen, nubilum omne diffugit, redit serenum. Labitur quis in crimen, currit insuper ad laqueum mortis desperando? nonne si invocet nomen Jesu, confestim respirabit ad vitam! Cui aliquando, si stetit ante faciem salutis hujus nominis, infuit duritia, ut assolet, cordis, ignaviae torpor, et rancor animi, languor acediae? Cui fons forte siccatus lacrymarum, invocato Jesu, non continuo erupit uberior, fluxit,suavior?
Cui in periculis palpitanti et trepidanti, invocatum virtutis nomeu non statim fiduciam praesUtit, depulit metum? Cui, quaeso, in dubiis aestuanti et fluctuanti, non subito ad invocationem clari nominis emicuit cerUtudo? Cui in adversis diffidenti, si nomen adjutorii sonuit, defuit fortitudo? Nimirum morbi et languores animae isti sunt; illud medicina. Denique et probare licet. Invoca, inquit *, me in die tribulationis, eruam te, et hcnorificabis me. Nihil tam irae impetum cohibet, superbiae tumorem sedat, sanat livoris vulnus, restringit luxuriae fluxum, extinguit libidinis flammam, siUm temperat avariUae, ac totius indecoris fugat pruriginem. Siquidem cum nomino Jesum, hominem mihi propono mitem et humilem corde, benignum, sobrium, castum, misericordem, et omni denique puritate ac sancUtate conspicuum, eumdem ipsum non habet hujus, quod est.
Nec si. — Neque infuit. eO. it. eruit. Deum omnipolentem, qui suo me et exemplo sanet, et roboret adjutorio. Haec omnia mihi sonant, cum insonuerit Jesus. Sumo itaque mihi exempla de homine, et auxilium a potente; illa tanquam pigmentarias species; hoc tanquam unde acuam eas; et facio confectionem, cui similem medicorum nemo facerc possit.
* Hoc tibi electuarium habes, o anima mea, recondilum in vasculo vocabuli hujus, quod est Jesus: 'salutiferum certe, quodque nuUi unquam pesti tuae inveniatur inefficax. Semper tibi in sinu sit, semper in manu, quo tui omnes in Jesum et sensus dirigantur et actus. Denique et invitaris ^: Pone me, inquit, ut signaculum in brachio tuo. Sed hoc alias. Nunc vero habes, unde et brachio medearis,et cordi. Habes, inquam, in nomine Jesu, unde actus tuos vel pravos corrigas, vel minus perfectos adimpleas, itemque unde tuos sensus aut serves, ne corrumpantur; aut si corrumpantur, sanes. " Idem *: "Quampulcher es angehs tuis, Domine Jesu, in forma Dei, in die aeternitatis tuee, in splendoribus sanctorum, ante luciferum genitus, splendor et figura substantiae Patris, et quidem perpetuus, minimeque fucatus, candor vitae aeternae! Quara mihi decorus es, super in ipsa tui hujus positione decoris!
Etenim ubi te exinanivisti, ubi naturalibus radiis lumen indeficiens exuisti, ibi pietas magis emicuit, ibi charitas plus eflulsit, ibi amplius gratia radiavit. Quam chara mihi oriris *, stella ex Jacob! quam lucidus ^ flos de raclice Jesse egrederis! quam jucundum lumen in te-
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rev.5.1 — And I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
- ↩Song.1.3 — The fragrance of your oils is good; your name is poured oil; therefore young women love you.
- ↩1Pet.2.9 — But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
- ↩Eph.5.8 — For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light.
- ↩Ps.50.15 — Call on me in the day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you will honor me.
- ↩Matt.11.29 — Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
- ↩Song.8.6 — Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion is fierce as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a flame of Yah.
- ↩Heb.1.3 — He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's own being, and he upholds all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Meditationes Vitae Christi (Pseudo-Bonaventure), Castilian court context companion
A scene a day, for life
Chosen Portion continues this rhythm: one short reading and prayer every morning, free on iOS
The Meditationes portioned Christ's life into daily scenes for lay meditation — the exact daily-portion model Chosen Portion delivers to your phone.
- Keep the one-scene-a-day habit going after day 30, automatically
- 10 minutes each morning: reading, meditation prompt, closing prayer
- Free iOS install; your day-31 portion is ready when the plan ends