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Chapter 49MedVC.1.49

De exercitio vitae contemplativae

The Bridegroom's Tender Embrace

Bernard of Clairvaux is introduced as the guide to the contemplative life, with his bridal imagery of the soul cradled in God's protective embrace and the inadequacy of words to express heavenly intimacy.

Let us turn now to the contemplative life. Here is what Bernard says about it: "So the tender bridegroom rests his head on the bride's lap, so that she may lie cradled in the shelter of his embrace and be kept safe." And now that guardian watches over her with the greatest honor and most gracious care, so that she will not be forced to stay awake, disturbed by the constant, petty needs of young women. "And further: "I do not think it cause for joy that such majesty deigns to stoop, in such intimate and tender closeness, to our frailty, and that the divine nature on high does not scorn to enter into union with the soul from its nakedness." If I am as certain of being in heaven as I am of reading here on earth, the soul knows for sure what the page contains — except that words are wholly inadequate to express all that she will then be able to receive, and even now, all that she already can. What, do you think, will she receive there, who here is granted such intimate closeness that she can feel herself clasped in the arms of God?" — Bernard. upon Eiiit. Vat. and Ven.

The Contemplative Soul Guarded in God's Bosom

The soul is described as scattered yet cherished in God's bosom, guarded from disturbance, entering a life-giving waking-sleep that illuminates the inner sense and holds death at bay.

Let her be scattered. MabiU. Is. Most worthily. Is endowed. And to be cherished in the bosom of God, by God's cuva, guardianship, and studJo, to be guarded — lest, sleeping, she perhaps be roused by someone, until she awakens of her own accord? "And soon she adds: 'This is not, however, the sleep of the bride, the slumber of the body.'" "And afterwards: 'Rather, this kind of life-giving waking-sleep illuminates the inner sense, and, with death held at bay, grants everlasting life.'"

Holy Death and the Soul's Escape from Snares

Contemplative ecstasy is likened to a holy death that withdraws the senses from worldly snares, freeing the soul to fly like a sparrow from the hunter's trap and to rest in God.

Truly, it is a sleep that does not stupefy the senses but draws them away. There is also a death — I would not hesitate to call it that — since the Apostle, commending certain persons still living in the flesh, speaks this way: 'You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.'✦ And so I too would not absurdly call the soul's ecstatic departure a death — one that snatches us not from life but from life's snares, so that the soul can say: 'Our soul has escaped like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters.' For we walk among snares in this life — snares that are feared not so much when, through some holy and vehement thought, the soul is snatched away from itself, if only the mind withdraws far enough and flies off to transcend this common way of thinking and its habitual patterns. For the net is cast in vain before the eyes of those who can fly. For why should sensuality be feared where life itself is not even felt? When the soul goes out — even if not from life, certainly from the senses — it must follow that temptation from life is not felt either. 'Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly away and rest?'

The Angelic Death and the Nature of Contemplation

The soul longs to die the death of the just and even the death of angels — stripped of all bodily likenesses and desires — which is identified as contemplation itself, a departure from worldly passions toward pure communion with God.

Would that I might frequently fall by this death, so as to escape the snares of death, so as not to feel the death-bringing allurements of a life given to excess — or be stunned at the pull of lust, at the fever of greed, at the goads of anger and impatience, at the anguish of anxieties and the troubles of worldly cares!✦ Let my soul die the death of the just, so that no injustice may ensnare it, no iniquity may delight it.✦ A good death — one that does not take life away but transfers it to something better. A good death, in which the body does not fall but the soul is raised up. But this is a death of humans; let my soul die a death that is, if it can be said, even that of angels — so that, surpassing the memory of present things, it may strip itself not only of desires for lower and bodily things but even of their very likenesses, and its communion with them may be pure, since with them there is a likeness of purity.✦ Such a departure is, I believe, what is called contemplation — either exclusively, or above all. For [it is] from desires of things — Colossians.✦ — [Colossians] 3.

Solitude and the Purity of Angelic Contemplation

True contemplative rest requires not merely withdrawal from fleshly desires but transcendence of all bodily mental images — an angelic purity — and the soul must not promise itself rest until it can fly through such images with a purified mind.

Psat. Liv, 8. Not to be held back by living is a mark of human virtue, but not to be enveloped by contemplating bodily likenesses is a mark of angelic purity. Yet each is a gift of the divine: to exceed both, to transcend yourself. But the one, not the other, is far from you. Blessed is the one who can say: "See, I withdrew, fleeing, and I remained in solitude. He was not content to go out unless he also put himself far away so that he could rest. You have leapt over the delights of the flesh so that you would at least not obey its desires now, nor be held by its allurements. In advancing you have separated yourself, but you have not yet withdrawn unless you can also fly through the rushing images of bodily likenesses from all sides with the purity of your mind. Hitherto, do not promise rest for yourself.

The Bride's Solitary Sleep in the Bridegroom's Arms

Drawing on the Song of Songs, the bride's contemplative sleep in the bridegroom's arms is interpreted as the soul's ecstatic departure, solemnly protected from disturbance by the roe deer and stags — symbols of angelic souls with sharp vision and swift movement.

You are wrong. You think you will find yourself a place of rest on this side — the secrecy of solitude, the clear light, the dwelling of peace. But give me someone who has gone all the way there, and without hesitation I will confess that person has found rest — someone who can say, 'Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has done well by you.'✦ And truly, this is a place of solitude, and a dwelling in light. And a little later: 'I think, then, that the bride went out into this solitude and there, drawn by the beauty of the place, fell sweetly asleep in the bridegroom's arms — that is, her spirit departed — since the young women were forbidden to wake her until she herself wished.'✦ But what about that — how often? They were not forbidden with a simple or ordinary warning, as is usual, but with an entirely new and unusual solemn charge — through the roe deer, that is, and the stags of the fields.✦ By this kind of wild animal, it seems to me, the holy souls stripped from their bodies have been fittingly represented — and at the same time the angels who are with God: surely because of the sharpness of their vision and the swiftness of their leaping.

The Freedom of Contemplative Souls in the Fields

The adjuration through roe deer and stags signifies that contemplative souls — like angels — move freely and unimpeded in contemplation, and the restless young women must not summon the beloved away from her exalted communion on trivial grounds.

We recognize that each of these two things is fitting for both kinds of spirits. For they easily seek the highest things and penetrate the deepest mysteries. Moreover, the way of life appointed to them in the fields clearly signifies that their movements in contemplation are free and unimpeded.✦ What, then, does this adjuration made through these creatures mean?✦ Surely this: that the restless young women should not dare on any trivial summons to call the beloved away from that most venerable company — a company she joins as often as she rises above herself in contemplation, without any obligation keeping her.✦ Beautifully, then, they are deterred by the authority of these beings, from whose fellowship — [Concerning —] [— The same.]

The Bride's Discretion Over Her Own Contemplative Rhythm

The bride retains authority over when to rise from contemplation and when to attend to her companions, and the Bridegroom entrusts this discernment to her because of her burning love for her neighbors and her maternal concern for their progress.

In person. This — to be torn away. Her — by the persistence of those very women. The decision rests, surely, in his will — both to have leisure for herself and to attend to the care of those women, just as she judges it needful, since she is forbidden to be roused by them until she herself so wills. The Bridegroom knows with what great love the bride burns toward her neighbors; and he knows well that a mother is rightly concerned, with all proper clarity, for the progress of her daughters — and that she will by no agreement withdraw herself from them or deny them, as much and as often as there is need. And for that reason he has judged that this arrangement should be entrusted confidently to her discretion. "Thus far Bernard."

Read the original Latin

Sequitur ut de contemplativa videamus; de qua sic dicit Bernardus ^: " Propterea dulcissimus sponsus laevam suam capiti sponsae supposuit, quatenus in sinu eam quiescere facerel, et dorraire. Et nunc custos illius dignantissime et benevolentissirae vigilat super eara, ne adolescentularum crebris minuUsque necessitatibus inquietata vigilare cogatur. " Et infra ^: " Non rae capio pro laetiUa, quod illa majestas tara familiari dulcique consorUo nostrae sese inclinare infirmitati rainime dedignatur, et superna deitas anim£e exuIanUs inire connubia non despicit. Si sic in coelo esse non ambigo, ut lego in terra, sentit pro certo anima quod continet pagina, nisi quod non sufficit omnino ista exprimere, quantum capere illa tunc poterit, sednec quantura jampotest. Quid, putas, illic accipiet, quae hic tanta familiaritate donatur, ut Dei brachus amplecti se sentiat, " Bernard. , super Eiiit. Vat. et Ven.

spargat. MabiU. est. digualissime. dotatur. et Dei sinu foveri, Dei cuva, custodia et studJo custodiri, ne dormiens forte a quopiam, donec ultro evigilet, excitetur? " Et mox subdit ': " Non est autem is sponsce somnus, dormitio corporis. " Et post: " Magis autem istiusmodi vitalis vigilque sopor sensum interiorem illuminat, et mortc propulsala, vitam tribuit sempiternam.

Revera enim dormitio est, quae tameu sensum non sopiat, sed abducat. Est et raors, quod non dubius dixerim, quoniam Apostolus quosdam adhuc in carne viventes commendando, sic loquitur -: Mortui enim estis, et vita vestra abscondita est am Christo in Deo. ' Proinde et ego, et non absurde, sponsas ecstasim vocaverim mortem, quae tamen non vita, sed vitffi eripiat (')) laqueis, ut possit dicere *: Anima nostra sicut passer erepta est de laqueo venantium. Inter medios namque laqueos in hac vita inceditur: qui utique toties non timentur, quoties sancta aliqua et vehcmenti cogitatione anima a semetipsa abripitur: si tamen eousque mente secedat, etavolet,ut hunc communem transcendat usum, ct consuetudinem cogitandi. Etenim ^ frustra jacitur rete ante oculos Tpennatorum. Quid enim formidetur luxuria, ubi nec vita sentitur? Excedente quippe anima, etsi non vita, certe vitas sensu, necesse etiam est, ut nec vitee tentatio sentiatur. ^ Quis dabit mihi pennas sicut columbce, et volabo, et requiescam?

Utinam hac morte ego frequenter cadam, ut evadam laqueos mortis, ut non sentiam vitae luxuriantis mortifera blandimenta, vel obstupescam ad sensum bbidinis, ad eestum avaritiae, ad iracundicE et impatientiae stimulos, ad angores soUicitudinum, et molestias curarum! " Moriatur anima mea morte justorum, ut nulla illaqueet injustitia, nuUa oblectet iniquitas. Bona mors, quae vitam non aufert, sed transfert in meUus. Bona, qua non corpus cadit, sed anima sublevatur. * Verum haec hominum est; sed anima mea moriatur morte etiam, si dici potest, angelorum, ut praesenlium memoriam excedens, rerum se inferiorum corporearumque non modo cupiditatibus, sed et similitudinibus exuat, sitque illi pura cum illis conversatio, cum quibus est puritatis similitudo. Talis, ut opinor, excessus, aut tantum, aut maxime contemplatio dicitur. Rerum etenim cupiditalibus > Coloss. , ni, 3.

" Psat. Liv, 8. — vivendo non teneri, humanae virtutis est; corporura vero sirailitudinibus speculando non involvi, angelicie puritatis est: utruraquc taraen divini muneris, utrumque excedere, utrumque temetipsum transcendere ost; scd longc unum, alterura non longe. Beatus qui dicere pote. st ": Ecce elongavi fugicns, et mansi in solitudine. Non fuit contentus exire, nisi et longe se faceret, ut posset quiescere. Transilisti carnis oblectamenta, ut minime jam obedias concupiscentiis ejus, nec tenearis illecebris: proficiendo separasti te; sed nondum elongasti, nisi et irruentia undique phantasraata corporearum similitudinum transvolare mentis puritate praevaleas. Hucusque noli tibi proraittere requiem.

Erras,." i citra invenire te existimas locum quietis, secretum solitudinis, luminis serenum, habitaculum pacis. Sed da mihi qui illuc venerit, et incunctanter fateor quiescentera, qui raerito dicat ^**: Convertere, anima mea, in requiem tuam, qiria Bominm bene fecit tibi. Atque hic vere in solitudine locus, et in lumine habitatio. " Et paulo post **: " Puto ergo iu solitudinem hanc exisse sponsam, ibique pro amoenitale loci inter amplexus sponsi suaviter obdormisse, id est, spiritu excessisse^ quando prohibitae sunt adolescentulae expergefacere illam, quoad ipsa voluerit. At illud quahter? Non simphciter, neque levi, ut assolet, commonitione prohibilae sunt; sed omnino nova etinsueta contestatione, per capreas scilicet ^^ cervosque camporum. Quo quidem genere ferarum videntur mihi satis congruenter expressae sanctae animae exutaj corporibus, simul et qui cum Deo sunt angeli, nimirum propter acumen visus, et saltus celeritatem.

Utrumque hoc siquidem utrisque spiritibus convenire cognoscimus. Nam facile, et petunt summa, et intima penetrant. Quorum quoque in campis designata conversatio evidenter liberos atque expeditos significat in contemplatione discursus. Quid sibi vult igitur adjuratio facta per istos? Profecto ne inquietce adolescentulae audeant levi ex causa evocare dilectam a tam reverendo collegio, cui absque debito toties admiscetur, quoties contemplando excedit. Pulchre itaque horum auctoritate terrentur, a quorum societate constat evelU Suppl. de. — Id.

prse. Id, avelli. illam ipsarum importunitate. Ponilur sane in voluntate ipsius, et vacare sibi, et curae illarum intendere, prout oportere judicaverit, cum vetatur excitari ab illis, quousque ipsa velit. Novit sponsus quanta flagret dileclione erga proximos sponsa; et satis propria cliaritate sollicitari matrem de profeclibus filiarum, nec se ullo pacto illis subtracturam, seu denegaturam, quantum et quoties opus fuerit: proptereaque secure discretioni ejus credendam censuit hanc dispensationem. " Hucusque Bernardus

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Col.3.3 — For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
  2. ↩Ps.124.7 — Our soul has escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
  3. ↩Num.23.10 — Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!
  4. ↩Col.3.2 — Set your minds on the things above, not on the things on the earth.
  5. ↩Col.3.5 — Put to death, therefore, the parts of you that belong to the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.
  6. ↩Ps.114.7 — Tremble, O earth, before the Lord, before the God of Jacob.
  7. ↩Song.3.4 — Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my soul loves. I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room of her who conceived me.
  8. ↩Song.2.7 — I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field: do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.
  9. ↩Song.3.5 — I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field: do not stir up or awaken love until it desires.
  10. ↩Song.3.5 — I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field: do not stir up or awaken love until it desires.
  11. ↩Song.3.5 — I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field: do not stir up or awaken love until it desires.

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