Excitatio desiderii ad patriam, per mortis appetitum
Receive This Life as Your Foundation
The reader is urged to receive the meditated life of Christ with devotion as the essential foundation and path for the spiritual journey.
From what has been said above, then, most beloved daughter, you have the life of the Lord Jesus handed on to you for the most part in these meditations. Receive what has been set before you reverently, gladly, and joyfully, and don't be slow to dwell on it with all your devotion, gladness, and earnest care: for this is your way and your life; this is the foundation on which you can raise a great edifice.1 From this you must begin, if you wish to ascend to higher things, as you have already found in many places above. For this meditation on the life of Christ not only feeds the mind sweetly in itself, but leads it on to greater nourishment.2 This is what the Lord accomplished in the flesh; but our part …3 .4 .5 Far higher things exist, which you can reach by climbing this ladder, but for now you must dwell on this.6
Loved with an Undivided Heart
Drawing on Bernard and Scripture, the text teaches that Christ’s flesh is the school of love, calling the reader to wholehearted love undivided by fleshly attachments.
On this Bernard speaks as follows: "I consider this to be the chief reason why the invisible God chose to be seen in the flesh and to live among people — so that those who could love only in a carnal way might, by seeing him, first draw back all their carnal affections toward the love of his flesh, and so gradually be led step by step to the love of spiritual things." And further on: "He was showing the disciples a higher degree of love when he said, 'It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is of no avail.'"✦ And a little later: "Let the one who does not yet have the life-giving Spirit find comfort, meanwhile, in devotion to the flesh — but only in the same limited way as those who say, 'Christ the Lord is the Spirit before our face.'"✦ "Again: 'If we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.'"✦ For in no way is Christ loved without the Holy Spirit, even if he is loved in the flesh — and even if not in that fullness. The measure of this devotion, nevertheless, is this: that sweetness should seize the whole heart and claim entirely for itself, away from all love of the flesh and its allurement, every part of it. For to love with one's whole heart is precisely this. At any rate, if I were to prefer the blood ties of my own flesh, or its pleasure, to the flesh of my Lord — through which it might happen that I am less able to fulfill those things which he, remaining in the flesh, taught me by his words and examples — is it not perfectly clear that I am by no means loving with my whole heart, since, having a divided heart, I seem to devote one part to his flesh and turn the other toward my own? Finally: 'Anyone who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.'✦
Carnal Meditation as a Saving School
Meditation on Christ’s humanity, though carnal compared with higher contemplation, shuts out the world, trains the virtues, and becomes the soul’s food and eternal consolation.
So, to put it briefly: to love with your whole heart is to set aside every fleshly allurement — whether from your own flesh or from the flesh of another — in favor of the love of the consecrated flesh of Christ. In this I also grasp the glory of the world as a whole: because the world's glory is the glory of the flesh, and those who delight in it are unquestionably carnal. You see how even this meditation is carnal in comparison with what is spiritual. Don't take this to mean that devotion is being diminished, but that fervor may grow toward greater things — greater things you must arrive at by passing through this meditation — and that your affection may be ardent even here, so as to plunge your whole self entirely into it. For this carnal meditation is good: through it the carnal life is shut out, the world is despised and overcome. But even so, by doing this you'll steady your mind, be trained in the virtues, and receive strength of soul — as I said in the prologue, where I wrote about this. Let this meditation, then, be your single, undivided focus, your rest, your food, your study. For from these meditations you'll not only obtain the benefits already mentioned, nor will they only serve as steps toward the heavenly homeland and the higher contemplations — they'll also be your unending and everlasting consolation.
Do Not Abandon the Humanity of Christ
Even advanced contemplatives must cling to the meditation on Christ’s humanity, following Bernard’s example rather than treating it with disdain.
Those who rise to a greater contemplation shouldn't abandon this one, as though setting it aside for a different place and time. Otherwise they'd seem to treat it as something cheap and push it aside — and that would be real arrogance. So remember what was said earlier in this kind of treatise — I mean the contemplation of Christ's humanity — which Bernard, that supreme contemplator, never let go of. In fact, as is clear from his own sermons, he embraced it beyond all measure and lifted it high.
Read the original Latin
Habes ergo ex praedictis, dilectissima filia, vitam Domini Jesu tibi pro majori parte in meditationibus traditam. Suscipe reverenter, libenter et gaudenter praedicta, et in eis tota devotione, hilaritate, ac sollicitudine conversari non pigriteris: quia haec est via tua, et vita tua, hoc est fundamentum, super quo poteris magnum sedificium constituere. Ab hoc te incipere oportet, si vis ad subUmiora ascendere, prout in pluribus locis superius habuisti. Nam haec vitae Christi meditatio non solum per se dulciter mentum pascit, scd ad majorem cibum transmittit. Haec aedificii g^jjjj g^jjf g^ige Dominus gessit in carne; sed nostri et,,. . . lougc subhmius cst, m spiritu mtueri, ad quae per hanc scalam pervenire poteris: sed in hac interim immorandum.
De quo sic ait Bernardus *: " Ego hanc arbitror praecipuam invisibili Deo esse causam, quod voluit in carne videri, et cum hominibus conversari: ut carnalium videhcet, qui non nisi carnaliter amare poterant, cunctas primo ad suae carnis amorem aflectiones rctraheret, atque ita gradatim ad amorem perduceret spiritualium. " Et infra ^: " Monstrabat discipuhs altioris amoris gradum, cum diceret ^: Spiritus est qui vivificat, caro non prodest quidquam. " Et paulo post: ((In carnis igitur devotione interim consoletur, qui vivificantem spiritum non habet, eo dumtaxat modo, quo habent illi, qui aiunt *: Spiritus ante faciemnostram Christus Dominus. Etiterum^: Si, cognovimus Christum secundum carnem, sed nunc jam non novimus. Nam ahas quidem nequaquam sine Spiritu sancto, vel in carne diligitur Christus, et si non in illa plenitudine. Cujus tamen mensura devotionis haec est, ut totum cor illa suavitas occupet, totum sibi ab amore universa3 carnis ac carnahs illecebra vendicet • hoc quippe toto corde diUgere est. Ahoquin si carnis meae quamUbet consanguinitatem, vel voluptatem, forte praefero carni Domini mei, per quod me videUcet minus ea implere contingat, quae in carne manens, verbis et exempUs me docuit; nonne Uquido constat, quod toto nequaquam diUgo corde, cum iUud divisum habens, partem impendere videar carni ejus, partem intorquere ad propriam? Denique ait *: Qui amat patrem aut matrem plus quam me, non est me dignus.
Ergo, ut breviter dicam, toto corde diligere, est omne quod blanditur, de carne propria vel aUena, sacrosanctae carnis amori postponere. In quo et mundi aeque gloriam comprehendo, quia gloria mundi est gloria carnis; et qui in ea delectantur, carnales esse non dubium est. " Vides quomodo etiam carnaUs est haec meditatio, respectu spirituaUs. Hoc non accipias, ut minuatur devotio; sed ut fervor crescat ad majora, ad quae tamen per haec transeundo, te venire oporteat; in hac etiam ferveattuus affectus, ut in eam te totum immergas. Bona est enim haec meditatio carnaUs, per quam vita carnaUs excluditur, contemnitur et vincitur mundus. Sed et sic faciendo stabiUes mentem, erudieris ad virtutes, et animi robur accipies, ut in prologo Ubi dixi. Haec ergo meditari sit tola et una intentio tua, requies tua, cibus tuus, studium tuum. Nam ex his non solum praedicta bona consequeris, nec solum erunt tibi gradus ad ccelestis patriae et ad majestaUs contemplationes; sed eUam erit continua et perpetua consolatio tua.
Non enim qui ad majorem contemplationem ascendunt, hanc dimittere debent pro loco et tempore. Alioquin viderentur hanc quasi vilem contemnere: quod esset magnae superbiae. Unde recordare, quod habuisU supra in tractatu hujusmodi contemplationis, scilicet de humanitate Christi, quam beatus Bernardus, qui fiiit altissimus contemplator, nunquam dimisit. Imo, ut in suis sermonibus patet, eam supra modum ampIecUtur et extollit
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.6.63;John.6.63 — It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no benefit. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. John.6.63 — It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no benefit. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
- ↩Lam.4.20 — The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was caught in their pits — the one of whom we said, 'In his shadow we shall live among the nations.'
- ↩2Cor.5.16;2Cor.5.16 — So then, from now on we know no one according to the flesh. Even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, we no longer know him that way. 2Cor.5.16 — So then, from now on we know no one according to the flesh. Even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, we no longer know him that way.
- ↩Matt.10.37;Matt.10.37 — Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt.10.37 — Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Notes
- 1 ↩sedificium (edifice) is a metaphor for the spiritual life built on the foundation of Christ's life.
- 2 ↩cibum (food/nourishment) is metaphorical for deeper spiritual sustenance.
- 3 ↩The Latin text is corrupt here (g^jjjj g^jjf g^ige are clearly garbled). The translation renders the recoverable sense: the Lord did these things in the flesh, but our role is cut off. The sentence is incomplete in the source.
- 4 ↩The source text contains only a period with no translatable content.
- 5 ↩The source text contains only a period with no translatable content.
- 6 ↩The Latin is partially garbled (lougc subhmius cst, m spiritu mtueri). The translation renders the most plausible intended sense: higher things exist that can be reached through this ladder (scala), but one must linger on the present stage for now.
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
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