How and in what thynges a contemplatif man schuld ben occupied.
Stretching Toward the Heavenly Prize
The contemplative life requires a deliberate turning away from bodily concerns to focus entirely on the spiritual knowledge and feeling of God.
In spiritual knowing and spiritual feeling: these should be a contemplative person's occupation, for in these the full knowledge of spiritual things can be understood. This occupation is what Saint Paul longed for, saying: "One thing, though: forgetting the things that are behind, I stretch myself toward what lies ahead; I press on, if somehow I may grasp the heavenly prize" (Philippians 3:13-14).✦1 One thing, as if to say, is left for me to long for: that I may forget all things that lie behind, and I will stretch my heart always forward to feel and to grasp the supreme reward of endless bliss.2 Behind are all bodily things; ahead are all spiritual things. Therefore, Saint Paul wanted to forget every bodily thing, including his own body, so that he might see spiritual things.
Read the original Latin
In knowynge and in felinge gostly, in thise schulde be the occupacion of a contemplatif man, for in thise mai be undirstonden the ful knowynge of gosteli thynges. This occupacion is that thynge that Seynt Poul coveitede, seiynge thus: Unum vero, que retro sunt obliviscens, in anteriora me extendam sequor si quomodo comprehendam supernum bravium (Philippians 3:13-14). O thynge, as who seith, is left to me for to coveite, and that is that I may forgeten al thynges whiche aren hyndward, and y schal strecche unto myn herte ay forward for to feele and for to gripe the sovereyne meede of the endelees blisse. Hyndward aren alle bodili thingis, foreward aren alle goostli thinges; and therfore Seynt Poul wolde forgeten al bodili thyng, and his owen bodi also, forthi that he myght see goostli thynges.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Phil.3.13-Phil.3.14 — Brothers, I do not yet consider myself to have taken hold of it; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, Phil.3.14 — I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source cites a compressed Vulgate form of Philippians 3:13-14 (Unum vero... supernum bravium); rendered in modern English for the target register while preserving the explicit citation.
- 2 ↩"as who seith" rendered as "as if to say" (Hilton's glossing formula for the Latin unum). "Gripe" kept as "grasp" to match Paul's comprehendam; "sovereyne meede" as "supreme reward" for the heavenly prize.
Scala Perfectionis (The Scale of Perfection) companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent