Of contemplatif lif and the werkes of hit.
The Goal of Contemplation
The author defines the nature of the contemplative life as a pursuit of perfect love and sets it as the ultimate goal for the reader's spiritual journey.
The contemplative life consists of perfect love and charity felt inwardly through spiritual virtues, and through a true knowledge and vision of God in spiritual things. This life belongs especially to those who, for the love of God, forsake all worldly riches, honors, and outward busyness, and give themselves body and soul—as much as their strength and understanding allow—to the service of God through spiritual occupation.1 Now since your state of life calls you to be contemplative—for that is the end and purpose of your enclosure, so that you might more freely and wholly give yourself to spiritual occupation—you need to be earnestly busy night and day, with labor of body and of spirit, to come as near as you can to that life by such means as you hope are best for you.2 Nevertheless, before I tell you about the means, I will first say a little more about this contemplative life, so that you can see something of what it is and set it as a mark in the sight of your soul—the goal toward which you should draw in all your occupation.
Read the original Latin
Contemplatif lif is in perfight love and charité feelid inwardli bi goostli vertues and bi soothfaste knowynge and sight of God in goosteli thynges. This lif longeth speciali to hem whiche forsaken for the love of God al worldli richesse and worschipes and outeward besynesse and oonly gyven hem body and soule, up her myght and here kunnynge, to the service of God bi goosteli occupacioun. Now sithen it is so that thy staat asketh to be contemplatif, for that is the ende and the entent of thyn enclosynge, that thu myght more freli and entierli gyve thee to gosteli occupacioun - thanne bihoveth thee for to be right bisy nyght and day with travaile of bodi and of spirit, for to come to that lif as neer as thu may bi swich meenys as thu hopist were best unto thee.
Neverthelees bifore that I telle thee of the meenys, I schal telle firste a litil more of this lif contemplatif that thu myght sumwhat see what it is and sette it as a mark in the sight of thi soule wherto thu schalt drawe in al thyn occupacion.
Notes
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