A schort stirynge to mekenesse and to charité.
The True Measure of Virtue
The author encourages the reader to prioritize the cultivation of charity and humility over the external status of their religious state.
From what I have said, you can, if you take it to heart, find comfort for your way of life and the humility it requires. For though it is true that you will have this much special reward for your state of life, if you are saved, still it may be that many a wife and many a worldly woman will be nearer to God than you, and will love God more and know Him better than you, for all your state—and that ought to shame you unless you are busy to gain love and charity by the gift of God as he or she has who still lives amid worldly business.1 If you can attain as much charity through the gift of God as someone living in the world, you will receive the same supreme reward that they will. And beyond that, because of the state of life you have chosen, you will receive a special reward and honor that they will not have.2 So if you want to do well, forget your state of life as if it were nothing at all—because in itself, it is nothing. Focus all your desire and effort on gaining charity, humility, and the other spiritual virtues, for everything depends on that.
Read the original Latin
Now bi this that I have seid, thou mai, yif thou wole thorugh it, conceyve comfort for thi degree of lyvynge and also maner of mekenesse. For though it so be that thou schalt have thus moche mede special for thi staat of lyvynge, yif thou be saaf, neverthelees it mai be that many a wif and many a wordli woman schal be neer God than thou, and more schal love God and betere schal knowe Him than thou, for al thi staat, and that oweth to be schame to thee but thou be besi to gete love and charité of the gifte of God as he or sche hath that dwelleth stille in the wordli besynesse. For yif thou mowe have as moche charité of the gifte of God as sche or he hath that dwellith in wordli besynesse, thou schalt have as moche of sovereyne meede as he or sche schal have. And thou schalt have over that, for that staat whiche thou hast taken, have singuler mede and a worschipe whiche he schal not have. Thanne yif thou wolt doo wel, forgete thi staat, as hit were right nought, for it is sooth, bi itsilf it is nought; and loke that al thi desire be and thi bisynesse be for to gete charité and mekenesse and othere goostli vertues, for therin liyth al.
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