Quod charitati nihil desit perfectionis.
The Futility of Wandering in Circles
The soul is rebuked for its entanglement in worldly roundabout ways, shown that all such toil yields only the husks of pigs, and reminded that the hunger of love surpasses every selfish fullness, since true blessedness admits no comparison.
What good does it do you, my soul, to be so tangled up in this roundabout way? "The head of their roundabout course," he says, "the toil of their own lips will cover them" (Ps.✦ cxxxix). What profit, I ask you, comes from all this toil? Is it anything other than the pods fed to pigs?✦ And there is no satisfaction in this either — and if there is some satisfaction, what kind is it? O how much sweeter, how much more joyful, and finally how much more welcome is the hunger of love than the fullness of selfish desire! But when it comes to true blessedness, there is no comparison at all.
The Call to Become a Ruined Vessel
Greed empties the soul of truth, so the soul is urged to become like a ruined vessel—wholly passing over into God—and to long for the intoxicating, mind-flooding sweetness of divine love.
For the more each person is bloated with greed, the more empty he is of what's true — and by that much the more wretched. Therefore, my soul, when you hear the reproach of the many who linger all around, be like a ruined vessel — so that, falling away from yourself and passing over wholly into God, you would not know how to live for yourself or die for yourself, but for him who died for you and rose again. Oh, who will grant me to be intoxicated with this saving cup, flooded with this wonder of the mind, lulled to sleep by this most sweet drowsiness!
The Twofold Commandment That Perfects All
The soul is called to love God with the whole heart and neighbor as self, seeking not its own interests but Christ's and the other's good—for this word perfects all righteousness and sums up the entire Law and Prophets.
So that, loving the Lord my God with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my strength, I may never seek my own interests, but those of Jesus Christ — and loving my neighbor as myself, I may not seek what is useful to me, but what is useful to another.✦ O word that perfects and sums up in righteousness! Word of love, word of love, word of love, word of all perfection! A word that perfects, lacking nothing — a word that sums up, on which the whole law and the prophets depend.✦
Love as the One Circumcision, the One Sabbath
Addressing the Jew, Bernard asks why so many ritual things are needed when love itself is circumcision, Sabbath, sacrifice, offering, and incense—and concludes that holding fast to love fulfills all, while neglecting love renders all else useless.
O Jew, what need is there for so many things? Here is circumcision, here the Sabbath, here the saving sacrifices, here the fragrant offering, here the incense of all sweetness.✦✦ Hold fast to love, and you'll lack none of these things; neglect love, and none of them will do you any good.✦✦
Read the original Latin
Quid tu, o anima mea, satisne es hoc intricata circuitu? Caput, inquit, circuitus eorum, labor labiorum ipsorum operiet eos (Psal. cxxxix). Quod, quaeso, hujus laboris emolumentum? Aliudne, quam porcorum siliquae? Nec hinc quidem satietas; si forte satietas, qualis? O quam suavior, quam jucundior, quam denique gratior esuries charitatis, quam satietas cupiditatis! Caeterum de beatitate nulla comparatio.
Quanto enim quisque saginatior cupiditate, tanto veritate inanior, tanto proinde et miserior. Audiens quapropter, o anima mea, vituperationem multorum commorantium in circuitu, esto quasi vas perditum, quatenus a temetipsa deficiens, et tota in Deum transiens, nescias tibi vivere, nec tibi mori; sed ei qui pro te mortuus est, et resurrexit. O quis dabit mihi hoc salutari poculo debriari, hoc mentis stupore perfundi, hoc suavissimo lethargo sopiri! ut diligens Dominum Deum meum toto corde meo, et ex tota anima mea, et ex omni virtute mea, nunquam quaeram quae mea sunt, sed quae Jesu Christi; diligensque proximum tanquam meipsum, non quaeram quod mihi utile est, sed quod alteri. O verbum consummans et abbrevians in aequitate! verbum charitatis, verbum amoris, verbum dilectionis, verbum totius perfectionis! Verbum consummans, cui nihil potest deesse, verbum abbrevians, in quo pendet tota lex et prophetae. O Judaee, quid tantis opus est?
Hic circumcisio, hic Sabbatum, hic hostiae salutares, hic odoriferum sacrificium, hic totius suavitatis incensum. Tene charitatem, et nihil horum deerit; charitatem neglige, et nihil horum proderit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.139.6 — Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain to it.
- ↩Luke.15.16 — He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything.
- ↩Deut.6.4-Deut.6.5;Mark.12.30;Luke.10.27 — Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Deut.6.5 — And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Mark.12.30 — And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Luke.10.27 — And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
- ↩Matt.22.40 — On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.
- ↩Rom.13.8-Rom.13.10 — Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves the other has fulfilled the law. Rom.13.9 — For the commandments — 'You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet' — and every other commandment are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Rom.13.10 — Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
- ↩Matt.5.17 — Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.
- ↩Luke.10.42 — Few things are needed, or only one. For Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
- ↩1Cor.13.1-1Cor.13.3 — If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 1Cor.13.2 — And if I have prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 1Cor.13.3 — And if I give away all I possess, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity) companion
Reorder one love at a time, daily
Use the study map with the free Chosen Portion app's daily readings to work through Aelred at a sustainable pace.
Aelred wrote the Mirror as a rule for daily interior discipline in community, and Chosen Portion carries that discipline forward as a short ordered reading each day.
- All 3 books and 102 chapters mapped into 4 weekly themes with page-level pointers
- Aelred's choice-motion-fruit test, turned into a one-page self-examination worksheet
- 16 discussion questions ready for personal journaling or a 4-session small group