Quomodo opera sex dierum ceteris aptentur virtutibus; septimi vero diei requies charitati assignetur.

The First Day: Faith, Hope, and Temperance

Faith separates believers from unbelievers as light from darkness, hope lifts the soul to heavenly desires, and temperance restrains the flesh so the heart thirsts for God.

Let faith, then, be for us like the first day, by which we who believe are set apart from unbelievers, as light from darkness.^✦ Let hope be the second, through which, dwelling in heavenly places and hoping for heavenly things alone on the merits of faith, we are distinguished from those who are wise in earthly things and, from God, demand only earthly things — people who, under the firmament of heaven, dissolve and drift downward like waters — and all this as God moves us forward.¹² Let temperance shine forth for us like a third day, in which, as we mortify our members that are on earth — as carnal desires are restrained within necessary boundaries, like waters held back by their banks — the dry and waterless ground of our heart appears, thirsting for the Lord its God.³

The Fourth Day: Prudence as Spiritual Light

Prudence shines like the fourth day's light, enabling discernment of right action, wisdom, spiritual knowledge, the examples of the fathers, and the proper ordering of vocations, seasons, and sacraments.

Now let prudence break forth as the light of a fourth day, through which we may distinguish between things to be done and things not to be done, as between day and night; and by its aid let the light of wisdom shine forth like the splendor of the sun; let the light of spiritual knowledge appear — which grows in some of us and in others wanes, like the changing beauty of the moon; and through it let a devout mind gaze upon the examples of the fathers who went before us as upon the spheres of stars; and through it let prudence distinguish between days and years, months and hours — that is, let it discern what separates those who lived before the law from those who lived under the law.⁴⁵ What separates these from those who are under grace? What is appropriate for each one? What precepts, what seasons, what customs, what sacraments should it distinguish with fair examination?⁶

The Fifth Day: Fortitude amid the Storms of the Age

Fortitude is likened to the fifth day, in which the soul endures the tempests of this age like a spiritual fish and raises the affections of the mind like birds toward heavenly things, bearing manifold fruit.

Let fortitude be for us like a fifth day, through which we endure the storms of this great and vast sea — that is, of this present age; and having been made spiritual fish by God's working, let us preserve our life amid waves and tempests; and let us raise the desires and affections of our mind, like winged birds with feathers, toward heavenly things, savoring the things that are above, and — with God's blessing — let us render back the manifold fruits of good works.⁷⁸

The Sixth Day: Justice and the Divine Likeness

Justice governs the sixth day, restoring the divine likeness so that the soul rules over vice, desire, and the body, subjecting mind to God and rendering to each its due.

Furthermore, let justice dictate the sixth day for us, through which, reclothed in the divine likeness, we may rule with noble authority over the most terrible beasts of vice and over earthly desires as if they were creeping things, and over the body's movements as if they were beasts of burden, acting so that the body is subjected to the mind and the mind to God; and so, with justice dictating, to each may be assigned what is his own.^✦

The Blessing Reserved for Humanity

The Genesis blessing of increase and multiply is shown to be given to humans, fish, and birds—that is, to virtues and holy dispositions—but not to beasts, beasts of burden, or creeping things, which represent unspiritual movements excluded from divine favor.

Here the blessing is again, not for beasts of burden, not for creeping things, but for human beings.^✦ We are clearly admonished by this narrative, even though according to the letter the deeds are to be understood as spiritual fruits, since we read that this blessing of God came to the fish of the sea and to the birds; yet we do not perceive that divine bounty was bestowed upon beasts or beasts of burden, or upon the creeping things of the earth, although they too may grow and be multiplied, which gift God is seen to have granted also to the birds through the aforementioned blessing.^✦ For so it is written: God blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea, and let birds be multiplied over the earth (Gen.^✦ 1). To beasts and beasts of burden, none of these things.

Spiritual Beasts Subjected to the Restored Image

Virtues comparable to fish and birds merit blessing and multiplication, while the spiritual beasts of which the Psalmist speaks—those that confess to God—are subjected by divine command to the restored image of justice.

Surely to virtues and to holy dispositions—which we believe are to be compared to fish and to birds—blessing is owed, multiplication is owed, and succession in spiritual generation is owed. But just as to the human being, created to the image and likeness of God, beasts and beasts of burden are subjected by God's blessing, so into that very image and likeness of justice, restored by merits, spiritual beasts are brought — of which the Psalmist says: Do not hand over to beasts the soul that confesses to you (Psal.^✦^✦ [Psalm 73], to which no succession is owed, are subjected by God's command.

The Seventh Day: Charity as Sabbath Rest

The seventh day is the Sabbath of true rest, fulfilled by charity, which completes all virtues, is the root of every good work, restores the soul by grace, and is served by temperance, prudence, fortitude, and justice together.

There remains the seventh day, that is, the Sabbath, in which all those works are brought to completion, in which true rest is received, in which the end and boundary of our labor is appointed. Charity itself is the completion of all the virtues, the sweet refreshment of holy souls, the honorable ordering of our conduct. It is the root from which all good works are brought to fulfillment. It is the seventh day that restores us by divine grace; it is the seventh month, in which, after the flood of temptations, the ark of the heart comes to rest in sweetness.^✦ Temperance serves this day; prudence keeps watch; fortitude fights; justice attends.

Read the original Latin

Sit ergo fides nobis quasi primus dies, quo fideles ab infidelibus, quasi lux a tenebris separamur. Sit spes secundus, per quam in coelestibus habitantes, et pro fidei meritis sola super coelestia sperantes, ab his qui terram sapientes, et a Deo sola terrena flagitantes, sub coeli firmamento aquarum instar dilabuntur et fluitant, Deo promovente, discernimur. Temperantia nobis quasi dies tertius illucescat, in quo membra nostra quae sunt super terram mortificantibus, ac carnales concupiscentias quasi aquas amarissimas necessariis terminis coercentibus, appareat cordis nostri arida et inaquosa, sitiens Dominum Deum suum. Jam vero prudentia quasi diei quarti lumen erumpat, per quam inter facienda et non facienda, quasi inter diem et noctem, dividamus: cujus adminiculo lumen sapientiae velut solis splendor effulgeat; lux scientiae spiritualis, quae in aliquibus nobis crescit, in aliquibus deficit quasi lunae decus appareat; per quam etiam praecedentium patrum exempla quasi stellarum globos mens devota suspiciat; per quam inter dies et annos, menses et horas, dividat; quid distet videlicet inter eos qui ante legem et sub lege? quid inter hos et illos qui sub gratia? quid singulis conveniat? quae praecepta, quae tempora, qui mores, quae sacramenta, aequa examinatione discernat? Sit nobis fortitudo quasi dies quintus, per quam hujus maris magni et spatiosi, saeculi videlicet hujus, procellas toleremus; ac pisces spirituales, Deo operante, effecti, vitam nostram inter undas tempestatesque servemus; ac mentis nostrae desideria simul et affectus, quasi volatilia pennata ad coelestia erigentes, et ea quae sursum sunt sapientes, multiplices bonorum operum fructus Deo benedicente reddamus.

Porro diem sextum nobis justitia dictet, per quam divinam similitudinem reinduti, atrocissimis vitiorum bestiis, terrenisque desideriis, quasi reptilibus, corporisque motibus, quasi jumentis, generosa auctoritate imperemus, agentes, ut corpus menti, mens Deo subdatur; sicque, justitia dictante, cuique quod suum est, tribuatur. Hic iterum benedictio, non jumentis, non reptilibus, sed hominibus. Monemur plane de hac historia, licet ad litteram facta spirituales capere fructus, qui piscibus maris et volatilibus eam Dei benedictionem legimus accessisse; quam tamen bestiis ac jumentis, sive reptilibus terrae, divinam largitatem non cernimus contulisse, quanquam et ipsa crescant, et multiplicentur, quod muneris et volatilibus praefata benedictione, Deus cernitur concessisse. Sic enim scriptum est: Benedixit illis Deus, dicens: Crescite, et multiplicamini, et replete aquas maris, avesque multiplicentur super terram (Gen. 1). Bestiis et jumentis nihil horum. Nimirum virtutibus sanctisque affectibus, quos piscibus volatilibusque credimus comparandos, debetur benedictio, debetur multiplicatio, debetur spirituali generatione successio. Verum, sicut homini, ad Dei imaginem et similitudinem creato, bestiae et jumenta, Deo benedicente, subduntur; sic in ipsam imaginem et similitudinem justitiae meritis reparato, spirituales bestiae de quibus Psalmista: Ne tradas, inquit, bestiis animam confitentem tibi (Psal.

lxxiii), quibus successio non debetur, Dei imperio substernuntur. Restat septimus dies, id est Sabbatum, in quo omnia ista opera consummantur, in quo requies vera suscipitur, in quo labori nostro terminus ac finis indicitur. Ipsa est charitas virtutum omnium consummatio, sanctarum animarum suavis refectio, honesta morum compositio. Ipsa radix, ex qua omnia bona opera perficiuntur. Ipsa septimus dies divina nos gratia reficit; ipsa septimus mensis, in quo post tentationum diluvium arca cordis suaviter requiescit. Huic servit temperantia; prudentia vigilat; militat fortitudo; justitia famulatur.

Scripture echoes

↩Gen.1.3-Gen.1.4 — And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. Gen.1.4 — And God saw the light, that it was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
↩Gen.1.26-Gen.1.28 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Gen.1.28 — And God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.'
↩Gen.1.22 — And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."
↩Gen.1.20-Gen.1.22 — And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens." Gen.1.21 — And God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Gen.1.22 — And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."
↩Gen.1.22 — And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."
↩Ps.74.19;Ps.74.19 — Do not give the life of your turtledove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of your afflicted ones forever. Ps.74.19 — Do not give the life of your turtledove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of your afflicted ones forever.
↩Gen.1.26-Gen.1.28 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Gen.1.28 — And God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.'
↩Gen.8.4 — And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

Notes

1 ↩sola super coelestia sperantes: the sola modifies the hoped-for objects (heavenly things alone), not hope itself; rendered to preserve that sense.
2 ↩a Deo sola terrena flagitantes: ambiguous whether a Deo means 'from God' (source) or 'for God' (agent); rendered as 'from God' following the gloss, but the sense may be 'demanding earthly things of/from God.'
3 ↩The subject of appareat is arida et inaquosa (the dry land), with cordis nostri as a genitive of description; the image is of the heart's interior becoming visible as parched ground.
4 ↩The fourth day of Genesis is when the sun, moon, and stars were created (Gen 1:14–19); the solar and lunar imagery maps directly onto this.
5 ↩The indirect question quid distet… inter eos qui ante legem et sub lege is governed by dividat; the sense is that prudence distinguishes the difference between pre-law and under-law eras.
6 ↩The subject of discernat is prudentia carried over from the previous sentence; the indirect questions are all objects of 'distinguish.'
7 ↩pisces spirituales: the metaphor of believers as fish in the sea of the world is a patristic commonplace; here it is tied to the fifth day of creation when God created fish and birds (Gen 1:20–23).
8 ↩volatilia pennata: the Latin uses both volatilia (winged creatures/birds) and pennata (feathered) as near-synonyms for emphasis; rendered as 'winged birds with feathers' to capture both terms.

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

Chosen Portion — Daily Prayer (free iOS app) →