Quod in prima visitatione specialiter timor, in secunda consolatio, in tertia sit dilectio.
The Threefold Visitation
The first visitation belongs properly to fear, the second to consolation, and the third to perfect love that casts out fear.
Furthermore, I think this should be noted: although in that first visitation the sweetness of gentleness is sometimes mingled with fear, and in the second, when gentleness is present, the sting of fear is generally applied — nevertheless, the first pertains properly to fear, and the second to the sweetness of consolation. For in the third, perfect love casts fear out.✦ For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; but the completion of wisdom is the love of the Lord. In fear, a beginning; in love, perfection.
Fear's Bitter Mercy
Fear afflicts and humbles the mind, yet divine sweetness descends to dissolve bitterness, temper fear with grace, and rouse the soul from lukewarmness.
Here, labor; there, reward. By this one ascends to her, yet one does not reach her except through her. For the mind that fear generally afflicts is pressed by pain, cast down by despair, swallowed up by sadness, gnawed at by sloth — but then a drop of wondrous sweetness descends from the balsam of that rich mountain, that curdled mountain, pouring itself over the mind as if with a most gentle gliding. At the radiance of that shining divine light, every cloud of the irrational senses is dissolved. At its most sweet taste, all that bitterness is put to flight. The heart expands, the mind is enriched, and the capacity to ascend is prepared in a marvelous way. In this way, lukewarmness is shut out by fear, and fear is tempered by the taste of divine sweetness. Fear rouses the one who grows numb in the lowest things, lest he become lukewarm. Fear nourishes the affections, lest he fail by growing weary in labor.
Longing to Be with Christ
Through alternating fear and consolation the soul is instructed until it burns with desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, groaning under prolonged exile.
Through these alternating movements, surely, the soul is instructed, until the whole mind, absorbed by that ineffable love, no longer grows fat on love itself, but, burning with desire for those most longed-for embraces of that beautiful form surpassing the sons of men, begins to wish to be dissolved and to be with Christ, saying daily with the Prophet: Alas for me, my sojourning has been prolonged (Psalm✦✦ 119.)
Milk, Wine, and the Feast of Glory
God gives compunction and fear to beginners, consolation to those progressing, and at last reveals holiness to the mature, who boast only in the Lord.
So the Lawgiver will give his blessing: to beginners he administers the wine of compunction together with the fear of the Lord, and to those making progress, milk from the breasts of his consolation; and when they have been weaned from the milk, they will feast at the entrance of his glory.✦✦ Therefore that first visitation exposes iniquity, the second sustains weakness, and the third, truly, reveals holiness. Let no one boast in the first, in which one is convicted as wicked or lukewarm, nor in the second, in which one is shown to be weak; but in the third, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.✦✦
Read the original Latin
Porro notandum arbitror quia, licet in prima illa visitatione nonnunquam timori dulcedinem suavitatis admisceat, in secunda vero, cum suavitate stimulum plerumque timoris adhibeat, proprie tamen illa ad timorem, ista pertinet ad consolationis dulcedinem; nam in tertia perfecta charitas foras mittit timorem. Initium enim sapientiae, timor Domini; consummatio autem sapientiae, amor Domini. In timore inchoatio, in dilectione perfectio. Hic labor, ibi praemium. Hoc ad illam ascenditur, nec tamen ad ipsam, nisi per ipsam pervenitur. Menti etenim, quam plerumque timor afficit, urget dolor, dejicit desperatio, absorbet tristitia, corrodit acedia, quadam mirae suavitatis gutta descendens a balsamo illius montis pinguis, montis coagulati, quasi quoddam placidissimo se superinfundit elapsu: ad cujus radiantis divini splendorem luminis omnis illa irrationabilium sensuum nebula dissolvitur; ad cujus suavissimum gustum tota illa amaritudo fugatur, dilatatur cor, mens impinguatur, et ascendendi facultas miro modo praeparatur. Sic timore tepor excluditur, timor gustu divinae dulcedinis temperatur. Ne tepens in infimis torpeat, timor excitat; ne laborando deficiat, pascit affectus.
His nimirum alternantibus tandiu eruditur, donec tota mens illa ineffabili charitate absorpta jam non ex dilectione pinguescat, sed illius speciosi forma prae filiis hominum desideratissimos ardens amplexus, incipiat velle dissolvi et esse cum Christo, dicens quotidie cum Propheta: Heu mihi, quia incolatus meus prolongatus est (Psal. cxix.) Sic benedictionem dabit legislator, administrans incipientibus vinum compunctionis cum timore ejus, proficientibus lac ab uberibus consolationis ejus: et cum avulsi fuerint a lacte, epulabuntur ab introitu gloriae ejus. Igitur prima illa visitatio arguit iniquitatem, secunda sustentat infirmitatem; sane tertia ostendit sanctitatem. Nemo ergo glorietur in prima, in qua convincitur iniquus vel tepidus; sed nec in secunda, in qua probatur infirmus; in tertia autem qui gloriatur in Domino glorietur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1John.4.18 — There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love.
- ↩Ps.119.5 — Oh that my ways were established to keep your statutes!
- ↩Phil.1.23 — But I am hard-pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for it is far better;
- ↩Heb.5.12-Heb.5.14 — For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you still need someone to teach you the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. Heb.5.13 — For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. Heb.5.14 — But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
- ↩1Cor.3.2 — I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able. But indeed, even now you are not able,
- ↩1Cor.1.31 — so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'
- ↩Jer.9.23-Jer.9.24 — Thus says the LORD: Let not the wise boast in their wisdom, let not the strong boast in their strength, let not the wealthy boast in their riches. But let the one who boasts boast in this: understanding and knowing me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, declares the LORD. Jer.9.24 — Behold, days are coming — declares the LORD — and I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh.
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