Quod a triplici concupiscentia omnis labor interior oriatur.
The Three Springs of Interior Hardship
All interior hardship flows from one of three poisoned springs: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life.
I think, you see, that if we look more carefully at whatever hardship arises for us, we'll see most clearly that it flows from one of three poisoned springs: either the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life.✦
When the Table Becomes a Battlefield
Complaints about food reveal not the yoke of Christ but the un-thrown-off yoke of greed, and the anxious monk must discern whether love or greed drives his distress.
So if harsher food still saddens me, it's carnal desire imposing that hardship on me — and the reason I struggle is not because I took up the yoke of Christ, but because I haven't fully thrown off the yoke of greed. What if I'm fired up with longing for some finer dish, then thrown into turmoil when something cheaper is set before me? Or if there's less than usual, or it's served late, or prepared more carelessly — do I get eaten alive by the plague of grumbling? Tell me — what's producing these anxieties in me? Is it the passion of greed, or the sweetness of love?
The Monk Who Trades Vigils for Dishes
A monk who bargains spiritual duties for bodily pleasures disturbs the community's peace and reveals himself enslaved to worldly desire.
What if some monk, in exchange for the number of night-time readings, demands from his prior a matching number of dishes — and in place of any solemnity's dignity, goes hunting for richer, more exotic flavors? And what if, when any of these things falls short for some reason, he erupts into quarrels and disputes — unable to bear the heat of his worst passions, and disturbing the brothers' peace with loud outbursts and secret whisperings? Isn't it worldly desire that has loaded him with the yoke of this wretched slavery — and brought on all the anguish of the most degrading labor?
James Diagnoses the War Within
James 4:1 is invoked to confirm that quarrels among believers arise from desires waging war in their members.
James rebukes such people well when he asks, 'Where do the quarrels and disputes among you come from?'✦ Isn't it from your own desires, the ones waging war in your very members (James✦ 4).
Read the original Latin
Puto autem, quia si subtilius indagemus, quidquid nobis laboris oboritur, vel a carnis concupiscentia, vel a concupiscentia oculorum, vel superbia vitae, quasi quibusdam venenosis fontibus derivari, manifestissime cognoscemus. Si ergo adhuc cibus me contristat asperior, laborem mihi concupiscentia carnalis indicit: nec ideo laboro, quia jugum Christi suscepi, sed quia non plene jugum cupiditatis abjeci. Quid si lautioris edulii inflammatus ardore, vilioris appositione conturbor; vel si solito minus, vel si tardius, vel negligentius praeparetur, murmurationis peste consumor? Quid mihi has parit angustias, passio cupiditatis, an suavitas charitatis? Quid si monachus quis pro numero nocturnalium lectionum a suo praeposito numerum sibi exigat ferculorum: et pro solemnitatis cujuslibet excellentia dapes esculentiores, ac peregrinos expetat sapores? Quid si, cum horum aliquid aliqua occasione defuerit, in lites ac contentiones erumpat; ac pessimae passionis aestus ferre non sustinens, importunis clamoribus, occultis susurrationibus fratrum pacem perturbet? Nonne ei jugum hujus miserae servitutis, ac vilissimi laboris angustias, concupiscentia mundialis invexit? Quos bene Jacobus redarguens: Unde, inquit, lites et contentiones in vobis?
Nonne ex concupiscentiis vestris, quae militant in membris vestris (Jac. iv).
Scripture echoes
- ↩1John.2.16 — For all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the pride of life—is not from the Father, but is from the world.
- ↩Jas.4.1 — What is the source of wars and fighting among you? Is it not from your pleasures that wage war in your members?
- ↩Jas.4.1 — What is the source of wars and fighting among you? Is it not from your pleasures that wage war in your members?
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