Quod ad actum et desiderium amor noster moveatur, et quod aliquando affectu, aliquando ratione ad haec duo moveatur
The Two Movements of Love
Love moves in two directions: inward toward desire and outward toward action.
Let what has been said about choice be enough for now, so that we can move on to what still needs to be said about the movement of love itself. This movement is directed toward two things: either inward, toward desire, or outward, toward action. Toward desire: once the soul has determined that it is to enjoy something, it stretches itself out by a certain inner movement and by appetite toward that in which it has judged enjoyment is to be found. Toward action: when the mind is driven to do something outwardly as well, a certain hidden force of love itself compels it.
Affection and Reason as Love's Incentives
Love is stirred toward desire and action by two interior forces—affection and reason—which must each be examined and rightly ordered.
Accordingly, I think we need to investigate what those things are — the incentives, as it were — by which love itself is stirred up and set in motion toward these two ends, and which in a certain way arrange and prescribe its course.1 Next, we must examine more carefully which of these things ought to be followed, and how much; which should be rejected, which admitted, which diminished, and which increased — so that the movement itself may be fitting. There are, it seems to me, two things by which the soul is moved and stirred up, in a certain way, toward those two ends we have named — namely, affection and reason. For sometimes our love is kindled toward outward action, or into hidden desire, by affection alone — and sometimes by reason alone. And so we will try to discuss each of these individually, as much as seems necessary.2
Directing Love Toward God and Neighbor
Having established that God and neighbor are the two proper objects of love, we must now discern which movements of love most deserve to be followed, beginning with the twofold origin of love's motion.
This much must be said first, since reason has already taught us — as discussed above — that the two things worth choosing for their own sake are God and neighbor; so now we need to consider, everything else set aside, how our love ought to be directed toward these two. So then, let's look at all the movements by which our love is varied in many ways, and ask which one most deserves to be followed. But first, let's take up the twofold origin of this movement — the very point where we began.
Read the original Latin
Haec de electione dixisse sufficiat, ut deinceps de ipsius amoris motu, quae dicenda sunt, prosequamur. Fit autem motus ejus ad duo, vel interius ad desiderium, vel exterius ad actum. Ad desiderium, cum ad id quo fruendum judicaverit, animus se motu quodam interno, et appetitu extendit. Ad actum, cum mentem ad aliquid etiam exterius agendum, amoris ipsius vis quaedam occulta compellit. Proinde investigandum arbitror quaenam sint illa, quibus quasi incentivis, amor ipse ad haec duo excitetur ac moveatur, quaeque ei cursum suum ordinent quodammodo atque praescribant. Deinde quid eorum sequi debeat, vel quantum sequi debeat, quidve respuere, quid admittere, quid minuere, quid augere oporteat, ut ipse motus competens sit, subtilius inquirendum. Sunt autem duo, ut mihi videtur, quibus animus ad duo illa quae promisimus, movetur quodammodo ac excitatur, id est affectus et ratio. Aliquando enim affectu tantum, aliquando tantum ratione amor noster vel ad publicum actum, vel in occultum succenditur appetitum ; quocirca de singulis his, quantum necesse videbitur, disputare conabimur.
Hoc sane dicendum, cum superius duo quaedam ad fruendum, Deus scilicet et proximus, ratio docuerit eligenda, ceteris omissis, quemadmodum ad haec duo amor noster moveri oporteat, deinceps esse tractandum. Igitur de omnibus motibus, quibus amor noster multipliciter variatur, quis maxime sequendus sit, videamus. Sed primo de bifaria ipsius motus origine, qua coepimus exsequamur.
Notes
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