Quibus actibus nos oporteat ad Deum tendere, quibus nobis, proximisque consulere
Two Kinds of Acts
Aelred distinguishes acts that tend directly toward God from those that provide for our own and our neighbors' needs, both ordered to the same final love.
There are, then, certain acts by which we strive spiritually toward that highest good, which is supremely to be loved and supremely to be desired; and there are others by which we provide for our own necessity or for the necessity and salvation of our neighbors at the same time — yet even this care for others must be referred to that same end, which is not in doubt.
The Apostle's Threefold Way
Aelred cites Titus 2:12 as a Pauline summary of the perfect life lived through sobriety, justice, and piety.
The Apostle, it seems, hinted at the entire state of the perfect life in just a few words, saying soberly: 'Let us live soberly, and justly, and piously in this world' (Tit.✦ ii).✦
Sobriety as the Royal Way
Sobriety is the measured middle path between excess and deficiency, praised even by the world's wise men as the virtue of frugality.
For sobriety is a certain measure and temperance of human life, prudently avoiding both kinds of excess, and leading our course along the royal way between the right hand and the left.✦ The wise men of this world call this virtue frugality, and the most eloquent of them all, clearly explaining its excellence at sufficient length. 'Let each one take it as he will,' he says. 'For my part, I consider frugality — that is, measure and temperance — to be the greatest virtue.'
God as the Measure of Moderation
Because God himself is perfect measure, arriving at him requires us to live with neither lack nor excess.
Since the One toward whom we supremely strive is himself a certain measure — lacking nothing, hindered by nothing, with nothing in excess, nothing deficient — when we have arrived at him, there will be nothing outside us that we desire, nothing within us that we disdain. It is therefore necessary that we keep ourselves within a certain measure and moderation, neither falling short of what is required nor, beyond what is fitting, being carried away by a destructive presumption.
Justice as Discerning Care
Justice is the virtue by which we render to each neighbor what is fitting, discerning what each person truly needs.
Justice, surely — I believe that is the virtue the Apostle names here — is the one by which, providing for the necessity or salvation of our neighbors, and discerning in the very act of giving what is fitting for each person and who should be preferred over whom, we render to each one what is just.✦
Piety as Faith and Pure Intention
Piety completes the threefold way through sincere faith and pure intention, which is itself rooted in the choice of love.
To these two virtues — sobriety and justice — he most prudently added piety, so that philosophers or anyone estranged from the faith of Christ might not boast about them; for piety consists in sincere faith and pure intention.✦ Furthermore, that intention itself seems to consist in the choosing of love — the subject we have already discussed.
The Difficulty of One Rule for All
Aelred acknowledges the near-impossibility of prescribing one way of life for all, given the diversity of human temperaments, yet offers a common standard each can adapt by reason.
Here perhaps the reader will demand that we unfold more clearly the very way of living that seems to exceed what is dangerous — nay, what is destructive. How arduous this is, how difficult to treat in discussion — who does not see it? Since there are as many qualities of people as there are people, and rarely are even two found together to whom all the same things are suitable — for what is enough for one person is too little for another, and the very thing by which this person profits, that person lacks; and what is necessary for one is clearly superfluous to another. Nevertheless, something must be said that suits all people, which each person can adapt to their own situation, and by which, guided by reason, one may judge whether the way of living that is strictly necessary exceeds what it should.
Read the original Latin
Sunt itaque actus quidam, quibus spiritualiter ad illum summum bonum, quod summe diligendum est, summeque desiderandum contendimus; sunt et alii, quibus vel nostrae necessitati, proximorum autem necessitati simul et saluti consulimus, qua tamen providentia, ad illum aeque finem referenda non ambigitur. Videtur autem Apostolus omnem perfectae vitae statum paucis insinuasse sermonibus : Sobrie, inquiens, et juste, et pie vivamus in hoc saeculo (Tit. ii). Est enim sobrietas humanae vitae modus quidam ac temperantia; utramque nimietatem prudenter evitans, et regia via inter dextram et sinistram cursum nostrum deducens. Hanc virtutem saeculi hujus sapientes frugalitatem nominant, cujus excellentiam illorum omnium eloquentissimus lucide satis exponens. Ut volet, inquit, quisque accipiat, ego frugalitatem, id est modum et temperantiam virtutem maximam puto. Cum enim ille, ad quem summe tendimus, quidam modus sit, cui nihil deest, nihil obest, nihil superfluit, nihil deficit; ad quem cum pervenerimus, nihil erit exterius quod appetamus, nihil interius quod fastidiamus : necesse profecto est, ut nosmetipsos in quadam mensura modoque servemus, nec infra quam necesse est dilabamur; nec supra, quam oportet pestifera praesumptione feramur. Justitiam sane ab Apostolo illam hic aestimo nominari, qua proximorum necessitati sive saluti consulentes, et in ipsis beneficiis quid cui conveniat, quis cui praeferendus sit discernentes, quod justum est cuique tribuimus.
His autem duabus virtutibus, sobrietati scilicet et justitiae, ne de eis philosophi, vel quilibet a Christi fide alieni glorientur, consultissime addidit pietatem, quae in fide sincera, et pura intentione consistit. Porro ipsa intentio in amoris electione, de qua jam disputatum est, constare videtur. Hic fortasse lector exiget, ut ipsum vivendi modum, quem periculosum imo perniciosum videtur excedere, manifestius evolvamus. Quod quam sit arduum, difficileque tractatu, quis non videat? cum tot sint hominum qualitates, quot homines, nec raro saltem duo simul inveniantur, quibus cuncta quae conveniant ; dum quod uni satis est, hoc alteri parum est; et quo iste proficit, ille deficit; et quod alteri necessarium est, alteri constat esse superfluum. Dicendum tamen aliquid videtur quod conveniat omnibus, quod quisque sibi possit aptare, et utrum necessarium vivendi modum excedat, ductrice possit ratione conjicere.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Titus.2.12 — training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age
- ↩Titus.2.12 — training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age
- ↩Num.20.17;Deut.28.14 — Please, let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, and we will not drink water from a well. We will go by the King's Highway; we will not turn right or left until we have passed through your border. Deut.28.14 — And do not turn aside from all the words that I am commanding you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
- ↩Rom.13.7 — Pay to all what you owe: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.
- ↩Titus.2.12 — training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age
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