Cares And Contemplation

Sollicitudo etenim necessario turbat, sicut scriptum est, Sollicita es, et turbaris ergo plurima: cura vero gravat. Unde est illud Domini: Ne graventur corda nostra crapula et ebrietate, et curis hujus saeculi. Sollicitudo male sustollit, cura pejus deprimit, acedia pessime dissolvit. Mens enim in otio acediosa fructum actionis perdit, et contemplationis lucem minime invenit. Porro depressa curis, in altum se nequaquam erigit, turbata serena esse nequit. Cor enim quod tranquillim non est, serenum esse nullatenus potest, sin autem serenum, nec perlucidum. Cor vero contemplantis perlucere oportet, tanquam speculum, aut aquam limpidissimam et quietem, ut in ipso, ac per ipsum, sicut in speculo, per speculum, videat mens suam ad imaginem Deo imaginem. Ad hoc ergo cor mundandum est Deum speculari cupientis, non solum a noxiis ac superfluis, sed etiam necessariis cruis: et excitandum lectione, meditatione, oratione. Beati enim mundicordes, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt: quod ipse nobis prestare dignetur. Isaac, Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo XXV Source: Migne PL 194.1774b-c

Indeed worry does trouble one, as it has been written: 'You are worried and therefore troubled by many things.' 1 but care is a burden. Whence our Lord's warning: 'Do not let your hearts grow dull with revelry and drunkenness and with the cares of this world. 2 Worry wickedly occupies, worldly care is a worse burden, listlessness is the worst ruin. A soul in listless leisure loses the fruit of its action and never finds the light of contemplation. A mind oppressed by cares can no more raise itself on high than a troubled mind can know peace. A heart which is not tranquil is far from being peaceful, and equally far from being bright with light. But a contemplative heart must be as bright as a mirror, like some still stretch of clear water, so that in it and through it, as in a mirror, the mind may see itself, 3 an image in the image of God. The heart, therefore, which desires the sight of God must be cleansed, not only from harmful and unneeded cares, but even necessary ones. It must be ever stimulated by reading and meditation and prayer. 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,' 4 which may He deign to grant to us. Isaac of Stella, from Sermon 25 1 Lk 10.41 2 Lk 21.34 3 1 Cor 13.12 4 Mt 5.8