Didascalicon, Book V: the senses of Scripture and the three kinds of readers
Chapter IX. On the five degrees in which the life of the just is exercised
There are four things in which the life of the just is now exercised, and by which as by certain degrees it is lifted to future perfection: namely reading or doctrine, meditation, prayer, and work. The fifth then follows, contemplation, in which, as by a certain fruit of the preceding, even in this life what the future reward of good work will be is foretasted. Hence the Psalmist, when speaking of the judgments of God, commending them, at once added: In keeping them there is a great reward (Ps. 18). Of these five degrees the first, that is reading, is of beginners; the highest, that is contemplation, of the perfect. And of the middle ones, the more of them one has ascended, the more perfect he will be; for example: The first, reading, gives understanding; the second, meditation, supplies counsel; the third, prayer, asks; the fourth, work, seeks; the fifth, contemplation, finds. If, then, you read and have understanding and know now what is to be done, it is the beginning of good, but it does not yet suffice you; you are not yet perfect. Mount, therefore, to the citadel of counsel, and meditate how you may be able to fulfill what you have learned is to be done. For many have knowledge, but few are those who know in what manner it is fitting to know. Again, since man’s counsel without divine help is weak and ineffectual, rise to prayer; and ask his help, without which no one can do any good, that his grace, which by going before illumined you, may by following also direct your feet into the way of peace; and bring to effect by good work what is as yet only in the will. Then it remains for you to gird yourself for good work, that what you ask by praying you may deserve to receive by working. God wills to work with you; you are not compelled, but helped. If you alone work, you accomplish nothing; if God alone works, you merit nothing. Let God work that you may be able; and do you also work something that you may merit. The way is good work, by which one goes to life. He who runs this way seeks life. Be strengthened and act manfully. This way has its reward, as often as, wearied by its labors, we are enlightened by the grace of a look from above, tasting and seeing that the Lord is sweet (Ps. 33). And so it comes about, as was said above, that what prayer seeks, contemplation finds. You see, then, how perfection meets those who ascend by these degrees, so that he who remains below cannot be perfect. Our purpose, therefore, ought to be always to ascend; but since the mutability of our life is so great that we cannot stand in the same place, we are compelled to look back at what is past; and lest we lose that in which we are, we sometimes return to what we have passed; for example: He who is strenuous in work prays that he may not fail. He who persists in prayers meditates what is to be prayed for, lest in praying he offend; and he who sometimes trusts less in his own counsel consults reading; and so it happens that, while the will to ascend is always ours, necessity nevertheless sometimes compels us to descend; yet so that our purpose consists in will, not in necessity. That we ascend is purpose; that we descend is beside purpose. Not this, then, but that ought to be principal.