Contemplative Life vs. Active Life
The transition from the active life (Martha) to the contemplative life (Mary Magdalene), especially in old age — solitude, prayer, reading, and writing as paths to union with God. Moses spent forty years in contemplation before assuming leadership; Lapide described his cell as "more faithful and dearer than all the earth, a very heaven on earth."
Preliminaries
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TO THE MOST REVEREND AND MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD HENRY FRANCIS VAN DER BURCH, ARCHBISHOP AND DUKE OF CAMBRAI, PRINCE OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, COUNT OF CAMBRAI.
— Moses spent forty years in contemplation tending sheep before assuming pastoral leadership. Basil similarly first read sacred books and became their interpreter before ordination.
"In the second forty years, tending sheep, he gave himself to contemplation; and then, being eighty years old, he took up the pastorate and leadership of the people."
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THE LIFE OF CORNELIUS A LAPIDE.
— Lapide's own testimony of his contemplative turn in old age: "Once in my younger days I played Martha; now in the declining slope of age I play and love the part of Mary Magdalene more."
"Once in my younger days I played Martha; now in the declining slope of age I play and love the part of Mary Magdalene more, mindful of life's brevity, mindful of God, mindful of eternity drawing near."
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THE LIFE OF CORNELIUS A LAPIDE.
— Lapide describes his cell as "more faithful and dearer than all the earth, and seems a very heaven on earth."
"Of my cell alone — which is to me more faithful and dearer than all the earth, and seems a very heaven on earth — and of silence alone I am the inhabitant"
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THE LIFE OF CORNELIUS A LAPIDE.
— Lapide sat "at the feet of Christ, hanging upon His lips to drink in the words of life, which I may then pour out upon others."
"I sit at the feet of Christ, hanging upon His lips to drink in the words of life, which I may then pour out upon others."
Preface and Praise of Sacred Scripture
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Chapter IV: The Judgments and Examples of the Fathers
— The Essenes at Alexandria from dawn to night spent the entire day reading, listening to, and searching out allegorical senses from sacred volumes.
"from dawn to night spent the entire day in reading, listening to, and searching out the more sublime allegorical senses from the commentaries of their fathers in the sacred volumes"
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Chapter IV: The Judgments and Examples of the Fathers
— Basil and Gregory fled to monastic solitude and for 13 years devoted themselves solely to divine Scripture.
"fleeing to the solitude, quiet, and leisure of a monastery, for thirteen full years, setting aside all the books of secular Greeks, devoted themselves solely to divine Scripture"
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Chapter V: On the Dispositions Required for This Study
— The monk Theodore, so unlettered he did not know the alphabet, yet skilled in Scripture, taught that effort must be put into uprooting vices rather than perusing books.
"More effort must be put into uprooting vices than into perusing books; because once these are expelled, the eyes of the heart, admitting the heavenly light, with the veil of passions removed, the mysteries of Scripture naturally begin to contemplate them"
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Chapter V: On the Dispositions Required for This Study
— St. Bernard attained understanding of Scripture by meditating among beeches and oaks, with no other masters.
"in the study of Sacred Scripture he had no other masters than beeches and oaks, among which, of course, by praying and meditating, he seemed to see all of Sacred Scripture laid out and displayed before him"
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Praises of Moses from Scripture and the Fathers
— Gregory: Moses frequently enters and leaves the tabernacle — inside caught up in contemplation, outside pressed by the affairs of the infirm.
"Moses frequently enters and leaves the tabernacle, and he who inside is caught up in contemplation, outside is pressed by the affairs of the infirm"