Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/189

 vn] WESTERN MONASTICISM 171 of complete humility and reach that heavenly exalta- tion to which we ascend through the humility of the present life, we must by our ascending acts erect those stairs which appeared in Jacob's dream, on which the angels were shown to him descending and ascending. By this we should understand descent through exaltation and ascent through humility. The upright stairway is our life on earth, which a heart humbled by the Lord raises to heaven. The sides of this stairway we call our body and soul ; in them the divine summons (evocatio) sets the stairs of hu- mility or discipline to be ascended. The first stair of humility is, if, setting the fear of God continually before our eyes, we never forget His commands, always remembering that those who despise Him go to Hell because of their sins, and that eternal life is prepared for those who fear Him : and we must guard ourselves every hour from sins and faults of thought, tongue, eye, hand, foot, will, and cut off the desires of the flesh, knowing that we and our deeds are always beheld by Him and told Him by the angels. The second stair of humility is, if any one, loving not his own will, delights not in fulfilling his desires, but imitates in his deeds that saying of the Lord, I came not to do my own will, but His who sent me. The third stair is, that each for the love of God, should subject himself in all obedience to his superior (majori)f imitating the Lord, of whom the Apostle says, He made Himself obedient to the Father unto death. The fourth stair is, if in hard and vexatious matters,