On prayer and the contemplative life · Aquinas, Saint Thomas
1. In the Canon Law it is said: "Since the greater good is to be
Chapter 105 of 107 · 1 min read
preferred to the less, so, too, the common gain is to be preferred to private gain; and in this sense teaching is rightly preferred to silence, anxious care for others to contemplation, and toil to repose." But that Religious Order is the better which is directed to the attainment of the greater good. Hence it seems that Orders which are devoted to an active life are superior to those which aim solely at contemplation.
But this Decretal speaks of the active life as concerned with the salvation of souls.



