On prayer and the contemplative life · Aquinas, Saint Thomas
1. "The lot which falls to the better people seems to be the more
Chapter 98 of 107 · 1 min read
honourable and better," as the Philosopher says. But the active life is the lot of those who are in the higher position—of prelates, for instance, who are placed in honourable and powerful positions; thus S. Augustine says: "In the life of action we must not love the honour which belongs to this life, nor its power." Whence it would seem that the active life is preferable to the contemplative.
But it is not the active life only which belongs to prelates, they must needs excel in the contemplative life; whence S. Gregory says in his Pastoral Rule: "Let the superior be foremost in action, but before all let him be uplifted in contemplation."
