§2Cetera aeque animi impedimenta usque ad limen carceris deduxerint vos, quousque et parentes vestri.
Let other similar impediments of the soul have escorted you all the way to the threshold of the prison, as far as your parents also did.
Exinde segregati estis ab ipso mundo, quanto magis a saeculo rebusque eius? Nec hoc vos consternet, quod segregati estis a mundo.
From that point on you have been separated from the world itself; how much more from the secular life and its affairs? And let this not dismay you, that you are separated from the world.
Si enim recogitemus ipsum magis mundum carcerem esse, exisse vos e carcere quam in carcerem introisse intellegemus.
For if we reflect that the world itself is rather a prison, we shall understand that you have gone out of a prison rather than entered into a prison.
Maiores tenebras habet mundus, quae hominum praecordia excaecant.
The world has greater darkness, which blinds the hearts of men.
Graviores catenas induit mundus, quae ipsas animas hominum constringunt.
The world puts on heavier chains, which bind the very souls of men.
Peiores immunditias expirat mundus, libidines hominum.
The world breathes out worse impurities, the lusts of men.
Plures postremo mundus reos continet, scilicet universum hominum genus.
Finally, the world contains more guilty ones, namely the entire human race.
Iudicia denique non proconsulis, sed dei sustinet.
Lastly, it undergoes the judgments not of a proconsul, but of God.
Quo vos, benedicti, de carcere in custodiarium, si forte, translatos existimetis.
Wherefore, blessed ones, you may consider yourselves as having been transferred from a prison to a place of custody, as it were.
Habet tenebras, sed lumen estis ipsi.
It has darkness, but you yourselves are light.
Habet vincula, sed vos soluti deo estis.
It has bonds, but you are set free to God.
Triste illic expirat, sed vos odor estis suavitatis.
A grim odor breathes out there, but you are a sweet fragrance.
Iudex expectatur, sed vos estis de iudicibus ipsis iudicaturi.
A judge is expected, but you are to judge the judges themselves.
Contristetur illi qui fructum saeculi suspirat.
Let him be saddened there who sighs for the fruits of the world.
Christianus etiam extra carcerem saeculo renuntiavit, in carcere autem etiam carceri.
A Christian, even outside of prison, has renounced the world, and in prison, indeed, even the prison.
Nihil interest, ubi sitis in saeculo, qui extra saeculum estis.
It makes no difference where you are in the world, you who are outside the world.
Et si aliqua amisistis vitae gaudia, negotiatio est aliquid amittere, ut maiora lucreris.
And if you have lost some joys of life, it is a matter of business to lose something so that you may gain greater things.
Nihil adhuc dico de praemio, ad quod deus martyres invitat.
As yet I say nothing of the reward to which God invites the martyrs.
Ipsam interim conversationem saeculi et carceris comparemus, si non plus in carcere spiritus acquirit, quam caro amittit.
Meanwhile, let us compare life in the world and in prison, to see if the spirit does not gain more in prison than the flesh loses.
Immo et quae iusta sunt caro non amittit per curam ecclesiae et agapen fratrum, et insuper quae semper utilia fidei, spiritus adipiscitur.
Rather, the flesh does not even lose what is necessary, through the care of the Church and the love of the brethren, and moreover, the spirit acquires what is always useful for faith.
Non vides alienos deos, non imaginibus eorum incurris, non sollemnes nationum dies ipsa commixtione participas, non nidoribus spurcis verberaris, non clamoribus spectaculorum, atrocitate vel furore vel impudicitia celebrantium caederis, non in loca libidinum publicarum oculi tui impingunt, vacas a scandalis, a temptationibus, a recordationibus malis, iam et a persecutione.
You do not see strange gods, you do not run into their images, you do not participate in the solemn days of the gentiles by mixing with them, you are not struck by foul smells of sacrifices, you are not beaten by the clamor of the spectacles, by the cruelty or fury or unchastity of those who celebrate them, your eyes do not strike upon places of public lust, you are free from scandals, from temptations, from evil recollections, and now even from persecution.
Hoc praestat carcer Christiano, quod eremus prophetis.
The prison provides for the Christian what the wilderness did for the prophets.
Ipse dominus in secessu frequentius agebat, ut liberius oraret, ut saeculo cederet: gloriam denique suam discipulis in solitudine demonstravit.
The Lord Himself lived more frequently in retirement, so that He might pray more freely and withdraw from the world; finally, He demonstrated His glory to His disciples in solitude.
Auferamus carceris nomen, secessum vocemus.
Let us take away the name of prison; let us call it a place of retirement.
Etsi corpus includitur, etsi caro detinetur, omnia spiritui patent.
Although the body is shut up, although the flesh is detained, all things are open to the spirit.
Vagare spiritu, spatiare spiritu et non stadia opaca aut porticus longas proponens tibi, sed illam viam, quae ad deum ducit.
Wander in the spirit, walk in the spirit, proposing to yourself not shaded racecourses or long porticos, but that path which leads to God.
Quotiens eam spiritu deambulaveris, totiens in carcere non eris.
As often as you walk along it in the spirit, so often you will not be in prison.
Nihil crus sentit in nervo, cum animus in caelo est.
The leg feels nothing in the wooden stocks when the mind is in heaven.
Totum hominem animus circumfert et, quo velit, transfert.
The mind carries the whole man about and transfers him wherever it wishes.
Ubi autem erit cor tuum, illic erit et thesaurus tuus.
Moreover, where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.
Ibi ergo sit cor nostrum, ubi volumus habere thesaurum.
Let our heart therefore be there where we wish to have our treasure.
§3Sit nunc, benedicti, carcer etiam Christianis molestus.
Let the prison now, blessed ones, be indeed troublesome even to Christians.
Vocati sumus ad militiam dei vivi iam tunc, cum in sacramenti verba respondemus.
We were called to the warfare of the living God already at that time when we responded to the words of the oath.
Nemo miles ad bellum cum deliciis venit nec de cubiculo ad aciem procedit, sed de papilionibus expeditis et substrictis, ubi omnis duritia et inbonitas et insuavitas constitit.
No soldier goes to war with luxuries, nor does he advance to the battleline from his bedchamber, but from pitched and cramped tents, where every hardship, unpleasantness, and discomfort resides.
Etiam in pace labore et incommodis bellum pati iam ediscunt in armis deambulando, campum decurrendo, fossam moliendo, testudinem destinando, desudando.
Even in peace, they already learn to endure war through labor and hardships by marching in arms, running across the field, digging trenches, forming the testudo, and sweating.
Sudore omnia constant, ne corpora atque animi expavescant de umbra ad solem et sole ad gelum, de tunica ad loricam, de silentio ad clamorem, de quiete ad tumultum.
All things are costed in sweat, so that bodies and minds may not tremble in moving from shade to sun and from sun to cold, from tunic to armor, from silence to shouting, from rest to tumult.
Proinde vos, benedicti, quodcunque hoc durum est, ad exercitationem virtutum animi et corporis deputate.
Therefore, blessed ones, count whatever hardness there is as an exercise of the virtues of mind and body.
Bonum agonem subituri estis, in quo agonothetes deus vivus est, xystarches spiritus sanctus, corona aeternitatis brabium angelicae substantiae, politia in caelis, gloria in saecula saeculorum.
You are about to enter a noble contest, in which the superintendent is the living God, the trainer is the Holy Spirit, the crown is eternity, the prize is of angelic substance, citizenship is in heaven, and glory is for ever and ever.
Itaque epistates vester Christus Iesus, qui vos spiritu unxit et ad hoc scamma produxit, voluit vos ante diem agonis ad duriorem tractationem a liberiore condicione seponere, ut vires corroborarentur in vobis.
Therefore your trainer, Christ Jesus, who anointed you with the Spirit and led you out to this arena, wished to set you apart from a freer condition to a harsher treatment before the day of the contest, so that your strength might be reinforced within you.
Nempe enim et athletae segregantur ad strietiorem disciplinam, ut robori aedificando vacent.
For indeed, athletes also are segregated for a stricter discipline, so that they may devote themselves to building up their strength.
Continentur a luxuria, a cibis laetioribus, a potu iocundiore, coguntur, cruciantur, fatigantur: quanto plus in exercitationibus laboraverint, tanto plus de victoria sperant.
They are kept from luxury, from richer foods, from more pleasant drink; they are constrained, tormented, fatigued; the more they labor in exercises, the more they hope for victory.
Et illi, inquit apostolus, ut coronam corruptibilem consequantur. Nos aeternam consecuturi carcerem nobis pro palaestra interpretamur, ut ad stadium tribunalis bene exercitati incommodis omnibus producamur, quia virtus duritia extruitur, mollitia vero destruitur.
"And they," says the Apostle, "that they may obtain a corruptible crown." We, who are to obtain an eternal one, interpret the prison to ourselves as a gymnasium, so that we may be brought out to the arena of the tribunal well-trained by all discomforts; for virtue is built up by hardness, but indeed is destroyed by softness.