The active and contemplative lives

S. Gregory the Great says: “There are two kinds of lives in which Almighty God instructs us by His Sacred Word—namely, the active and the contemplative.”

Those things are properly said to live which move or work from within themselves. But what especially accords with the innermost nature of a thing is that which is proper to it and towards which it is especially inclined; consequently every living thing shows that it is living by those very acts which are especially befitting it and towards which it is especially inclined. Thus the life of plants is said to consist in their growing and in their producing seed; the life of animals in their feeling and moving; while that of man consists in his understanding and in his acting according to reason.

Hence among men themselves each man’s life appears to be that in which he takes special pleasure, that with which he is particularly occupied, that, in fine, in which each one wishes to live with a friend, as is said in the Ethics of Aristotle.

Since, then, some men are especially occupied with the contemplation of the truth while others are especially occupied with external things, man’s life may be conveniently divided into the active and the contemplative.