Guigo II Ladder of Monks and Twelve Meditations

‘My thoughts on the spiritual exercises proper to cloistered monks’; the ninth prior of La Grande Chartreuse (†1180) articulates the monastic contemplative tradition in distinctively western terms.

‘…reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. These make a ladder for monks by which they are lifted up from earth to heaven. It has few rungs, yet its length is immense and wonderful, for its lower end rests upon the earth, but its top pierces the clouds and seeks heavenly secrets.’