Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

THE HEALING ROLE OF FRIENDSHIP 67
good humor, purity of heart, and a genuine desire to draw closer
to Christ give the reader a sense that the monastic ideal has
been enfleshed in the lives of real people.
The dialogue’s erratic chronological framework, moreover,
conveys the strong impression that time itself is of only relative
importance to the characters. Aelred and his friends are keenly
aware of the small amount of time they have at their disposal for
talking about friendship, but do not seem particularly concerned
about it. Shaped by a Rule that seeks to sanctify the day through
a strict regimen of prayer, spiritual reading, and manual labor,
they recognize time itself as a gift from God to be used primarily
for giving glory to him. This attitude frees them from pressures
of an exclusively utilitarian view of time based on output
and production. As a result, they are not overly concerned if
their conversation is broken off in mid-course by the demands
of the Rule or community duties. What has been dropped can be
taken up again as the need arises. In their eyes, the span of years
between books one and two and of a single day between books
two and three are of little consequence. What matters is not if
they finish what they are doing, but if they are using their time
in a way that give honor and glory to God. 13
Finally, Aelred uses the dialogue form to introduce the reader
to a variety of relationships both in and out of time. He makes
this clear in the very first sentence of Book One when he says to
Ivo, “Here we are, you and I, and I hope a third, Christ, is in our
midst.” 14 Whether consciously averted to or not, Christ is the in-
13 Breaks in time within the DSA occur between Books One and Two (a
number of years) and between Books Two and Three (a single day). A break
for an unspecified amount of time also occurs between DSA 2:7 and 2:8 (CC-
CM 1:303(53-54); SF 71). Although annoyance may be expressed at the need
of having to postpone their conversation for a time (e.g, DSA 1:71, 2:72; CCM
1:301(413-15), 2:315-16(470-73); SF 66, 87, Aelred and his dialogue partners
never openly complain about the Rule and what it requires of them. The
monastic attitude toward time is closely linked to the “devotion to heaven,”
which manifested itself in a life of “busy leisure” (negotiosissimum otium)
that steered clear of the dual perils of idleness (otiositas) and business
(negotium). The business of the monk, one might say, was to live a life of holy
leisure. See LECLERCQ, The Love of Learning, 53-70, esp. 67.
14 DSA 1:1 [CCCM 1:289(4-5); SF 51].