The virtue which, more than any other, leads to contemplation is charity.

This is the immediate source from which mystic enjoyment wells up. Faithful to the evangelical principle that everything is summarised in love, Anthony does not hesitate to say that the essence of contemplation consists of the observance of the two "twin" precepts of charity, "Two things, the love of God and one's neighbour, make man perfect."

There are numerous elements in Anthony's Sermones that show the importance that this twin love has in Anthony's spiritual doctrine.
It is characterised by the affective intensity of the first generation Franciscans, enriched by an intellectual edge given by the theological background of the saint.

In his doctrine on love, Anthony is inspired by Augustine and Bernard, but especially by the first. He illuminates it, however, with his genius and the fecundity of his mystic temperament.

First of all, he starts with the etymological explanation he is so fond of. He calls love dilectio because, "it links two people. Dilection, which is love for God and one's neighbour, starts with two. The obligation of twin love seems, to Anthony, like the realisation of the divine command; in observing it, all the perfection of heaven and earth is reassumed (cf Luke 10, 25-28; Dt 6, 5).

The saint accentuates the pre-eminent character of twin love by referring to the definition of God given by Saint John, "God is love" (1John 4, 8-16). The identification of charity with God leads him to immediately enunciate a few principles which are at the base of his doctrine on love. First principle: God is the true object of love "for itself." The love of God is, for Anthony, that which is the most essential thing of all. Second principle: charity must consider itself the principle virtue, the most important of all virtues.

The loves of man

Coherent with divine teaching, Anthony distinguishes three types of love in man: love of God, of one's neighbour and of oneself. And, with regards to this, he mentions a metaphor made by Saint Isidor of Seville, in which the eagle lays three eggs, two in the nest and the third outside of the nest so as not to weaken herself with the care and feeding necessary for three eagle chicks. The saint uses the three eggs to represent the triple love of God, of one's neighbour and of oneself. And he concludes that man must remove from "the nest of his conscience" the love of himself to keep the first two alive, because particular love (amor privatus), which is limited to the pleasures of the world, is an obstacle to love of God and of one's neighbour. Anthony again emphasises the incompatibility between the love of God and of oneself when he affirms that the love of God grows in the measure that the other diminishes.

For those people who wish to make progress in a spiritual life, the saint recommends that they not live prey to continual earthly worries. Because God only communicates with the man who leaves the enclosure of comfortable securities and renders himself open to the action of grace.

He himself is an example. He left the world, and substituted the prospective of a brilliant worldly career, made easy by the important social position of his family, for the arduous path of the cross. From this point on, Anthony's life became a prolonged immersion in the contemplation of God.

Man draws near to and unites with God as love becomes the mainspring of his conduct and "informs" his deeds.

Contemplation and action, twin lives

For Anthony, the distinction of life between contemplative and active spheres corresponds with the love of God and one's neighbour. Contemplation is consecrated in the mystic union with God, action serves to come to the aid of one's neighbour. Naturally, there is a certain subordination of active life to contemplation, due to the excellence of the object of contemplation. Love of one's neighbour has its basis in the love of God, who created man, the object of the second love.

As the essential interdependence between the love of God and one's neighbour cause the saint to define them twins, in the same way, the subordination of active life to contemplation leads him to call both lives "twins." For Anthony, the state of Christian perfection can not be attained solely through action, nor solely through contemplation, but in the reconciliation of one with the other.

Speaking of Jacob's ladder, Anthony invites all to climb it, because upon reaching the top it is possible to contemplate God and enjoy his gentleness. Upon having reached perfection and an ever-growing intimacy with God, the contemplative man climbs down that ladder to spread his divine love to others and to console his neighbours. The action of rising and descending, or better, of going and returning, which are of Platonic inspiration, create an itinerary of great spiritual interest. The life of a just man winds in two directions, one of going to contemplation and the other of descending to act. The nature of twin love requires and supposes this. The saints, writes Anthony after Saint Gregory Magnus, passed from the contemplative to the active life. Not being able to remain ever suspended in mystic spheres, they follow up contemplation with action that benefits others.

Christian life, a song with two choruses

The Christian life is both prayer and praise. Prayer must continue with a life donated to the good of the brothers for the glory of God.

Brother Anthony established a sort of equation between deeds and uninterrupted prayer. Doing good deeds and praying continually are two complementary activities, in harmony and glorifying of God, like a song with two choruses, which rises up from the daily life of believers. The unifying harmony is, basically, a mutual need. Action, without prayer, would have neither light nor flavour (lucerna sine oleo, opus sine devozione).

Text by Antonio Giuseppe Nocilli, adapted by Father Paolo Floretta