Bøger af St Bernard Of Clairvaux

In this 11th century text, St Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church, gives the reader his insights and advice on Love, describing the four separate kinds of love that seekers experience on their path to Loving God: self-love, selfish love, loving God objectified, and loving one's self in God. This desire for Deity, the Saint asserts, is both a duty, because "He loved us first...miserable sinners, with a love so great and free", and a delight, as God bestows upon those who attain to the fourth stage of Love the blessed state of the Heavenly Fatherland, free from pain, sorrow and despair. St. Bernard's poetic medieval prose is surprisingly accessible, full of intriguing imagery, flashes of humor, and deep wisdom.

INTRODUCTION 5 ADVENT 12 I. SERMON ON ITS SIX CIRCUMSTANCES 12 II. SERMON ON THE WORDS TO ACHAZ, "ASK THEE A SIGN," ETC. 28 ON THE "MISSUS EST" 35 I. PRAISES OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER 36 II. THE MISSION OF THE ANGEL 50 III. COLLOQUY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND THE ANGEL 70 IV. THE ANNUNCIATION, AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN'S CONSENT 88 ON THE VIGIL OF OUR LORD'S NATIVITY 106 I. ON THE JOY HIS BIRTH SHOULD INSPIRE 106 II. ON THE MIRACULOUS NATURE OF THE NATIVITY 116 III. ON THE DISPOSITIONS REQUIRED IN THOSE WHO CELEBRATE THE FEAST 127 ON OUR LORD'S NATIVITY 138 I. THE FOUNTAINS OF THE SAVIOUR 138 II. THE THREE COMMINGLINGS 149 III. ON THE PLACE, TIME, AND OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES 159 IV. ON THE SHEPHERDS FINDING OUR LORD 170 V. ON THE WORDS, "BLESSED BE THE GOD AND FATHER," ETC. 176 ON THE CIRCUMCISION 184 ON THE HOLY NAME 190 ON THE HOLY NAME AND OTHER SCRIPTURAL TITLES OF OUR LORD 190 ON THE EPIPHANY 200 I. ON "THE GOODNESS AND KINDNESS OF OUR SAVIOUR HATH APPEARED" 200 II. "GO FORTH, YE DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM" 209 III. ON THE GIFTS OF THE WISE MEN 215

On loving God. How much God deserves love from man in recognition of His gifts, both material and spiritual: and how these gifts should be cherished without neglect of the Giver. Those who admit the truth of what I have said know, I am sure, why we are bound to love God. But if unbelievers will not grant it, their ingratitude is at once confounded by His innumerable benefits, lavished on our race, and plainly discerned by the senses. Who is it that gives food to all flesh, light to every eye, air to all that breathe? It would be foolish to begin a catalogue, since I have just called them innumerable: but I name, as notable instances, food, sunlight and air; not because they are God's best gifts, but because they are essential to bodily life. Man must seek in his own higher nature for the highest gifts; and these are dignity, wisdom and virtue. By dignity I mean free-will, whereby he not only excels all other earthly creatures, but has dominion over them. Wisdom is the power whereby he recognizes this dignity, and perceives also that it is no accomplishment of his own. And virtue impels man to seek eagerly for Him who is man's Source, and to lay fast hold on Him when He has been found. Now, these three best gifts have each a twofold character. Dignity appears not only as the prerogative of human nature, but also as the cause of that fear and dread of man which is upon every beast of the earth. Wisdom perceives this distinction, but owns that though in us, it is, like all good qualities, not of us. And lastly, virtue moves us to search eagerly for an Author, and, when we have found Him, teaches us to cling to Him yet more eagerly. Consider too that dignity without wisdom is nothing worth; and wisdom is harmful without virtue, as this argument following shows: There is no glory in having a gift without knowing it. But to know only that you have it, without knowing that it is not of yourself that you have it, means self-glorying, but no true glory in God. And so the apostle says to men in such cases, 'What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? (I Cor. 4.7). He asks, Why dost thou glory? But goes on, as if thou hadst not received it, showing that the guilt is not in glorying over a possession, but in glorying as though it had not been received. And rightly such glorying is called vain-glory, since it has not the solid foundation of truth. The apostle shows how to discern the true glory from the false, when he says, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, that is, in the Truth, since our Lord is Truth (I Cor. 1.31; John 14.6).

INTRODUCTION 5 ADVENT 10 I. SERMON ON ITS SIX CIRCUMSTANCES 10 II. SERMON ON THE WORDS TO ACHAZ, "ASK THEE A SIGN," ETC. 20 ON THE "MISSUS EST" 25 I. PRAISES OF THE VIRGIN-MOTHER 25 II. THE MISSION OF THE ANGEL 34 III. COLLOQUY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND THE ANGEL 46 IV. THE ANNUNCIATION, AND THE BLESSED VIRGIN'S CONSENT 57 ON THE VIGIL OF OUR LORD'S NATIVITY 68 I. ON THE JOY HIS BIRTH SHOULD INSPIRE 68 II. ON THE MIRACULOUS NATURE OF THE NATIVITY 74 III. ON THE DISPOSITIONS REQUIRED IN THOSE WHO CELEBRATE THE FEAST 81 ON OUR LORD'S NATIVITY 88 I. THE FOUNTAINS OF THE SAVIOUR 88 II. THE THREE COMMINGLINGS 95 III. ON THE PLACE, TIME, AND OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES 101 IV. ON THE SHEPHERDS FINDING OUR LORD 108 V. ON THE WORDS, "BLESSED BE THE GOD AND FATHER," ETC. 112 ON THE CIRCUMCISION 117 ON THE HOLY NAME 121 ON THE HOLY NAME AND OTHER SCRIPTURAL TITLES OF OUR LORD 121 ON THE EPIPHANY 127 I. ON "THE GOODNESS AND KINDNESS OF OUR SAVIOUR HATH APPEARED" 127 II. "GO FORTH, YE DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM" 133 III. ON THE GIFTS OF THE WISE MEN 137

The greatest of all the mystical texts, explaining the relationship between God and the soul, divine and human love; the inspiration for the greatest Christian poetry of Dante and St. John of the Cross, by the founder of the silent Trappist order of monks.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153), was a Burgundian abbot, and an important reformer of Benedictine monasticism through the new Cistercian order. He is famous for playing a key role in various councils of his time and also for being a leading advocate for the failed second Crusade. In 1830 he was declared a doctor of the church. This book gives his commentary on King Solomon''s book Canticle of Canticles (written around the 8th century BCE). The source text for this work is "St. Bernard''s sermons on the Canticle of Canticles, Dublin: Browne and Nolan, 1920, by St. Bernard of Clairvaux." To this work have been added illustrations of the author and various figures mentioned in the text.