About Bernard of Clairvaux: Bernard of Clairvaux was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.
Many of those who are humiliated are not humble. Some react to humiliation with anger, others with patience, and others with freedom. The first are culpable, the next harmless, the last just.
You wish me to tell you why and how God should be loved. My answer is that God himself is the reason he is to be loved.
There are people who go clad in tunics and have nothing to do with furs, who nevertheless are lacking in humility. Surely humility in furs is better than pride in tunics.
I was made a sinner by deriving my being from Adam; I am made just by being washed in the blood of Christ and not by Christ's 'words and example.'
Neither fear nor self-interest can convert the soul. They may change the appearance, perhaps even the conduct, but never the object of supreme desire... Fear is the motive which constrains the slave; greed binds the selfish man, by which he is tempte...
To shame our sins He blushed in blood; He closed His eyes to show us God; Let all the world fall down and know That none but God such love can show
So far from being able to answer for my sins, I cannot even answer for my righteousness!
There is no greater misery than false joys.
There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is Curiosity. There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is Vanity. There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is Love.
Jesus the very thought of Thee With sweetness fills my breast; But sweeter far Thy face to see, And in Thy presence rest.
I have ascended to the highest in me, and look, the Word is towering above that. I have descended to explore my lowest depths, and I found Him deeper still.
