Friday, December 1 : Saint Bernard

“In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). But blessed is he in whom he has his being, who lives for him and is moved by him. You ask then how I knew he was present, he whose ways cannot be traced (Rom 11: 3 3). He is life and power (Heb 4: 12), and as soon as he enters in he stirs my sleeping soul. He moves and soothes and pierces my heart, which was as hard as stone and riddled with disease (Ez 36:26). And he begins to root up and destroy, to build and to plant, to water the dry places and light the dark corners (cf. Jer 1:10), to open what was closed, set what was cold on fire, “to make the crooked straight and the rough places smooth” (Is 40:4), so that my soul may bless the Lord and all that is within me praise his holy name (Ps 102.1). And so when the Bridegroom, the Word, came to me he never made any sign that he was coming… Only by the warmth of my heart, as I said before, did I know that he was there, and I knew the power of his might because my faults were purged and my body’s yearnings brought under control. And when my secret faults were revealed and made visible, I have been amazed at the depth of his wisdom, At the slightest amendment of my life, I have experienced the goodness of his mercy. In the making and renewing of the spirit of my mind (2Cor 4,16; Eph 4,23), that is the inner man, I perceived the excellence of his glorious beauty; and when I contemplate all these things I am filled with awe of his manifold greatness.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team