Saturday, April 1 : Saint Bernard

In the Song of Songs we read: “The fragrance of your perfume is exquisite.” (Song 1:3) I distinguish several kinds… There is the perfume of contrition and that of piety; there is also that of compassion… Thus there is a first perfume, which the soul makes for its own use, taken from the net of many faults as the soul begins to reflect on its past. Then it gathers together the many sins it has committed in the mortar of its conscience, compressing and grinding these; and in the pot of its burning heart, it cooks them over the fire of repentance and suffering… This is the fragrance with which the sinful soul must cover the beginnings of its conversion and anoint its recent wounds. For the first sacrifice that is to be offered to God is that of a repentant heart. So long as the poor and destitute soul does not have what it needs to make a more precious ointment, it must not neglect preparing this one, even if it is made of very worthless things. God will not spurn a heart that humbles itself in contrition (Ps 51:19)… Moreover, this invisible and spiritual perfume cannot seem vulgar to us if we understand that it is symbolized in the perfume that, according to the Gospel, the sinful woman poured over the Lord’s feet. For we read that “the house was filled with the ointment’s fragrance”… Let us remember the perfume that fills the whole Church through the conversion of one single sinner. Every penitent who repents becomes a fragrance of life for a crowd of others, whom it awakens to life. The fragrance of repentance rises up to the heavenly dwelling places since, according to Scripture, “the repentance of one single sinner is a great joy for the angels of God.” (Lk 15:10)
maronite readings – rosary,team