Tuesday, July 22 : Saint Bernard

But now bear with my foolishness for a little. I confess, then, though I say it in my foolishness, that the Word has visited me, and even very often. But although He has frequently entered into my soul, I have never at any time been sen sible of the precise moment of His coming. I have felt that He was present. I remember that He has been with me; I have sometimes been able even to have a presentiment that He would come; but never to feel His coming, nor His departure. For whence He came to enter my soul, or whither He went on quitting it, by what means He has made entrance or departure, I confess that I know not even to this day ; according to that which is said: Thou canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth (John iii. 8). ‘It is not by the eyes that He enters, for He is without form or colour that they can discern ,’ nor by the ears, for His coming is without sound; nor, lastly, is it capable of being traced by the touch, for it is intangible. By what avenue, then, has He entered? Or per haps the fact may be that He has not entered at all, nor indeed come at all from outside. For not one of these things belongs to outside. Yet it has not come from within me, for it is good, and I know that in me dwelleth no good thing (Rom. vii. 18). I have ascended higher than myself, and lo! I have found the Word above me still…thus I have learned the truth of the words I had read: In bfim we live and move and have our being (Acts xvii. 28) ; but blessed is the man in whom He is, who lives for Him, and is moved by Him.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team