Wednesday, October 4 : Saint Bernard

In love alone, of all the movements of the soul and the senses and affections, can the creature respond to the Creator, if not with an equal, at least with a like return of gift for gift… the Bridegroom’s love, or rather the Bridegroom who is Love, asks only the commitment of love and faith. Let the beloved love in return. How can the Bride not love, the Bride of Love himself? How can Love not be loved? So, rightly renouncing all other desires, she gives herself up wholly to Love, for it is in responding to Love that she is able to return love. For though she pours herself out completely in love, what is that in comparison with the inexhaustible flow of love from his spring? Love does not flow in equal measure from her who loves and Love himself, the soul and the Word, the Bride and the Bridegroom, creature and Creator, any more than a thirsty man is like a fountain… The desire of her who longs, the ardor of her who loves, the trust of her who is confident, because she cannot run step for step with a giant (Ps 19[18],6), rival honey in sweetness, the lamb in mildness, the lily in whiteness, the sun in brightness, or match in her love him who is Love? No. For even if the creature loves less because it is lesser, yet if she loves with all her heart, nothing is lacking where all is given… This love is nothing other than holy and chaste love, love sweet and tender, love as tranquil as it is true, mutual, close, deep love, which is not in one flesh but which joins two in one spirit, making two no longer two but one. As Paul says: “He who is united to God is one spirit with him” (1Cor 6,17).
maronite readings – rosary,team