Bernard of Clairvaux
1090–1153
Cistercian abbot and the last of the fathers, whose On Loving God shaped medieval and Reformation devotion alike.
In his own words
In that day the members of Christ can say of themselves what St. Paul testified concerning their Head: Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more' (II Cor. 5. 16). None shall thereafter know himself after the flesh; for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God' (I Cor. 15. 50). Not that there will be no true substance of the flesh, but all carnal needs will be taken away, and the love of the flesh will be swallowed up in the love of the spirit, so that our weak human affections will be made divinely strong. Then the net of charity which as it is drawn through the great and wide sea doth not cease to gather every kind of fish, will be drawn to the shore; and the bad will be cast away, while only the good will be kept (Matt. 13. 48). In this life the net of all-including love gathers every kind of fish into its wide folds, becoming all things to all men, sharing adversity or prosperity, rejoicing with them that do rejoice, and weeping with them that weep (Rom. 12. 15). But when the net is drawn to shore, whatever causes pain will be rejected, like the bad fish, while only what is pleasant and joyous will be kept. Do you not recall how St. Paul said: Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended and I burn not? ' And yet weakness and offense were far from him. So too he bewailed many which had sinned already and had not repented, though he was neither the sinner nor the penitent. But there is a city made glad by the rivers of the flood of grace (Ps. 46.
Quoted verbatim from the library, as an answer would quote it.
What we hold of him
On Loving God
Church father
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