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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230202
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DTSTAMP:20260406T014739
CREATED:20230128T214928Z
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UID:10035-1675296000-1675382399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Reading: Presentation of the Lord
DESCRIPTION:How the Coming and Returning of the Word\nWorks for the Soul’s Salvation 5\nA Reading by St Bernard of Clairvaux \nI admit that the Word has also come to me…But although he has come to me\,\nI have never been conscious of the moment of his coming. I perceived his presence\,\nI remembered afterwards that he had been with me; sometimes I had a\npresentiment that he would come\, but I was never conscious of his coming or his\ngoing…How then did he enter? Perhaps he did not enter because he does not come\nfrom outside? He is not one of the things which exist outside us. Yet he does not\ncome from within me…I have ascended to the highest in me\, and look! The word is\ntowering above that. In my curiosity I have descended to explore my lowest depths\,\nyet I found him even deeper. If I looked outside myself\, I saw him stretching\nbeyond the furthest I could see; & I looked within\, he was yet further within. Then I\nknew the truth of what I had read\, ‘In him we live & move & have our being’. And\nblessed is the man in whom he has his being\, who lives for him\, and is moved by\nhim. \nYou ask then how I knew he was present\, when his ways can in no way be\ntraced? He is life and power\, and as soon as he enters in\, he awakens my\nslumbering soul; he stirs and soothes and pierces my heart\, for before it was hard as\nstone\, and diseased. So he has begun to pluck out and destroy\, to build up and to\nplant\, to water dry places and illuminate dark ones; to open what was closed and to\nwarm what was cold; to make the crooked straight and the rough places smooth\, so\nthat my soul may bless the Lord\, and all that is within me may praise his holy name.\nSo when the Bridegroom\, the Word\, came to me\, he never made known his coming\nby any signs\, not by sight\, nor by sound\, not by touch. It was not by any movement\nof his that I recognized his coming; it was not by any of my senses that I perceived\nhe had penetrated to the depths of my being. Only by the movement of my\nheart…did I perceive his presence; and I knew the power of his might because my\nfaults were put to flight and my human yearnings brought into subjection. I have\nmarvelled at the depth of his wisdom when my secret faults have been revealed and\nmade visible; at the very slightest amendment of my way of life I have experienced\nhis goodness and mercy; in the renewal and remaking of the spirit of my mind\, that\nis of my inmost being\, I have perceived the excellence of his glorious beauty\, and\nwhen I contemplate all these things I am filled with awe and wonder at his manifold\ngreatness. \nBut when the Word has left me\, all these spiritual powers become weak and\nfaint and begin to grow cold\, as though you had removed the fire from under a\nboiling pot\, and this is the sign of his going. Then my soul must needs be sorrowful\nuntil he returns\, and my heart again kindles within me – the sign of his returning.\nWhen I have had such experience of the Word\, is it any wonder that I take to myself\nthe words of the Bride\, calling him back when he has withdrawn?… \nAs often as he slips away from me\, so often shall I call him back. From the\nburning desire of my heart I will not cease to call him\, begging him to return\, as if\nafter someone who is departing\, and I will implore him to give back to me the joy of\nhis salvation\, and restore himself to me. \n5 St Bernard of Clairvaux. On the Song of Songs IV. CF 40. Trans. Irene Edmonds. Kalamazoo\, MI:\nCistercian Publications\, 1980. 89-92.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/reading-presentation-of-the-lord/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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