SALVATION COMES TO US ONLY FROM THAT CHILD

 

Let us rejoice as we ponder upon this sweet message. Let us repeat to one another this delightful speech: "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is born in Bethlehem of Juda." What heart so stony as not to be softened at these words? What soul is not melted at this voice of her Beloved? What announcement could be sweeter? What intelligence more enrapturing? What so desirable to the wretched? What so welcome to the hopeless? Without this gracious promise, whence should we have obtained redemption? Unless some new and unexpected help had arisen for us, how could we have had the faintest hope of salvation, subject as we were and are to a law of sin, living in a body of death, surrounded by the wickedness of this present life, which is only a place of affliction? 

 Saint Bernard

MEDITATION ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD by Saint Bernard

If we have died to sin, how will we live in it any longer? If we bemoan our negligences, why do we relapse into them? Will we now be found once more as meddlesome as we were before? As talktative as before, as lazy and negligent as before? Vain, suspicious, slanderous, bad-tempered, and caught up in the other vices we have deplored with such distress during these days? I have washed my feet; how will I soil them once more? I have put off my garment; how will I put it on? This is not entering another state, my brothers; not thus is Christ seen; this is not the way by which God shows us His salvation. One who looks back is not worthy of the kingdom of God. 

 SAINT BERNARD 

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DON’T BE FEARFUL O MARY by Saint Bernard

You have heard, O Virgin, the announcement of the great mystery. You have heard that you are to conceive and bring forth a Son, and that it will not be through the power of man, but by the virtue of the Holy Ghost. The angel awaits your reply, for it is time that he should return to God, Who sent him. We, too,are waiting, O Lady, for a word of mercy—we, who are groaning under the sentence of condemnation. See, the price of our salvation is offered to you; if you consent, we shall at once be delivered. By the Eternal Word of God we were all created, and behold we die. By your short answer we shall be refreshed and recalled to life.

Hasten, then, O Lady, to give your answer; hasten to speak the word so longed for by all on earth, in limbo, and in heaven. Yea, the King and Lord of all things, Who has greatly desired your beauty, desires as eagerly your word of consent, by which He has purposed to save the world. He whom you have pleased by your silence will now be more gratified by your reply. Hark! He calls to you from heaven: “O most beautiful among women, give me to hear your voice.” If you let Him hear your voice, He will enable you to see our salvation. And is not this what you have sought for, what you have prayed for night and day with sighs and tears?

Open, O Blessed Virgin, your heart to faith, your lips to compliance, your bosom to your Creator. Behold, the desired of all nations stands at the gate and knocks. Oh, suppose He were to pass by while you delay! How would you begin again with sorrow to seek Him whom your soul loveth! Arise—run—open! Arise by faith, run by devotion, open by acceptance.

St Bernard on the Annunciation and the Blessed Virgin's Consent.

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Saint Bernard, Abbot, Dixit:

The Memorare - prayer attributed to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

People Who Are Shallow, Egotistic and Mundane Are Empty

• THEY CAN ONLY OFFER THEIR OWN MISSERY AND STEAL OTHER’S.
• THIS TRUTH IS PRESENT AT ALL SOCIOECONOMIC LEVELS, IT IS NOT PECULIAR TO ONE GROUP.
• WE LIVE IN A SHALLOW WORLD OF APPEARANCES, WHERE “YOUR WORTH DEPENDS ON HOW MUCH YOU HAVE (OR PRETEND TO HAVE)”
• THE APOSTAST SOCIETY HAS LOST THE WAY OF TRUE WISDOM.

We Must Ask Forgiveness to God for Our Sins of Guilty Ignorance

If ignorance is never a sin, why is it said, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that the high priest entered alone once a year into the second tabernacle, not without blood, which he offers for his own and the people’s ignorance?: Saint Bernard.

Which Waw Will We Follow After Lent?

Saint Bernard, Doctor of the Church, dixit: