…whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because
of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a
loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake
I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him... Phil. 3
So it is that one theologian will write of the "madness of the vowed life." Indeed daring to give ourselves to Christ Jesus in our monastic way of life that is "ordinary, obscure and laborious" is utterly mad and wonderful and worth all our effort.
As we celebrate the Solemnity of our Father, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, we are reminded of his words as he ponders the great loving mercy of Christ. He writes of the human soul trying to respond to such love: “She loves ardently, yet even when she finds herself completely in love, she thinks she loves too little because she is loved so much.”
As we celebrate the Solemnity of our Father, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, we are reminded of his words as he ponders the great loving mercy of Christ. He writes of the human soul trying to respond to such love: “She loves ardently, yet even when she finds herself completely in love, she thinks she loves too little because she is loved so much.”