A saint of love

If you google St Bernard (c1090-1153) - whose feast is celebrated today - you will find shedloads of information about the dog breed but very little about the saint. If you want to find out about the saint, you must google St Bernard of Clairvaux. As a Carmelite I feel very close to St Bernard. He loved The Song of Songs and he happily discoursed about this story of the love between the soul and God. And in that of course he was close to our St John of the Cross. Today's Office of Readings contains a beautiful passage from St Bernard on love. ' ... when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him. ... It is true that the creature loves less because she is less. But if she loves with her whole being, nothing is lacking where everything is given.' Of course my little love for the Lord is totally disproportionate to his great love for me, but that doesn't matter: all He wants is for me to give the whole of myself.