Opening Prayer
I evaluate my own heart as it moves from the fleshly love of self for my own sake, to loving you for what you can give me, and finally to loving you for your own sweetness. I seek to rise to that fourth stage where I love even myself only for Thy sake.
Lead me into the familiarity where I find you sweet and kind, until I am so exhilarated by your presence that I forget myself and am absorbed altogether in your joy. Let me be intoxicated with the fullness of Thy house until I am one spirit with Thee.
Amen.
Matthew 13:16-17
16But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. 17For, amen, I say to you, many prophets and just men have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them, and to hear the things that you hear and have not heard them.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
St. Bernard of Clairvaux critiques the “folly and craziness” of “craving things that can never quiet our longings. St. Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary, endured the “unbearable sorrow” of childlessness for years, yet their rest was in God alone. Bernard evaluations: “No matter how many things we have, we are always lusting after what we don’t have.“. In God’s presence, consider the “fruitless toil” Bernard describes. Do you “spend yourself” on things that will be taken away when God’s appointed day comes?
The human heart is plagued by a “foolishness” that craves transient pleasures which can never quiet its longings. St. Bernard observes that we often lose pleasure in what we possess by coveting what is beyond our grasp, finding only weariness in “unreal pleasures.” This teaches us to quiet the modern craving for the “new” or the “next”, recognizing that our restlessness is actually a homing signal for the eternal God.
“The perverted will finds only “weariness” in transient pleasures. Our rest is in God alone, as no earthly thing can supply the soul with eternal food.”
— St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Mary and the Magisterium
“Discontented, we spend ourselves in fruitless toil,” seeking things that cannot quiet our longings. Mary’s peace stood in stark contrast to this worldly “lusting”. she understood that even owning the whole world would leave the heart “unsatisfied”. Her heart found rest in God alone, avoiding the “perverted will” that yearns after satisfaction in the transient and unreal pleasures of the world.
- Am I "discontented" and "spending myself in fruitless toil" for the transient?
- How can I "stretch my soul" today to make more room for the "Something beyond words"?
Closing Prayer
Our rest is in God alone. We know no peace in this world, but no disturbance when we are with God.
Amen.
