Recognizing the mystery hidden within Christ Jesus
St. Bernard
Clairvaux (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 86 on the Song of Songs
He who wishes to pray in peace does not only take place into
consideration, but time. The time of rest is the most suitable,
and when night’s sleep spreads deep silence everywhere, prayer
is offered more freely and purely. “Rise up in the night at the
beginning of every watch; pour out your heart like water in the
presence of the Lord your God,” (Lam 2,19). How surely our
prayer rises in the night when God alone is its witness, with
the angel who receives it in order to present it at the heavenly
altar! It is satisfying and luminous, tinged with modesty. It is
calm and peaceful while no sound, no cry comes to interrupt it.
It is pure and heartfelt when the dust of our earthly cares
cannot soil it. There is no one watching who could expose it to
temptation by their praise or flattery.
This is why the Spouse [of the Song of Songs] acts with as much
wisdom as modesty when she chooses the solitude of the night in
her chamber to pray, which is to say to seek out the Word, for
it is all one. You pray badly if, when you are praying, you look
for any other thing than the Word, God’s utterance, or if you do
not ask for the object of your prayer with regard to the Word.
For everything comes from him: the remedy for your wounds, the
help of which you have need, the correction of your faults, the
source of your progress - in short, whatever a man can, and
ought to wish for. There is no reason for asking the Word
anything other than himself, since he is all. If, as need
arises, we seem to ask for particular goods, and if, as we
should, we request them in the light of the Word, then it is
less the things themselves we are asking for but he who is the
cause of our prayer.
