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    Loving God: The Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux
    Loving God: The Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux
    Loving God: The Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux
    Ebook93 pages1 hour

    Loving God: The Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux

    By Ellyn Sanna

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    About this ebook

    At first glance the writings of Bernard of Clairvaux, a twelfth-century theologian, might not seem particularly relevant to the twenty-first century. The concerns that preoccupied him during life—crusades and schisms, kings and queens, heresies and councils—are far removed from our own lives. And yet Bernard belongs to the same spiritual community we do today.

    Centuries later, we too can be inspired and challenged as we study Anamchara's modern version of Loving God, Bernard's teachings on our relationship with the Divine. "Love is the essence," he wrote, "the very substance of God. . . . Love is at the same time God and the gift of God. Love is the eternal law that created the universe and continues to rule it. All things are ordered -- measured, numbered, and weighed—by love's structure, and nothing is left outside love's realm."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAnamchara Books
    Release dateFeb 10, 2011
    ISBN9781933630106
    Loving God: The Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux
    Author

    Ellyn Sanna

    Ellyn Sanna is the author of more than thirty books. She is also the executive editor at Harding House Publishing Service, where she has helped to create hundreds of educational books for young adults. She and her family (along with assorted animals) make their home in upstate New York.

    Read more from Ellyn Sanna

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      Book preview

      Loving God - Ellyn Sanna

      Loving God:

      The Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux

      written in modern English

      by

      Ellyn Sanna

      Anamchara’s Spiritual Classics for Modern Mystics

      978-1-933630-10-6

      Published by Anamchara Books at Smashwords

      Copyright © 2011 by Anamchara Books, a Division of Harding House Publishing Service, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

      Contents

      Introduction: Who Was Bernard of Clairvaux?Dedication

      1. Why Should We Love God—And How Much?

      2. Cherishing God’s Gifts Without Neglecting the Giver

      3. Why Christ’s Followers Have More Incentive to Love God

      4. Opening Ourselves to God’s Love by Thinking About God

      5. Our Debt of Love

      6. A Brief Summary

      7. The Hunger of Our Hearts

      8. First-Degree Love: Loving God for Our Own Sakes

      9. Second- and Third-Degree Love

      10. Fourth-Degree Love: Loving Ourselves for God’s Sake Only

      11. Resurrection Love

      12. The Nature of Love

      13. The Law of Selfishness

      14. A Child’s Love

      15. Heaven’s Love

      Introduction: Who Was Bernard of Clairvaux?

      BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX WAS BORN NEARLY A MILLENNIUM AGO, IN 1090, DURING WHAT WE KNOW AS THE MIDDLE AGES. The feudal system organized the European world, creating a hierarchy of peasants, landowners, the Church, and kings. During Bernard’s lifetime, Europe was preoccupied with the Crusades, with schisms in the Church, and with heresies and challenges to Church authority. At first glance, these concerns seem irrelevant to our lives today, and yet the ideas and actions of his day still vibrate through our modern world.

      Bernard grew up within this long-ago milieu to become first a monk and then an abbot. He built the Cistercian Order, and after his death, came to be recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. In 1830, he was declared a Doctor of the Church, a designation that indicates his teaching was of enormous benefit to the Church.

      Many of us, however, have never heard of Bernard of Clairvaux. If we have, his name conjures up vague images of medieval manuscripts and tonsured monks. It is difficult to capture the blood-and-breath essence of a man who lived and died so long ago! The realities of his life seem to have little relevance to our modern lives. We may still struggle with the role of faith in the world; we still seek to determine the balance between political power and individual belief; and tensions between the Arab and Christian worlds are unfortunately as deep and dangerous as ever. But in a world of instant messaging and the Internet, nuclear weapons and modern medicine, how can we turn to a medieval monk for guidance with these issues? His writing was the product of his era, after all. His teaching is boxed away from us by the remoteness of his life. We look in at it from the outside, as though it were a museum display in a glass case.

      If we step inside the display, however (as much as we can with the powers of our imagination), we see a passionate, intelligent man who was both deeply spiritual and intensely engaged with the ongoing events of his world. It is not so difficult to imagine his personality equally engaged with the intricacies of the twenty-first century. Based on this understanding, we may come to see that our world can only benefit from a deeper understanding of both the man and his theology. The question this book seeks to answer—what does it mean to love God?—is as relevant as ever.

      Bernard’s Early Life

      Bernard was born into the highest nobility of Burgundy, the third of a family of seven children, six of whom were sons. He would have grown up speaking French and Latin, living in what was most likely a stone manor house or castle.

      When Bernard’s mother was pregnant with him, a holy man had foretold that her child would accomplish great things. This prophecy encouraged Bernard’s parents to treat him differently from their other sons, and they earmarked him for special educational opportunities that would prepare him for his destiny.

      Bernard’s family sent him when he was nine years old to a school in Chatillon-sur-Seine, run by the secular canons of Saint-Vorles. There, he discovered a passion for literature and writing. He wrote poetry, studied, and read the Bible; his teachers admired both his intellectual abilities and his deep spirituality. He was known to be charming and eloquent, sensitive and intelligent.

      Unlike his brothers, Bernard was clearly not well suited to be a knight. Knights were soldiers, and Bernard’s personality was not a comfortable fit with a military career. Instead, he longed to enter a monastery, but his family opposed his wishes. They encouraged him to continue his studies instead, which for a time he did.

      His mother, Aleth, died when Bernard was nineteen. She had been known for her devotion to God, and her influence continued to shape her son. Bernard also could not stop thinking about a dream he had had one Christmas Eve when he was a child; in the dream, he saw the Baby Jesus in the manger with such clarity that he pondered the meaning of the Incarnation for the rest of his life.

      Along with his intense spirituality and keen intellectual abilities, Bernard obviously had his share of charisma and leadership skills. When he was twenty-three, he persuaded all five of his brothers, two uncles, and twenty-six other young nobles to enter the small, bleak monastery of Cîteaux. The monastery

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