Sermon of St. Bernard on the Holy Rosary

 

Homily by S. Bernard, Abbot, Sermon on S. Mary the Virgin

FOR the praise of his grace, and the destruction of human wisdom, God deigned to take flesh from a woman yet a virgin, that he might render like for like, yet cure a contrary thing by one contrary to it; that he might destroy a plague-bringing thorn, and with great power blot out the handwriting of sin.

EVE was the thorn; Mary was the rose. Eve was the thorn by the wound she caused; Mary a rose softening the affections of all men. Eve was a thorn inflicting death on all; Mary a rose giving healthful fortune. That rose, Mary, was white by her virginity, red by her charity; white in her flesh, ruddy in her soul; white when following after virtue; ruddy when treading down vices ; white in purifying affections; ruddy in mortifying the flesh, white in her love for God; ruddy in her compassion for her neighbor.

Sermon on the Aqueduct

THE word was made flesh, and dwells now in us. He dwells in our memory, he dwells in our thought, he descends to our very imagination. In what manner, dost thou say? Of a truth, in his lying in a manger; in his resting on the Virgin's lap; in his preaching on the Mount; in his nights spent in prayer; in his hanging on the Cross; in his freedom from the dead; and in his empire in Hades; or indeed in his Resurrection; and in his showing his Apostles the marks of the nails, the signs of his victory; and at last ascending before them to the Mysteries of Heaven. Which of these things may we not ponder with truth, with love, with profit of holiness?

WHICHEVER of these things I meditate on, I meditate on God, and my God is contained in all of them. Therefore, I have called such pondering, wisdom, and have adjudged the recalling to mind of the sweetness of these Mysteries to be prudence, since the priestly rod in such gathered knots as these has produced plentiful fruits. Mary, partaking of such supernal fruits where. now she is on high, pours them out more abundantly on us. She surely is on high and above the Angels, whom the Word took from the very heart of the Father.