MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SELF-KNOWLEDGE IN THE ...

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amidst a region of unlikeness. By the salutary descent of humility and charity, however, one will be progressively restored in the lost divine likeness Christ reveals in his saving mysteries, and so ascend to the happiness of the Divine Bridegroom’s eternal embrace. The second Augustinian phrase that Bernard explicitly quotes and makes his own is Augustine’s prayer in the Soliloquies, “O God, let me know myself, let me know you.” 63 The themes of self-knowledge, the knowledge of God, and their relation were ones Augustine explored in great depth throughout his life, perhaps most notably in his De Trinitate. There Augustine teaches that the soul is most fully aware of itself as an image of God when it directs its powers of memory, intellect, and will, the Trinitarian image within itself, to the knowledge, love, and worship of its Creator. 64 Though we might expect Bernard to follow up Augustine’s thinking in this regard, it is his more speculatively-minded friend and fellow Cistercian William of Saint Thierry who makes Augustine’s teaching in the De Trinitate a centerpiece of his spiritual theology. 65 With his more practical frame of mind, Bernard, like his other Cistercian contemporary, Aelred of Rievaulx, appears to take a greater interest in Augustine’s teaching on the knowledge of self and God in the Confessions, and, in particular, Confessions Book X. 66 63 Soliloquia II.1.1 (PL 32:885): “deus semper idem, nouerim me, nouerim te.” Bernard explicitly cites Augustine’s prayer in the opening to his second sermon De Diversis where he exhorts his monks, “All your leisure should be given to this twofold consideration, as the Saint prayed, ‘O God, let me know myself, let me know you.’” Div 2.1 (VI-1, 80): “Huic duplici considerationi tota haec vestra vacatio tribuatur, sicut Sanctus orabat: .” 64 See De Trinitate XIV.12 (CCSL 50A). 65 On William’s appropriation of Augustine’s doctrine, see David N. Bell, The Image and Likeness: The Augustinian Spirituality of William of St Thierry, Cistercian Studies 78 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1984). 66 According to his hagiographer Walter Daniel, Aelred asked that there be brought to his deathbed his glossed Psalter, the Confessions of Augustine, and the text of the Gospel of John. See Vita Aelredi Abbatis Rievall’, ed. and trans. F.M. Powicke (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1950), 58. 37
The knowledge of self and God in their relation is one of the main themes, even the main theme itself, of Augustine’s Confessions. For, in Augustine’s view, confessio is always and simultaneously the humble acknowledgment of one’s own sinfulness before God and the praise of God’s mercy in forgiving and healing the soul from sin. 67 Thus, in Book I, as he prepares to confess his past life before God and his readers, Augustine pleads before God, “Though I am but dust and ashes, allow me to speak in the presence of your mercy, for, behold, it is to your mercy that I speak, and not to some person who might mock me.” 68 In Book X, having told the story of his past life through in the light of God’s continuous mercy towards him, Augustine will now confess “not what I was, but what I am now.” 69 So he begins Book X with a prayer very similar to that he offered in the Soliloquies, “Let me know you, O you who know me. Let me know you even as I am known by you.” 70 He recognizes that if he is to know himself truly, he must learn to see himself as God sees him. To believe anything else about himself is only a falsehood: “What else is it to know oneself than to hear the truth about oneself from you? If 67 In Sermon 29A, which he preached around the time he was writing his Confessions, Augustine writes, “Whether you sing praise for God’s gifts, or pour out your sins with tears, confess to the Lord the he is good, for his mercy endures forever. For confession is not the recognition of our sins alone, but also the praise of our Lord, and we cannot do one of these without the other. For we accuse ourselves of our sins in the hope of his mercy, and we praise his mercy when we recall our sins.” Sermo 29A (CCSL 41:9-15): “siue dona illius laudando cantetis, siue peccata uestra gemendo fundatis, confitemini domino quoniam bonus est, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius. neque enim sola commemoratio peccatorum nostrorum, sed etiam domini nostri laudatio confessio dicitur, quia, et si unum horum faciamus, non sine altero facimus. nam et iniquitatem nostram cum spe misericordiae ipsius accusamus, et ipsius misericordiam cum iniquitatis nostrae recordatione laudamus.” 68 Confessions I.6.7 (CCSL 27): “sed tamen sine me loqui apud misericordiam tuam, me terram et cinerem, sine tamen loqui, quoniam ecce misericordia tua est, non homo, inrisor meus, cui loquor.” sum.” 69 Confessions X.4.6 (CCSL 27): “non qualis fuerim, sed qualis sim.” 70 Confessions X.1.1 (CCSL 27): “cognoscam te, cognitor meus, cognoscam, sicut et cognitus 38
Page 1 and 2: MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SE
Page 3 and 4: MY BELOVED IS MINE AND I AM HIS: SE
Page 5 and 6: To my Father, James U. DeFrancis, S
Page 7 and 8: Christ as the Model of Self-Knowled
Page 9 and 10: esearch: John Cavadini, Cyril O’R
Page 11 and 12: self-knowledge is the indispensible
Page 13 and 14: For Bernard, then, humble self-know
Page 15 and 16: likeness of charity. Within the Cis
Page 17 and 18: When Gilson asserted that by self-k
Page 19 and 20: Bernard, Sommerfeldt continues, hum
Page 21 and 22: a “false image” of himself. 26
Page 23 and 24: some newfound and joyous moment of
Page 25 and 26: ecognize that same sinfulness in hi
Page 27 and 28: foundations of man’s return to Go
Page 29 and 30: the descent of humility begins the
Page 31 and 32: saving work of Jesus Christ in the
Page 33 and 34: the humility, obedience, and love C
Page 35 and 36: Of particular importance to Bernard
Page 37 and 38: and second, “what it is like in i
Page 39 and 40: In his ground-breaking study of med
Page 41 and 42: direct links between the two. 52 It
Page 43 and 44: swells in one’s heart that it mov
Page 45: pride as “the desire for a perver
Page 49 and 50: mercy until you renew all that is i
Page 51 and 52: CHAPTER 1: THE SCOPE OF BERNARD’S
Page 53 and 54: Prior to its first conversion, Bern
Page 55 and 56: Origen, Bernard here and elsewhere
Page 57 and 58: of God, they will grow ever more un
Page 59 and 60: and love as she is loved, and the B
Page 61 and 62: In the interim or “meanwhile” o
Page 63 and 64: Why do you judge yourself worthy to
Page 65 and 66: For Bernard, the lesson to be drawn
Page 67 and 68: warning and why should it compel he
Page 69 and 70: worldly things her flesh and senses
Page 71 and 72: aspired to seize a kind of parody o
Page 73 and 74: thousands of evils upon our entire
Page 75 and 76: edemptive work is suitably adapted
Page 77 and 78: emains forever, this grass too rema
Page 79 and 80: graciously condescending to assume
Page 81 and 82: Thus the abbot resolves his spiritu
Page 83 and 84: of self-knowledge enabled self-dece
Page 85 and 86: humbles himself will be exalted”
Page 87 and 88: Church, enabling scholars to instru
Page 89 and 90: Through this unflinching self-exami
Page 91 and 92: soon tempers my bitter vision of my
Page 93 and 94: edeem him, sanctify him, and offer
Page 95 and 96: As observed above, in the second ha
Page 97 and 98:
modeled and effected by the Word-ma
Page 99 and 100:
Ignorance of self breeds pride when
Page 101 and 102:
consideration of others and their a
Page 103 and 104:
consideration of his treatise as a
Page 105 and 106:
symmetry between these two parts an
Page 107 and 108:
Though this discrepancy at first ap
Page 109 and 110:
self, God, and neighbor. Since it i
Page 111 and 112:
estored in this divine likeness as
Page 113 and 114:
eturn to his suffering brothers and
Page 115 and 116:
much more should the monk not exalt
Page 117 and 118:
for your brother’s misery and not
Page 119 and 120:
sinful weakness and nothing of thei
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Finally, we should note that Bernar
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journey to which the monk will comm
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and judge others or to see how they
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condemned. Lifting his eyes in humi
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will contrary to both the law of Go
Page 131 and 132:
in him by her obedience to his will
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contempt not only for herself and h
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his rule over the reprobate he woul
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in misery rather than to be subject
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descending these early steps of pri
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pleases them and avoid what makes t
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knows.” 201 Should the topic of c
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Here abbot Bernard figures the prou
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ut believe in his inmost heart that
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Asserting Self-Will Against Superio
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As so often in his narrative of the
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who he is, everyone judges him, and
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monk’s descent into this deepest
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God in heaven. He will acknowledge
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Consumed by this self-centered love
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their hearts. Hence Bernard’s fre
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done…by whoever would walk in the
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In recognizing the two distinct mom
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experience, lamenting how he has ma
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inward movement in the soul. In any
Page 171 and 172:
share with them in that divine merc
Page 173 and 174:
Operating inwardly within this judg
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the Truth in his own nature? Matter
Page 177 and 178:
arguing from both allusions in text
Page 179 and 180:
upon the “stage” of the soul an
Page 181 and 182:
(Is 46:8). For Bernard, this first
Page 183 and 184:
desperate need for the healing grac
Page 185 and 186:
consolations afforded it by the lif
Page 187 and 188:
thoroughly diseased: reason now see
Page 189 and 190:
Reason’s rebuke is powerful, and
Page 191 and 192:
In this vision, reason is permitted
Page 193 and 194:
conscience she enjoys through the m
Page 195 and 196:
Word of God, “that living and eff
Page 197 and 198:
knowledge and contempt of himself,
Page 199 and 200:
The Self-Awareness of the Bride in
Page 201 and 202:
When the brightness of this beauty
Page 203 and 204:
For Bernard, then, the soul that ha
Page 205 and 206:
figure of this Ecclesia-Sponsa. On
Page 207 and 208:
Conclusion Having considered three
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self-awareness as his own Bride, ra
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CHAPTER 4: SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND THE M
Page 213 and 214:
Christ’s incarnate, crucified, an
Page 215 and 216:
indeed to the entirety of his theol
Page 217 and 218:
significant individual expressions
Page 219 and 220:
The foregoing elements of Bernard
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descended and ascended and showed u
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self, neighbor, and God. He has sho
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own, and from your own experience l
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excursus has been labeled a “digr
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“learned” (didicit) is being pr
Page 231 and 232:
To resolve this question, Bernard r
Page 233 and 234:
You see, therefore, that Christ is
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to the Spirit, by contemplation in
Page 237 and 238:
worse, misguided view of the abbot
Page 239 and 240:
Christ’s Ascension culminates in
Page 241 and 242:
conformed to him. Then, through the
Page 243 and 244:
Modeling this laudabilis curiositas
Page 245 and 246:
The theme of Word’s example of vo
Page 247 and 248:
equally deadly, extreme of despair.
Page 249 and 250:
and humbled by God, so that there w
Page 251 and 252:
as essential elements of the Word I
Page 253 and 254:
led astray. Their amor carnalis Chr
Page 255 and 256:
delivered us from sin and enabled u
Page 257 and 258:
miseria and fires it with the confi
Page 259 and 260:
death to bring about a real, inward
Page 261 and 262:
sins,” “justification,” and
Page 263 and 264:
these life-giving virtues, we must
Page 265 and 266:
precisely through, a careful approp
Page 267 and 268:
perhaps she means, “My Beloved in
Page 269 and 270:
To such a soul, the abbot continues
Page 271 and 272:
gradually assuming the figure of Ch
Page 273 and 274:
to judge themselves in Truth, and s
Page 275 and 276:
ejoice with those who rejoice and w
Page 277 and 278:
love of himself in the glory of div
Page 279 and 280:
I. Works of Bernard of Clairvaux BI
Page 281 and 282:
------. Sermo 29A. Edited by C. Lam
Page 283 and 284:
Courcelle, Pierre. Connais-toi toi-
Page 285 and 286:
------. “Le premier traité authe
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