Oblates of St. Benedict » Benedictine Wisdom http://oblatesosbbelmont.org Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:41:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Recognize your dignity — you are precious http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2012/01/06/recognize-your-dignity-you-are-precious/ http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2012/01/06/recognize-your-dignity-you-are-precious/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:22:27 +0000 admin http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/?p=8149 O image of God, recognize your dignity; let the effigy of your Creator shine forth in you. Purify yourself, train yourself in godliness, and you shall find the kingdom of God within you. To yourself you seem of little worth, but in reality you are precious. Be wholly present to yourself and employ yourself wholly in knowing yourself and knowing whose image you are, and likewise in discerning and understanding what you are and what you can do in him whose image you are.

William of Saint Thierry

]]> http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2012/01/06/recognize-your-dignity-you-are-precious/feed/ 0 Likeness to God http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2011/12/30/likeness-to-god/ http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2011/12/30/likeness-to-god/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:56:35 +0000 admin http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/?p=8092 There is a likeness to God which is lost only with life itself, left to everyone by the Creator of all as evidence of a better and more sublime likeness. As far as merit is concerned, this likeness to God in us is of no importance with God, since it derives from nature, not from will or effort.

But there is another likeness, one closer to God, inasmuch as it is freely willed. It consists in the virtues and inspires the soul as it were to imitate the greatness of Supreme Good by the greatness of her virtue, and his unchangeable eternity by her unwearying perseverance in good.

In addition to this there is yet another likeness. It is so close in its resemblance that it is styled not merely a likeness but unity of spirit. It makes us one with God, one spirit, not only with the unity which comes of willing the same thing but with a greater fullness of virtue: the inability to will anything else.

William of Saint Thierry

]]> http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2011/12/30/likeness-to-god/feed/ 0 St. Bernard reminds us to properly prepare for the Lord’s Coming http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2011/12/21/st-bernard-reminds-us-to-properly-prepare-for-the-lords-coming/ http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2011/12/21/st-bernard-reminds-us-to-properly-prepare-for-the-lords-coming/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:46:16 +0000 admin http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/?p=8049 [Yet people] observe these days (Advent) out of stale routine, without devotion or emotion.

Further—and still worse—the remembrance of this condescension is turned into a pretext for the flesh. During those days you may see them preparing splendid clothes and special foods with utmost care—as if Christ at his birth would be seeking these and other such things and would be more worthily welcomed where they are more elaborately offered!

Listen to [Jesus] as he says, With someone who has a proud eye and a greedy heart I shall not eat. Why do you so ambitiously prepare clothes for my birthday? Far from embracing pride, I detest it. Why do you so assiduously store up quantities of food for this season? Far from accepting pleasures of the flesh, I condemn them. Clearly you are greedy of heart when you prepare so much and over so long a time, when far less would satisfy the body—and could more easily be found. As you celebrate my coming, you honor me with your lips, but your heart is far from me. You do not worship me, but your god is your belly and your glory is in your shame. Unhappy is the person who worships pleasure pf the body and A the emptiness of worldly glory; but happy the people whose God is the Lord.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux
On the Lord's Advent, Sermon 3, On the Seven Plillars

]]> http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2011/12/21/st-bernard-reminds-us-to-properly-prepare-for-the-lords-coming/feed/ 0 What the Lord has lost on my account http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2011/12/05/what-the-lord-has-lost-on-my-account/ http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2011/12/05/what-the-lord-has-lost-on-my-account/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:27:31 +0000 admin http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/?p=7992 [God] had made only two noble creatures who were sharers in reason and capable of blessedness: angels and human beings. Yet on my account he has lost many of the angels and all of the human beings. Therefore, so that they may know that I love the Father, let those whom he seems somehow to have lost on my account be restored to him through me. If this storm has arisen on my account, says Jonah, pick me up and throw me into the sea!

St. Bernard of Clairvauex
On the Lord's Advent, Sermon One

]]> http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2011/12/05/what-the-lord-has-lost-on-my-account/feed/ 0 Have before you the Image of Christ http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2011/11/05/have-before-you-the-image-of-christ/ http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/2011/11/05/have-before-you-the-image-of-christ/#comments Sat, 05 Nov 2011 07:06:56 +0000 admin http://oblatesosbbelmont.org/?p=7748 The soul at prayer should have before her a sacred image of the God-man, in his birth or infancy or as he was teaching, or dying, or rising, or ascending. Whatever form it takes this image must bind the soul with the love of virtue and expel carnal vices, eliminate temptations and quiet desires.

Bernard of Clairvaux

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