Meat From the Mystics: Sermons on the Song of Songs Vol. II

Within these pages is the central idea that Love created us out of love to share Love itself -- and then was bound by love to redeem us after we had been lost. God's gift of the Incarnation of Christ is proof of this. Therefore the ultimate point of all theology, the culmination of all of life, the summit of all God's works, is the experience of the presence of God -- the union of the human soul with God himself. Bernard's 86 Sermons presented in these two volumes allegorically interpret the Song of Songs; they distill his theology of love, but more than that, they open a door for all who will approach, to the deepest experience man can enjoy. Like other commentators, Bernard views the relationship between the Divine Word and the individual soul as a spiritual marriage between the heavenly Bridegroom and the human bride. But unlike other writers, he fully develops in these pages the picture of spiritual marriage as the point of human existence, and more than that, the goal of the heart of God.