Prayer and Thanksgiving
Prayer and Thanksgiving The following texts fall into three small groups. The first has to do with petition, and is in line with Bernard's emphasis on humility.
It means admitting to ourselves and to the God who is our Father that we are not self-sufficient, that we need things we cannot provide for ourselves. We come to him as supplicants, and ultimately it is the Lord himself we are asking for.
The second group is that of thanksgiving, which Bernard always considered important and which he often mentions. We are not to forget even the smallest benefits, he says, for ingratitude is a burning wind which dries up the source of love. Thanksgiving on the other hand moistens the dryness of our hearts and makes them supple.
When we find it difficult to pray in times of distractions and aridity, a word of thanksgiving can often bring warmth and life to our coldness.
In the third group he reminds us that God is always with us in times of trouble. Tribulation is the seed of glory, he says, it is a necessary thing. It is the field where the treasure lies hidden.
One wonders if he understands the pain, the anxiety, the heartbreak that can almost tear a person apart? The tension that makes one feel that something is going to snap? It seems that he does, for he quotes: 'The Lord is close to the broken-hearted', 'He is with us even in the valley of the shadow of death'. He is with us every single day until the end of the world. But Bernard does ask if we are with the Lord. Or are we still meditating on our trial?
Ask and You shall Receive But even you too, if recollected in spirit, if with a mind that is serious and devoid of cares, you enter the house of prayer alone, and standing in the Lord's presence at one of the altars touch the gate of heaven with the hand of holy desire, if in the presence of the choirs of saints where your devotion penetrates — for 'the prayer of the righteous man pierces the heavens' — if you bewail pitiably before them the miseries and misfortunes you endure, and manifest your neediness, and implore their mercy with repeated sighs and groanings too deep for words; if I say you do this, I have confidence in him who said: 'Ask and you shall receive', that if you continue knocking you will not go empty away.
Indeed when you return to us full of grace and love, you will not be able, in the ardour of your spirit, to conceal the gift you have received; you will communicate it without unpopularity, and in the grace that was given to you, you will win the acceptance and even the admiration of everyone.
Seeking the Word in Prayer Anyone who wishes to pray must choose not only the right place but also the right time. A time of leisure is best and most convenient, the deep silence when others are asleep is particularly suitable, for prayer will then be freer and purer.
How secretly prayer goes up in the night, witnessed only by God and the holy Angel who receives it to present it at the heavenly altar. You will not pray aright, if in your prayers you seek anything but the Word, or seek him for anything but the Word; for in him are all things.
In him is the healing for your wounds, help in your need, restoration for your faults, resources for your further growth.
In him is all that men should ask or desire, all they need, all that will profit them. There is no need to ask anything else of the Word, for he is all. Even if we seem sometimes to ask for material things, providing that we do so for the sake of the Word, as we should, it is not the things themselves that we are asking for, but him for whose sake we ask them.
Those who habitually use all things to find the Word know this.
Thanksgiving Learn not to be tardy or sluggish in offering thanks, learn to offer thanks for each and every gift. Take careful note, scripture advises, of what is set before you, so that no gift of God, be it great or mediocre or small, will be deprived of due thanksgiving. We are even commended to gather up the fragments, lest they be lost, which means that we are not to forget even the smallest benefits. Is that surely not lost which is given to someone ungrateful? Ingratitude is the soul's enemy, a voiding of merits, dissipation of the virtues, wastage of benefits. Ingratitude is a burning wind that dries up the source of love, the dew of mercy, the streams of grace.
Gladness and Thanksgiving My advice to you my friends, is to turn aside occasionally from troubled and anxious pondering on the paths you may be treading, and to travel on smoother ways where the gifts of God are quietly savoured. So that the thought of him may give breathing space to you whose consciences are worried.
I should like you to experience for yourselves the truth of the words: 'Make the Lord your joy and he will give you what your heart desires'. Sorrow for sin is necessary, but it should not be an endless preoccupation. You must dwell also on the glad remembrance of God's loving kindness, otherwise sadness will harden the heart and lead it more deeply into despair.
You must fix your attention on the ways of God, see how he mitigates the bitterness of the heart that is crushed, how he wins back the timid soul from the abyss of despair, how he consoles the grief-stricken and strengthens the wavering with the sweet caress of his faithful promise.
His loving mercy is greater than all iniquity. "Think of the Lord with goodness, seek him in simplicity of heart.' You will all the more easily. achieve this if you let your minds dwell frequently on the memory of God's bountifulness.
Gratitude for God's Grace I think it is a good thing to know what I have received from the Lord, so that I may also know what I lack; and I think it my duty to recognise what God has bestowed upon me so that I may know what to pray and sigh for. How can a man return thanks for a gift if he does not know he has received it? Or how can he keep carefully what he has received, if he is not aware of what it is he has received? It is therefore important that we should know how to guard what we have received, and that the grace of God should not be without fruit in our lives.
We should approach by three steps the acquisition of salvation and grace: the steps of humility, faith and fear. It is to the humble man that grace is given, it is with faith that he receives it, and with fear that he guards it. If we would draw the water of wisdom we need the cord which is the Lord's gift; and this is humility on the lips, in the heart, and in our lives. And let our faith be like a water jar, only let it be a big one, so that we may collect much grace with it. Let fear be the cover of the jar, so that the water of wisdom may not be contaminated with vainglory.
God is our Refuge "You have made the Most High your refuge.' (Psalm 90:2) Brothers, let us fly there frequently: it is a fortified place where no enemy is to be feared. If only we were able to stay there always! But that is not for the present. What is now a refuge will one day be a dwelling place, and an eternal dwelling place. Meanwhile even though we may not stay there, we may however frequently have recourse to it.
In every kind of temptation, in every trial, and in any need of any kind whatever, it is a city of refuge for us, a mother's bosom. The clefts of the rock are ready, the compassionate mercy of our God accessible. If anyone should turn away from this refuge, it will be no wonder if he does not deserve to escape.
There are people who yearn to obtain benefits from the Lord, but perfect love thirsts after the Most High alone, crying out with all the strength of that desire, 'Whom have I in heaven, and what is there upon earth that I desire except you? God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever... .
You are good Lord, to those who wait for you, to the soul that seeks you."
1. From the hymn, Summa Largitor Praemi, sung during Lent in Bernard's day.
Tribulation Let us give thanks to the Father of mercies who is with us in tribulation and consoles us in all our tribulations. A necessary thing, as I have said, is the tribulation which will be changed into glory, as is the sadness which will be turned into joy, a long lasting joy indeed which no-one will take from us, a manifold joy, a full joy. This need is a necessary thing: it produces the crown. Let us not be scornful, Brothers, the seed is tiny, but a great fruit will grow up from it.
The hope of glory lies in tribulation, just as the hope of the fruit lies in the seed. In this way too the Kingdom of God is now within us, a treasure in a clay vessel, in a worthless field. It is there but hidden. Happy is the person who shall find it. The glory is hidden my brothers, concealed from us in tribulation. In this moment eternity lies hidden; in this small thing is hidden a sublime and matchless weight of glory. Let us therefore hasten to buy this field, to buy this treasure lying hidden in the field. Let us count it utter joy when we fall into various tribulations. For Emmanuel, God with us, came down to be near those who are broken-hearted; to be with us in our tribulation.
God is With Us in Trouble 'I am with him in trouble.' When is this if not in the day of our tribulation, the day of our cross. ..
. 'The Lord is near to the broken-hearted' and as someone has said: 'Even though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me'. He is indeed with us every single day until the end of the world. But when shall we be with him?
So now, my sons, let us call out to heaven, and our God will take pity on us. Lift up your heart, lift up your cry, lift up your desires, lift up your way of life, lift up your determination, and let all your expectation come down from above. Cry out to heaven that you may be heard, and your
Father who is in heaven will send you help in your distress.
He will rescue you from tribulation, he will glorify you in the resurrection.
These are great expectations, but you, great Lord, have promised them. We hope because of your promise, so we dare to say: 'If we cry out with a godly heart then surely you must keep your promise. Amen.'
spiced, ev TPA Bi Ese