Praises of the Virgin Mother by St Bernard : Homily II : §7-8/17

St Bernard, by Juan Correa de Vivar,
c. 1540-45. Museo del Prado.
(Public domain)

The following posts present the text of four homilies by St Bernard (1090-1153) frequently given the title of Missus est but which he himself called Praises of the Virgin Mother.

 

He was the first Cistercian monk to be placed on the calendar of saints and was canonized by Alexander III on the 18th January 1174. Pope Pius VIII bestowed on him the title of Doctor of the Church, “Doctor mellifluus,” on the 20th of August 1830. 

I offer this annotated presentation of St Bernard’s Homilies as a small gift to our gentle Queen and Mother in gratitude for her multitudinous graces and favours, requesting her continued help and protection for the author and his family.

The Latin text and references are based upon De laudibus Virginis Matris (Patrologia latina, vol. 183. J. P. Migne). The English text is based upon the version compiled and translated at St. Mary's Convent, York, and published by Washbourne in 1909.

Homily II : §7-8/17

 §7.   

Gideon and the miracle of the fleece; 
F.J. Shields, 1877. Wellcome Collection.

Gideon’s fleece was indeed shorn from the flesh but without any wound to the flesh. It was placed upon the dry ground and firstly there was dew on the fleece and later on the ground[1]. What can this represent if not the flesh assumed from the flesh of the Virgin, and without any loss of virginity? Heaven dropped down dew upon it[2], filling it with the plenitude of the Divinity, and of that fullness we have all received[3] – we who, but for it, would be like the dry ground. There is a prophetic reference in the Psalms which seems to touch very beautifully on this fact in Gideon’s history[4]:

“He shall come down like rain upon the fleece.” 

The words which follow this – “and as showers falling gently upon the earth,” – have the same meaning as when the dry ground is found wet with dew. That voluntary rain, indeed, which God set apart for His inheritance, first descended gently and without any noise or clamour of human agency in a most tranquil infusion of the virginal womb; but afterwards, it spread throughout the world through the mouths of preachers—no longer like rain coming down upon the fleece, but like showers falling upon the earth, accompanied by a certain clamour of words and the resounding noise of miracles. For indeed, the preachers were like clouds bearing rain and they remembered the command given to them when they were sent forth[5]: 

“That which I tell you in the dark, speak ye in the light: and that which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops.” 

This injunction they carried out, for 

“their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the world.”[6]

Footnotes

[1] Judges vi. 37-40.

[2] Isaias xlv. 8.

[3] John i. 16.

[4] Psalm. lxxi. 6.

[5] Matt. x. 27.

[6] Psalm. xviii. 5.

 §8. 

Maria gravida,[3] ca. 1420.
Marienstern Cistercian Convent,
Germany. Alfred Löhr, Public domain

Let us now listen to the words of Jeremias who foretells new wonders while he ardently desires and confidently promises the coming of Him whose presence he could not point out in his own time. 

“The Lord,” he says[1], “hath created a new thing upon the earth: a woman shall compass a man.” 

Who is this woman, and who is this man? And if a man, how is he compassed by a woman? To speak more plainly, how can he be a grown man and in his mother’s womb at the same time? For this is what it means for a man to be compassed by a woman: by men we are speaking of those who, having passed through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and youth, have attained maturity. How, then, can a man who is already fully grown be compassed by a woman? If the prophet had said, “A woman shall compass a baby,” or “A woman shall compass an infant,” it would have seemed neither novel nor surprising. He did not, however, say anything like that but spoke of a man, and therefore we ask: what is this new thing that God created upon the earth, that a woman should compass a man, and that a man should confine himself within one, small female body? When speaking of a man, Nicodemus asks[2]:

“Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born again?” 

Footnotes

[1] Jerem. xxi. 22.

[2] John iii. 4.

[3] gravida: Latin for “heavy with child.” 

     

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The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.30-31.