Praises of the Virgin Mother by St Bernard : Homily IV : §1/11

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 IV : §1/11

 §1.   There is no doubt that whatever we offer in praise of the Mother redounds to the Son; and conversely, when we honour the Son, we take nothing away from the glory of the Mother. For if, according to Solomon, “A wise son is the glory of his father,”[1] how much more glorious is it to become the Mother of Wisdom Himself! But how can I begin to commend her whose praises are proclaimed by Prophets, announced by an Angel and recorded by the Evangelist? I will therefore not praise, because I do not dare, but rather I will devoutly repeat what the Holy Spirit Himself has spoken by the Evangelist, who goes on to say[2]: 

“And the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father.” 

These are the words of the Angel to the Virgin declaring that her promised Son should possess the kingdom of David. No one doubts that our Lord Jesus sprang from David’s stock; but how, I ask, did God give Him the throne of His father David since He never reigned in Jerusalem? On the contrary, when the people would make Him King, He would not consent[3]; and when He was before Pilate, He protested “My kingdom is not of this world.”[4] Besides, what great gain would it be for Him who sits upon the Cherubim[5], and whom the Prophet saw “sitting upon a throne high and elevated,”[6] to be promised the throne of David, His ancestor? 

King David, by Guercino (1651). National Gallery, London.
Public domain. The tablet bears words from Ps. lxxxvi.[11].

We know in fact that another Jerusalem is represented by the one that now is, a city far nobler and richer than that in which David reigned. I believe this is how it should be understood here, because we often find in Scripture a figure or type is used to represent something else. Evidently God gave our Lord the throne of His father David when He was “appointed by him King over Sion, his holy mountain;”[7] and here the Prophet seems to show more plainly of which kingdom he was speaking when he said not in Sion, but over Sion. For perhaps the word “over” was used because, while David indeed reigned “in” Sion, being King “over” Sion belongs to Him of whom it was said to David[8]: “Of the fruit of thy womb I will set upon thy throne;” and of whom another Prophet says[9]: “He shall sit upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom.” You see that the words “upon” or “over”[10] are found everywhere: over Sion, upon thy throne, upon his kingdom. “The Lord God,” therefore, “will give him the throne of David his father” – not a type or symbol but a true throne, not temporal but eternal and not earthly but celestial. As we have said, it is referred to as the throne of David (upon which he sat for a time) because it bore the image of that eternal throne.

Footnotes

[1] Prov. x. 1. The Vulgate has: Filius sapiens laetificat patrem, which the Douai-Rheims translates as “A wise son maketh the father glad.”

[2] Luc. i. 32.

[3] John vi. 15.

[4] John xviii. 6.

[5] Psalm. lxxix 2.

[6] Isaias i. 1.

[7] Psalm. ii. 6.

[8] Psalm. cxxxi. 11.

[9] Isaias ix. 7.

[10] The reference here is to one word in the Latin, super, which is variously translated in the Douay-Rheims text as “upon” or “over”.

[11] Gloriosa dicta sunt de te, civitas Dei / Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God. Ps. lxxxvi. 3.

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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.