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

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 : §11/11

 §11.   Insofar as any of us are like those we have just mentioned, let us listen to the answer given by her who was chosen as the Mother of God but did not forget her humility.  “Behold,” she says, “the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.”

The Annunciation, by Andrea della Robbia (1475). Santuario della Verna,
Tuscany. Public domain. Latin inscription reads:
Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.

“Be it done” is a mark of desire and not a sign of doubt. The words “Be it done unto me according to thy word” should be understood as expressing the disposition of one who desires something to be put into effect, not of one who has doubts about it. Her fiat may also be understood as a prayer of petition, for no one prays without belief and hope. God wants to be asked for what He has promised, and perhaps promises many things which He has in fact predetermined to grant, in order that His promise may arouse our devotion and that we may merit by devout prayer that which He intends to give freely. Thus our gracious God, who wants all men to be saved, elicits meritorious works from us. While He strengthens our will by His grace, He nevertheless wishes that what He gives freely we shall ourselves labour to obtain.

This the prudent Virgin understood when, to the prevenient grace of a promise freely given, she joined the merit of her own prayer, saying: “Be it done unto me according to thy word.” Be it done unto me concerning the Divine Word according to thy word. May the Word which was in the beginning with God be made flesh[1] of my flesh according to thy word. May it be done unto me, I pray, according to thy word; may it not be a spoken word that will pass unheeded, but a word conceived – that is, clothed in flesh and not a mere sound in the air. May this Word for me be not only audible to my ears, but visible to my eyes, felt by my hands and cradled in my arms; and let not the Word be for me something merely written and mute, but someone incarnate and living: that is, not written in silent characters upon inanimate parchment, but vividly imprinted in human form within my chaste womb; and not depicted by a lifeless pen, but by the working of the Holy Spirit. Be it done unto me as it has never hitherto been done to any mortal, and never shall be done to any hereafter. 

“God . . . at sundry times and in divers manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets”[2] – and the word of the Lord was came to some in the ear, to others in the mouth and to others even in the hand. I pray that in my own womb it may be done unto me according to Thy word. Be it done unto me – not preached to me in a rhetorical manner, not signified to me in figures and types, not presented in dreams of the imagination, but inspired silently within me, taking flesh corporeally. May the Word, therefore, who in Himself could neither come to be nor had need of coming to be, deign to be brought about in me, and for me, according to thy word.

Footnotes

[1] John i. 2 & 14.

[2] Hebr. i. 1.

St. Bernard’s apology for adding his reflections on this Gospel passage to those of previous commentators

I have expounded the Gospel reading as best I could, though I am well aware that it will not please everyone. I know that I may upset many people because I shall be deemed presumptuous for daring, as a new commentator, to give my thoughts on a text which the Fathers have already expounded most fully. Yet, if something is said after the Fathers but which does not contradict them, I believe it should be displeasing neither to the Fathers nor to anyone else. Where what I have stated is what I received from the Fathers then, provided that the arrogance of presumption is absent and the fruit of devotion is present, I shall patiently endure the complaints of those who complain I have added nothing new. Those who criticise me for offering unnecessary commentary must realise, however, that my aim was not so much to expound the Gospel as to take the opportunity it offered to speak of what occasions me great delight. If I have sinned by stimulating my own personal devotion rather than seeking the common good, the loving Virgin will have the power to excuse this sin of mine before her merciful Son – to whom I have most devoutly dedicated this little work of mine, such as it is.

The End 

+       +        +

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.