"Whoever wants to stand alone without the support of a master and guide will be like the tree that stands alone in a field without a proprietor. No matter how much the tree bears, passers-by will pick the fruit before it ripens. "

St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church

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"We must not be behind time in doing good; for death will not be behind his time. "

St Phillip Neri

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"Whom do you seek, friend, if you seek not God? Seek him, find him, cleave to him; bind your will to his with bands of steel and you will live always at peace in this life and in the next."

St Alphonsus de Liguori

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 St Bernard of Clairvaux   (1090-1153)  Father and Doctor of the Church
Encyclical of Pope Pius XII on St Bernard
 

ON LOVING GOD

By St Bernard of Clairvaux

CONTENTS
 

Dedication

Chapter:
1. Why we should love God and the measure of that love.
2. On loving God. How much God deserves love from man in recognition of His gifts, both material and spiritual: and how these gifts should be cherished without neglect of the Giver.
3. What greater incentives Christians have, more than the heathen, to love God.
4. Of those who find comfort in their collection of God, or are fittest for His love.
5. Of the Christian's debt of love, how great it is.
6. A brief summary.
7. Of love toward God not without reward: and how the hunger of man's heart cannot be satisfied with earthly things.
8. Of the first degree of love: wherein man loves God for self's sake.
9. Of the second and third degrees of love.
10. Of the fourth degree of love: wherein man does not even love self save for God's sake.
11. Of the attainment of this perfection of love only at the resurrection.
12. Of love: out of a letter to the Carthusians.
13. Of the law of self-will and desire, of slaves and hirelings.
14. Of the law of the love of sons.
15. Of the four degrees of love, and of the blessed state of the heavenly fatherland.
16. Index of Scripture References.