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A Word From The Cistercian Fathers For April

April 4, 2016 by James

O good Lord Jesus, from what great bitterness have you not freed me by your coming, time after time? When distress has made me weep, when untold sobs and groans have shaken me, have you not anointed my wounded my conscience with the ointment of your mercy and poured in the oil of gladness? How often has not prayer raised me from the brink of despair and made me feel happy in the hope of pardon? All who have had these experiences know well that the Lord is a physician indeed, who heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds. And those who cannot lay claim to experience must for that very reason put their trust in him when he says: The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me, he has sent me to bring good news to the humble, to bind up the broken-hearted. And if they should still be in doubts, let them draw near and put it to the test and so learn by inward experience what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. 

from Sermon 32 On the Song of Songs by Bernard of Clairvaux, CF 7, p.136

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