No one writes about the Blessed Virgin like the great Doctor of the Church, St. Bernard. In this work, "On the Visions of God", he writes concerning Mary and the soul who desires to be a bride of Christ: as in the Song of Songs, "the heart of husband trusteth in her." God trusted Mary and through her, all of us.
Bernard continues: "...and amongst all His possessions there is nothing which He thinks ought to be concealed from her whom He redeemed from poverty, whom He has found faithful under trail, and whom
He now embraces as worthy of His love."
And here is the crucial point: "Even the Lord's Mother herself lived in the Shadow of faith, for to her it was said, 'And blessed art thou, that hast believed.' She had also a shadow from the Body of Christ, as the Angel implied. For surely there must be a difference between walking by faith and walking by vision. We are all in the Shadow of Faith until we are strengthened to see the light, when he told her 'And the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee' For that is not slight shadow which is thrown by the power of the Most High. And truly there was power in the Flesh of Christ which overshadowed the Virgin, so that, by means of the intervening screen of this vivifying Body, she might be enabled to endure the presence of the Divine Majesty and bear the splendours of the Light inaccessible, a thing otherwise quite impossible to a mortal woman."
The Bride of Christ, as prophesied and honoured in the Song of Songs, calls her Husband the shepherd. And, so He is, "the Good Shepherd, Who gives His life for His sheep."
Thank you, God, for St. Bernard.
