Where do I stand?

Noël Staples reflects on the capacity of man to perform evil actions

In saint Bernard of Clairvaux’s sermon ‘The Roe and the Young Fawn’ there is a beautiful, mystical passage in which he writes of his experience of the Divine Spirit:

I admit that the Word has also come to me… but, although he has come to me, I have never been conscious of the moment of his coming. I perceived his presence. I remembered afterwards that he had been with me; sometimes I had a presentiment that he would come, but I was never conscious of his coming or his going… And where he comes from when he visits my soul, and where he goes, and by what means he enters and goes out, I admit that I do not know even now; as John says: ‘You do not know where he comes from or where he goes’…

You need to login to read subscriber-only content and/or comment on articles.