NY Times Best-Selling Author
Hola a todos. Hello everyone.
I’m very happy to announce that Planeta Libros of Spain will continue to publish their Spanish translations of “Gabriel’s Inferno,” “Gabriel’s Rapture,” and “Gabriel’s Redemption.” I wish they would publish “Gabriel’s Promise”!
You can find Planeta Libros here.
Muchas gracias por leer. Thank you for reading,
SR
Dear Everyone,
A blessed Holy Week to everyone who is celebrating. Thank you for journeying through Lent with me this year and thanks to all who joined me in the podcast chat a week ago. I really enjoyed our discussions and I’m very grateful to Pam and Leslie for hosting the chat and contributing some really interesting questions.
Last week, we were to read Chapters 12 and 13, and this week we are wrapping things up by reading Chapters 14 and 15. In these final chapters, St. Bernard continues to emphasize God’s love, focusing on our roles as children of God, and then finally, on the four degrees of love.
The four degrees of love represent an ascent, culminating in the fourth degree which is in the next life. In these four degrees you see something like Jacob’s ladder – a ladder that reaches to heaven, composed of different rungs that one must climb. This is where St. Bernard distinguishes himself as a contemplative. He’s attuned to the spiritual development necessary to achieve the fourth degree of love and rather than keep this insight to himself, he shares it with others. It’s probably this passage, along with the final paragraph, that prompts Dante to include St. Bernard as a guide to the higher heavens of the Paradiso.
In the final paragraph of the work, St. Bernard describes his vision of heaven. Rather than continue beyond the description, St. Bernard simply stops. But the last line is not an end; it’s an invitation to go back, to re-read, to reflect, and to continue climbing the ladder. As he points out, “I know not whether it would be possible to make further progress in this life to that fourth degree and perfect condition wherein man loves himself solely for God’s sake.” Certainly, if St. Bernard doesn’t know the answer to this question, I doubt anyone else does, either. But his humility is also a call to reflection, a call to seek the answer, a call to continue climbing the ladder …
Thank you for climbing the Lenten ladder with me this season. I pray you have a Blessed Easter and that our Jewish friends have a Happy Passover.
Thank you for reading,
SR
Dear Everyone,
Now we are embarking on the fifth week of Lent. This past week we read Chapters 8 and 9 from St. Bernard of Clairvaux, but I will leave my remarks to the chat that is scheduled for Sunday, March 22nd at 2PM Eastern (Toronto). We’ll be hosted by the All Things SR podcast in their Mixlr chatroom. I hope you will join me. Feel free to post comments on last week’s readings or this week’s readings below.
This week, we will be readings Chapter 10 and 11. I look forward to our discussion either below in the comments or in the chat on Sunday.
Thank you for reading with me. Peace be with you all,
SR
Dear Everyone,
It’s difficult to believe that we are embarking on the fourth week of Lent. Time is certainly passing quickly. This past week we read Chapter 6 and 7. St. Bernard continues to challenge us, pausing in Chapter 6 to summarize what he’s expressed thus far and to call on us to love God as much as we can. He quotes part of a favourite Psalm: “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust’ (Ps. 18.1f).”
In Chapter 7, St. Bernard examines the nature of love, a topic I’m sure will resonate with readers. Did you notice this phrase: “It is so that these impious ones wander in a circle, longing after something to gratify their yearnings, yet madly rejecting that which alone can bring them to their desired end, not by exhaustion but by attainment”? Here, St. Bernard reminds me of Dante and the way he constructed the Inferno and its circles. Dante expands on St. Bernard’s insight that some people wander in search of what they want, but never finding it. St. Bernard says that everyone is looking for God. I welcome your reflections in the comments below.
As we embark on this fourth week of Lent, we will be reading Chapters 8 and 9. I look forward to our discussions and to our opportunity to chat together in the All Things SR podcast chatroom on Sunday, March 22nd. Please join me.
Peace be with you all,
SR
Dear Everyone,
I apologize for being late to post this week. I hope you have been enjoying the third week of our readalong. We have read Chapters 4-5, and beginning Wednesday, March 4th, should have begun Chapters 6-7.
In Chapter 4, St. Bernard surprises us by quoting from the book of Psalms and the book of Wisdom, focusing our attention on the marriage imagery of these passages. While St. Bernard shies away from the obvious eroticism of them, he uses the references to stress God’s love for us. St. Bernard also emphasizes how the believing soul “rests sweetly the contemplation of Him.” The connection between love and contemplation (and rest) is an interesting one. Every Lent, I strive to spend more time in contemplation but like many, I struggle to do so. There are a lot of distractions in life and a lot of things that compete for our attention (including eroticism). Resting in contemplation is often set aside.
St. Bernard begins Chapter 5 with a reference to the contemplation of “what has been said,” inviting the reader to approach the work as a contemplative one. Then he describes again the great love that God has for us and how his love has bestowed dignity on humanity. St. Bernard writes, “In the first creation He gave me myself, but in His new creation He gave me Himself, and by that gift restored to me the self that I had lost.” Like many contemplatives, St. Bernard is able to express profound insights in a language that belies their profundity. I’ll be continuing to reflect on this particular insight as I journey through Lent and I invite you to share your reflections in the comments below.
Thank you for continuing to journey with me this Lent. I look forward to Chapters 6 and 7, and to chatting with you in the podcast chatroom of the All Things SR podcast on Sunday, March 22nd. I’ll post more details soon.
Peace be with you all,
SR
I am honoured to have had all three of my novels appear on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists. I was a Semifinalist for Best Author in the 2011 and 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards. {More About Sylvain}