{"id":8746,"date":"2014-12-04T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2014-12-04T05:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=8746"},"modified":"2014-12-02T11:52:32","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T10:52:32","slug":"keep-the-word-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2014\/12\/keep-the-word-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep the Word of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lippi_San_Bernardo\"
\nThursday at Matins:<\/em><\/p>\n

From a Sermon by St Bernard, Abbot & Doctor<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have come to know a threefold coming of the Lord.\u00a0 The third coming takes place between the other two.\u00a0 They are clearly manifest but the third is not.\u00a0 In the first coming the Lord was seen on earth and lived among men in the days when, as he himself bears witness, they saw and hated him. In his last coming \u201call flesh shall see the salvation of our God,\u201d and \u201cthey shall look on him whom they have pierced.\u201d The other coming is hidden. In it, only the chosen see him within themselves and their souls are saved.\u00a0 In brief, his first coming was in the flesh in weakness, this intermediary coming is in the spirit and in power, the last coming will be in glory and majesty<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This intermediary coming is like a road leading from the first to the last coming.\u00a0 In the first coming Christ was our redemption, in the last he will appear as our life, in this intermediary coming he is our rest and consolation.\u00a0 Do not imagine that what we are saying about the intermediary coming is simply our own fabrication.\u00a0 Listen to Christ himself: \u201cIf a man loves me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong> I have read elsewhere, \u201cThe man who fears the Lord will do good,\u201d but it is my opinion that more was said of the one who loves, namely that he will keep the words. Where, then, are they to be kept?\u00a0 Without any doubt they are to be kept in the heart, as the prophet says, \u201cI have kept thy words in my heart, lest I sin against thee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep the word of God in that way for, \u201cblessed are they who keep it.\u201d\u00a0 Let it pierce deep into your inmost soul and penetrate your feelings and actions.\u00a0 Eat well and your soul will delight and grow.\u00a0 Do not forget to eat your bread or your heart will wither, but let your soul feast richly.\u00a0<\/strong> If you keep the word of God in this way without a doubt you will be kept by it.\u00a0 The Son with the Father will come to you.\u00a0 The great prophet who will renew Jerusalem will come and he will make everything new.\u00a0 The effect of this coming will be that \u201cjust as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.\u201d\u00a0 Just as the old Adam was poured out throughout the whole man and filled him completely, so now let Christ take possession of the whole man, for he created the whole man, he redeemed the whole man and he will glorify the whole man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday at Matins: From a Sermon by St Bernard, Abbot & Doctor We have come to know a threefold coming of the Lord.\u00a0 The third coming takes place between the other two.\u00a0 They are clearly manifest but the third is not.\u00a0 In the first coming the Lord was seen on earth and lived among men <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent-liturgy","category-florilegium-patristicum"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-2h4","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8748,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8746\/revisions\/8748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}