When you are feeling strong, do not be complacent, but call to God with the prophet and say: "When my strength fails me, do not abandom me" (Ps. 70:9). And in time of temptation be consoled and say with the bride: "Draw me after you, and we shall run in the odor of your ointments" (Ps. 33:2). Thus you will not lose hope in bad times, nor will foresight disert you in good times, and amid both the prosperity and adversity of changing times you will retian a certain image of eternity -- that is, this inviolable and unshakable constancy of a stable soul -- blessing the Lord at every moment. In this way you claim for yourself, even amid the doubtful events and inevitable deficiencies of ths changing world, a certain status of lasting unchangeability while you being to renew and reform yourself according to the ancient pattern of likeness to the eternal God, "in whom there is neither alteration nor the shadow of change" (Jas 1:17).
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
On the Song of Songs
in Essential Monastic Wisdom
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