Cânticos 4
Bernard of Clairvaux
Cânticos 4:7
That is reserved for you at the end of all things, when I shall take you, all glorious, to myself, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Do you not know that as long as you live in the body you are exiled from the light? With your beauty still incomplete how can you consider yourself fit to gaze on beauty in its totality? And why should you want to see me in my splendor, while you still do not know yourself? Because if you had a better knowledge of yourself you would know that, burdened with a perishable body, you cannot possibly lift up your eyes and fix them on this radiant light that the angels long to contemplate. The time will come when I shall reveal myself, and your beauty will be complete, just as my beauty is complete; you will be so like me that you will see me as I am. Then you will be told: "You are all fair my love, there is no flaw in you." But for now, though there is some resemblance, there is also some want of resemblance, and you must be content with an imperfect knowledge. Be aware of what you are, do not hanker after truths that are too high for you, nor for experiences beyond your power to bear. Otherwise, you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women — for ever I give you the title beautiful, but beautiful among women, with a beauty that is imperfect. When the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. — Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 38
Cânticos 4:12
Virginity is a flower, martyrdom is a flower, a good work is a flower. Virginity in the garden, martyrdom in the field, good work in the bridal chamber. And well is virginity in the garden, to which modesty is familiar, shunning the public, rejoicing in hiding places, enduring discipline. For the flower is enclosed in a garden, which in the field is exposed and in the bridal chamber is scattered. And you have: "A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed" (Song 4:12). Which indeed signifies the enclosure of modesty in the virgin, and the guarding of inviolate sanctity: if nevertheless she be such a one as is holy both in body and in spirit. — Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 47