William of Saint-Thierry

Awakening to the Spiritual Path

Life 

William is born some time between 1075 and 1080 in Liège. For his studies, he travels to Northern France. Around 1100, he becomes a Benedictine monk in the abbey Saint Nicaise in Reims. In 1121, he is elected abbot of the monastery Saint-Thierry. In 1124, William considers joining the white monks of Cîteaux. Bernard of Clairvaux opposes this. He devotes himself to the reform of his own and other abbeys. After having borne this burden for fourteen years, in 1135 he nevertheless comes to the conclusion that he is truly called to the Cistercian life. He subsequently enters in the newly founded abbey of Signy. On September 8, 1148, he dies. As a result of the conversations shared with his friend Bernard, William of Saint-Thierry
wrote a commentary on the Song of Songs. For him as well, the submersion in the living water of divine Love was a fruitful School of Love. God showers us with His unconditional and inexhaustible Love. Even though He often has every reason to, God never pulls out and never gives up on us.

First Encounter

Growing towards Likeness

Mysticism is a process in which the existence of God becomes flesh and blood in my life, and not a process in which I can run away from myself. For William, the fundamental breakthrough experience is the discovery that I am created in God’s image and likeness. This origin is the supreme nobility of the human being. I may have become alienated from my own nature and from the original intention of my being; but this does not lead to gloomy reflections on the brokenness of human existence, but rather to the joyful discovery of a dynamic force that can inspire me. The image of God is, after all, abidingly anchored in me as a dynamic principle, that is, as the origin of growth and movement. I am created to grow towards an ever-increasing likeness to God.

Learning to Understand the Song of Love

In the preface to his exposition on the Song of Songs, William wrote: “Therefore, now we are about to speak about the bridal song, the wedding song, the song of Bridegroom and Bride, and are once again going to read and contemplate your work, O Holy Spirit, we call on You: that we may be filled with your love, O Love, in order to understand the song of Love; that we too may participate to some degree in the holy conversations of Bridegroom and Bride: that what is read by us may also take place in us. For when speaking of emotions of the soul, it is not easy to understand what is being said, unless one is himself moved by such emotions.”

Living out of the Source of Love

“Permeate us with You, then, O Holy Spirit; holy Paraclete, holy Comforter, comfort us in the poverty of our solitude, which seeks no solace outside of You. Enlighten and enliven the yearning desire, that it may become: consummating love. Be present, so that we truly love; that all that we feel and say may proceed from the source of your love. May your song of love be read by us in such a way, that it enkindles love itself in us; yes, that that love will become for us: the interpreter of its own song.”

The Fire of Love

Bernard of Clairvaux and William of Saint-Thierry understood that a life of prayer is a school of Love, in which the Holy Spirit is the teacher. The Spirit is Love and enkindles in us the fire of his Love, so that despite ourselves and indeed without ourselves, we become an instrument of God’s Love. “To think about God in the only right way lies not in the power of the thinker, but in the grace of the giver: this happens when the Holy Spirit pours himself out where He wills, when He wills, and as He wills.”

Texts

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Table of contents

Voorwoord

  1. Hoofdstuk 1
    1. Paragraaf 1
    2. Paragraaf 2
  2. Hoofdstuk 2
    1. Paragraaf 1
    2. Paragraaf 2
  3. Hoofdstuk 3
  4. Hoofdstuk 4
  5. Hoofdstuk 5

    6. Bibliografie

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