Letters466 Letter CDLXVI. To the Monks of Grace de Dieu. (Circa A. D. 1135)

To all the very dear brethren who are at Grace de Dieu, Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, desires health: and that they may be rendered strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.

Who shall bestow upon me the wings of a dove (Ps. lv. 6) that I may fly to see the earnest endeavours of my sons, and their progress in spiritual things, their peace and order and discipline? I desire to behold thos’e new settlers in a new spot, how among strangers and foreigners they fight (a good fight), how they sing the Lord’s song in a strange land (Ps. cxxxvii. 4). Already I have flown to you in mind and am with you in spirit: but according to the saying of the Lord, The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak (S. Matt. xxiv. 41), nor can the latter follow the former at this time. But it shall follow at a later 1 During S. Bernard’s life two Cistercian monasteries of this name were founded; the one in Franche Comte, the other in Poitou. However, here only the latter is meant, which was founded in 1135 from Clairvaux. The writing of the letter falls in the first year of the monastery, when the expression novae incolae still applied to the monks. (E.)

time, if ever it shall regain from the Hand of God its former strength. But in the meantime, do ye, beloved, stand fast in that work wherein ye are, yea, rather make progress in that to which you have put your hands: because where any one ceases to strive to go onward unto perfection, there he begins to be deficient.