
In his work, Loving God, Bernard Clairvaux (AD 1090-1153) describes four degrees of love:
- Loving Ourselves for our Own Sake
- Loving God for His Gifts and Blessings
- Loving God for Him self Alone
- Loving Ourselves for the Sake of God
For Bernard, the best love was that we simply love ourselves as God loves us.........to the same breadth, length, depth and height. We love the 'self' that God loves.........the image of God in us that has been damaged by sin.
Lord, may I grasp the magnitude of Your love for me so that I may live in the experience of it............passing it on to others and to myself! Amen