Daily Office - Wednesday, April 1

Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 3:14-19
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strength you with his power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Devotional
Bernard of Clairvaux (AD 1090-1153), the abbot of a Cistercian monastery in France, was perhaps the greatest Christian leader and writer of his day. In his great work entitled Loving God, Bernard describes four four degrees of love:

1. Loving ourselves for our own sake
2. Loving God for his gifts and blessings
3. Loving God for himself alone
4. Loving ourselves for the sake of God  

The highest degree of love, for Bernard, was simply that we love ourselves as God loves us-in the same degree, in the same manner, and with the very same love. We love the self that God loves, the essential image and likeness of God in us that has been damaged by sin.

Question to Consider
Where do you see yourself on Bernard's list of four degrees of love?

Prayer
Lord, strengthen me with your power that I might grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ that surpasses human knowledge. May I love you for you alone, and not your gifts or blessings. And may I live in the deep experiences of your tender love this day. In Jesus' name, amen.

Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)