St Bernard of Clairvaux
(1090-1153) did not write a systematic treatise devoted exclusively to the
Eucharist in the way that later theologians would do. Bernard’s approach to the
Eucharist is contemplative, mystical and unitive. We can gain some insight into his approach by
immersing ourselves in the monastic spirituality of the Benedictine family of
which the Cistercians were a new development from the 12th
Century. For the early Cistercians, and
broadly within the Benedictine monastic tradition of Bernard's time, the focus
was on a living relationship with Christ through Scripture, the liturgy and the
sacrament.
In his Sermons on the Song of Songs, he uses the language of desire, intimacy and union between
the disciple and Jesus.
For Bernard,
Christianity was essentially a relationship with Christ. The Eucharist was not just
a sacred object or ritual but a privileged meeting with the Bridegroom of the
soul. In one of his sermons he quotes the Song of Songs:
"Let him kiss me with the kiss of his
mouth.”
