I Will Love You, O Lord My Strength, My Stony Rock and My Defense

The prayers for the rest of this week and the next come from the tradition of monastic spirituality. The great monasteries grew up in this period as beacons of Christian culture in the darkness of paganism; they provided the only hospitality for travelers, the only medical treatment and rest for the sick, a center for trade and an example of good agricultural practice. And because they followed the Benedictine spirituality, all this was done in the context of a routine of daily prayer.

I will love you, O Lord my strength, my stony rock and my defense, my savior, my one desire and love. My God, my helper, I will love you with all the power you have given me; not as much as you deserve to be loved, for that can never be, but as much as I am able to. Whatever I do, I never can discharge my debt to you, and I can love you only according to the power that you have given me. The more power to love you give me, the more I will love you; yet never, never, can I love you as much as you should be loved.



Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

From On the Love of God