"You wish me to explain for what reason and in what measure we should love God. I should say that God Himself is the motive of our love to Him, and that the measure of due love is to be without measure."

On the Love of God is St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s heartfelt meditation on the highest calling of the Christian life: to love God for His own sake. Written in the clear, warm, and persuasive voice that made Bernard one of the most beloved preachers of the Middle Ages, the treatise begins with a simple question—why should God be loved?—and unfolds into a profound exploration of the nature of love itself.

St. Bernard examines the origins of our love for God, the ways it grows through grace and gratitude, and the stages by which it is purified from self-interest until it becomes a selfless delight in God’s will. He speaks of the soul’s journey from its own need and weakness to the joy of loving God purely for who He is, and of how such love transforms the believer’s life in charity toward others.

This edition also includes Fragments from a Fragment—selections from one of St. Bernard’s final sermons on the Song of Songs—in which his lifelong love for Christ the Bridegroom shines through with undimmed fervor.