Bernard Of Clairvaux -

In his classic work On Loving God , Bernard argues that love is a journey that starts with the self and ends with a complete losing of oneself in God. He outlines these four stages:

We start by loving ourselves for our own needs. Bernard of Clairvaux

The Mellifluous Doctor: Lessons in Love from Bernard of Clairvaux In his classic work On Loving God ,

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) was a man of intense contradictions—a monk who craved solitude yet became the most influential power-broker in Europe, and a mystic who wrote "sweet as honey" prose while preaching for the Second Crusade. Known as the his teachings on humility and love remain a bedrock of spiritual wisdom nearly a millennium later. 1. The Four Degrees of Love Bernard of Clairvaux