SOURCE: Merton, Thomas. “Action and Contemplation in the Mystery of Christ.” In Thomas Merton on Saint Bernard, pp. 23-58. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications, 1980.

In the following excerpt, Merton discusses Bernard's ideas regarding the active, contemplative, and apostolic lives in his Sermons on the Song of Songs.

1. Action and Contemplation in the Mystery of Christ

Before we approach the subject of this study, which is St Bernard's doctrine on the active and contemplative lives, let us first pause to consider the great mystery of action and contemplation in Our Lord Jesus Christ, as it is revealed to us in the New Testament. Here, of course, there is no mention of ‘contemplation’: the sacred book speaks rather of the infinite reality of the divine life which has been manifested and given to us in Christ and which far transcends our poor abstract notions of contemplation. A later generation could speak...