SOURCE: "Sermon I" and "Sermon 2," in On the "Song of Songs" I, translated by Kilian Walsh, Irish University Press, 1971, pp. 1-15.

In the following three sermons, presented around 1136, St. Bernard explains the title of the Song of Songs; the kiss as a symbol of God's presence and as a sustainer of faith; and suggests an interpretive approach to this and to other biblical texts.

Sermon 1

ON THE TITLE OF THE BOOK

The instructions that I address to you, my brothers, will differ from those I should deliver to people in the world, at least the manner will be different. The preacher who desires to follow St Paul's method of teaching will give them milk to drink rather than solid food, and will serve a more nourishing diet to those who are spiritually enlightened: "We teach," he said, "not in the way philosophy is taught, but in the way...