Love yourself for God’s sake
(09/22/23 6:50pm)
In his devotion “On Loving God,” Bernard of Clairvaux writes of four “degrees” of love: (1) one loves oneself for one’s own sake, (2) one loves God for one’s own sake, (3) one loves God for God’s sake, (4) one loves oneself for God’s sake. What’s curious about this formulation is the order; why do the “degrees” move from loving oneself to loving God, then back to loving oneself?