The Church's descent into the bitterness of trials 64. While she receives praise from the Bridegroom, she humbly refuses to accept him in his presence.

Delightful, perfect, and beautiful 57. The groom praises her because she asked for him well and persistently, and now she is called not only a sister, but also a joyful one, since she is

[Our Christ finds in the holy soul a spiritual garden bearing various fruits for eating and drinking. Its intoxicating wine gives a person a passion for love that makes him forgetful

Self-commitment to vigilance 38. We must always be alert and watchful, because the Word of God leaps like a deer or an elk (Song of Songs 2:9)

Inner beauty! 11. Indeed, “the king brought me into his chambers” (Song of Songs 1:4 LXX). Blessed is the soul that enters the chambers, when it ascends

The perfect soul flees from evil, not from the earth. 6. As for the perfect soul, it stays away from matter, and abstains and rejects everything.

[When Saint Ambrose saw in Isaac the fountain of wisdom to which the pious soul (Rebekah) comes to drink from it, and does not approach the fountain

“Yourself” is too great to be appreciated, more valuable than the whole world! Therefore, Jesus Christ says: “What does it profit a person if he gains the whole world and loses?”

[St. Ambrose sees in Isaac a symbol of the Lord Christ, not only in his birth according to a divine promise, nor in his offering as a sacrifice in obedience to his father, but even