' Full knowledge and perfect Love '...

"Let no one believe that he has received the divine kiss,

if he knows the truth without loving it or loves it without understanding it.

But blessed is that kiss whereby not only is God recognized but also the Father is loved:

for there is never full knowledge without perfect love."




- Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
In Cantica Serm. VIII, 6; Migne, P. L., CLXXXIII, 813
quoted in Doctor Mellifluus-Encyclical of Pope Pius XII on St. Bernard of Clairvaux