Best Wishes for a Blessed Christ Mass

St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon for Christmas--The Fountains of the Savior

[Christ is the fountain] in which we may wash ourselves clean, as it is written "Who hath loved us and washed us from our sins." But this is not the only use of water: it can serve us in more ways than by washing our stains. Thus it can also quench our thirst. … A third use of water is irrigation, of which young plants especially have the greatest need. … Whoever, therefore, has sown the seeds of good works should seek for the water of devotion, so that irrigated from the fountain of grace, the garden of his virtuous life may not wither but may flourish in a never fading bloom. … Do you think it possible to find … a fourth fountain, so that we may be able to cover paradise, which was watered and beautified by a four-branched stream? … In this living paradise we have now discovered three of the fountains, and the fourth is yet to seek. We have the:

waters of pardon from the fountain of mercy to wash away our sins;

waters of prudence from the fountain of wisdom to slake our thirst;

waters of devotion from the fountain of grace to irrigate the plants of our good works.

Let us now seek for the heated waters of ardent zeal with which to cook our food. For these waters serve both to spiritualize and to warm our affections, and they flow from the fountain of charity.

And see if the Prophet Isaiah is not alluding to these fountains when he says: "You shall draw waters with joy from the Savior’s fountains."