the mystical temple of god 580 peace, our search for truth, and our love of charity.”20 Secondly, St. Ambrose exhorts us to contemplate continually this image of God depicted in us with a singular love for our Creator and Restorer in the following way: “Let God always remain in the mind of the one who is understanding and loving, so that, just as there can be no moment which man does not use or enjoy God’s goodness and mercy, so there should be no moment in which he does not keep Him present in his memory.”21 Nor is it sufficient to apprehend the mere presence of God; we must also show in our actions and exterior deeds that we truly bear within us the living and unsullied image of God. I want to give voice to Ambrose in what he still has to say on this subject: “Just as God the Creator,” (he says), “who created man in His image and likeness, is love, is good, is just, patient and mild, pure and merciful, and embraces the other characteristics of the holy virtues, which are read about Him, so also man was created to have love, to be good and just, to be patient and mild, pure and merciful. What greater honor for a man” (he continues farther), “than to be clothed with the same garments as the Lord himself; according to what is said: ‘The Lord is king, He is clothed with beauty’” (Ps 93:1) [LV]? Therefore, let everyone pay more careful attention to the excellence of his first condition and acknowledge the venerable likeness to the Holy Trinity in himself, and strive, by the nobility of his conduct, the exercise of virtues, and the dignity of merits, to possess the honor of divine likeness; so that when it becomes manifest what he is like, then it appears that he is similar to Him who wondrously formed him in His likeness in the first Adam, and yet more wondrously reformed [him] in the second.”22 20 Bernard, “Meditations ..., Ch. 1: PL 184, 486 (n. 319) or The Most Devout Meditations of St. Bernard to Obtain an Understanding of the Human Condition, Also Known as A book about the Soul, 1, n. 34 in: The Meditations, Soliloquies and Handbook of Saint Aurelius Augustine, and in Addition The Meditations ... of Saint Bernard ..., Turin 1929, p. 313. [Hereafter The Meditations, Soliloquies and Handbook will be abbreviated as AMS.] 21 Ambrose, op. cit. ibid. 22 Cf. ibid., Ch. 3. In the final section of this quotation the author omitted the reference to 1 Jn 3:2, where we read: “We know that when it comes to light, we
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