On consideration (Excerpt)
Go out into
the field of you Lord and
consider how even today it abounds
in thorns and thistles
in fulfillment of the ancient curse.
Go out, I say, into the world
for the field is the world and it is
entrusted to you.
Go out into it not as a Lord
but as a steward, to oversee and to
manage that for which you must
render and account.
Go out, I should have said, with
careful responsibility, and
responsible care.
By Bernard of Clairvaux
[Christian History originally published this article in Christian History Issue #24 in 1989]
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