Before the Cloud of Unknowing…

The Twelve Patriarchs • The Mystical Ark • Book Three of the Trinity

Before the Cloud of Unknowing, Richard of St. Victor (who lived in the twelfth century, a contemporary of Hildegard of Bingen and Bernard of Clairvaux) wrote this lovely passage in his work calledThe Mystical Ark:

When birds want to fly they spread out their wings. So, we surely ought to spread the wings of our heart by longing and wait for the time of divine showing at every house — nay, rather at every moment, so that at wha...