Commentary Par XXXI 109-111

See Singleton (DDP Singleton.Par.XXXI.109-111): 'Bernard's two principal qualifications to serve as final guide in the journey stem from his special devotion to the Virgin Mary and from his fame as one dedicated to mystical contemplation with special emphasis on the affective movement of the mind as it rises to God, an emphasis which later Franciscan thought and devotion adopted and stressed.  It was believed that Bernard, in such meditation, had a foretaste of the peace of Heaven.  In the Meditationes piissimae (XIV, 36-37), ascribed to Bernard, there is a rhapsody on the joys of contemplation.  See also Bernard, Sermones in Cantica Canticorum, XXIII, 15-16.  As noted above, Dante in his Letter to Can Grande (Epist.XIII.80) refers the reader of his Paradiso to Bernard's work De contemplatione.'