"O humility! o sublimity! Both tabernacle of cedar and sanctuary of God; earthly dwelling and celestial palace; house of clay and royal hall; body of death and temple of light; and at last both object of scorn to the proud and bride of Christ! She is black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, for even if the labor and pain of her long exile may have discolored her, yet heaven's beauty has adorned her."
"O humilitas! o sublimitas! Et tabernaculum Cedar [(Song 1:4)], et sanctuarium Dei [(Ps 72:17, 82:13)]; et terrenum habitaculum [(cf. Wis 9:15)], et caeleste palatium; et domus lutea [(Job 4:19)], et aula regia; et corpus mortis [(Rom 7:24)] et templum lucis; et despectio denique superbis [(Ps 122:4)], et sponsa Christi. Nigra est, sed formosa, filiae Ierusalem [(Song 1:4)]: quam etsi labor et dolor [(Ps 89:10)] longi exsilii decolorat, species tamen caelestis exornat. . . ."
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon 27.14 on the Song of Songs, as quoted at CCC 771. Latin from SC 431, p. 342. Cf. this one.
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