Nevertheless, even he is aware he owes him all whom he knows is the maker of all his being. What then should he be for me who hold my God to be not only the generous giver, the liberal administrator, the kindest consoler and the watchful governor of my life, but above and beyond that, the richest redeemer, the eternal defender who enriches and glorifies ….

What shall I render to the Lord for all these gifts? Reason and natural justice urge the infidel to surrender his whole being to him from whom he received it and to love him with all his might. Faith certainly bids me love him all the more whom I regard as that much greater than I, for he not only gives me myself, he also gives me himself. The age of faith had not yet come, God had not yet appeared in flesh, died on the Cross, risen from the grave, or returned to the Father. He had not yet commended his great charity in us about which I have said so much. Man had not yet been ordered to love his Lord God with all his heart, all his soul, and all his strength, that is, with all he is, knows, and can do. 

        Yet God is not unjust when he claims for himself his works and gifts. Why would not an artifact love its artist, if it is able to do so? Why would it not love him all it can, since it can do nothing except by his gift? In addition, the fact that man was made out of nothing, gratuitously and in this dignity, renders the debt of love clearer and proves the divine exaction more just. Besides, how much did the benefit increase when God, multiplying his mercy, saved men and beasts? I am speaking of us who exchanged our glory for the likeness of a calf that eats grass, who have become by sin like irrational beasts.

       If I owe all for having been created, what can I add for being remade, and being remade in this way? It was less easy to remake me than to make me. It is written not only about me but of every created being; “He spoke and they were made.” But he who made me by a single word, in remaking me had to speak many words, work miracles, suffer hardships, and not only hardships but even unjust treatment. “What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has given men?” In his first work he gave me myself; in his second work he gave me himself; when he gave me himself, he gave me back myself. Given, and regiven, I own myself twice over. What can I give God in return for himself? Even if I could give him myself a thousand times, what am I to God?

– St. Bernard, On Loving God 5 –