Bernard of Clairvaux

You must consider other relationships if you would understand that which is proper to the Bride. A slave feels fear before his lord; a hireling looks for wages; a pupil gives attention to his teacher; a son honours his father. But she who asks a kiss, she loves. Love is the highest of all gifts, supremely so when it is rendered back to God, who is its source. And the mutual sweet affection between the Word and the soul cannot more sweetly be expressed than by thus callng them the Bridegroom and the Bride. For between bride and bridegroom all is held in common; neither calls anything their own or possesses a single thing the other does not share. They have but one inheritance, one home, one table and one couch; they are in fact one flesh. Fitly then, the soul who loves is called the bride.