Summary: Pope Benedict XVI's Encyclical, "Deus caritas est", issues and invitation to consider love, the central reality of Christianity, in its fundamental unity, which brings together the dimension of giving and that of receiving. In this perspective, this article sets out to enquire into the contributions made to reflection upon love by Bernard of Clairvaux, William of Saint-Thierry and Richard of St. Victor. Bernard emphasizes the importance of having gratuitously received all things from God. William adds awareness of the unsurpassable concreteness of God's love, given by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the human being. In Richard we then find the explicit need for a forward path of growth, in virtue of which love finds its fulfillment in the Christological form of dedication.