Today, during his Angelus address, the pope spoke of St. Bernard of Clairvaux:
“The urgency of important and complex missions in the service of the Church” should be harmonized with “solitude” and “quiet”: this call to prayer and contemplation has become a constant in the reflections of Benedict XVI. And he underlined it again when recalling the saint whose feast is marked today: Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church, who lived between the XI and XII centuries. “The dedication to silence and contemplation,” said the pope, “did not prevent him from undertaking intense apostolic works.”
The effectiveness of St Bernard, said the pontiff, lay in his ability to “put forward truths of the faith in a manner so clear and incisive that it fascinated the listener and prompted the soul to meditation and prayer.” But this was the fruit of a personal experience of “divine charity, revealed fully in the crucified and risen Christ”. The pope continued: “The echo of a rich inner experience, that he managed to communicate to others with amazing persuasive ability, is found in each of his writings. For him, the greatest strength of spiritual life is love.”
Benedict XVI also recalled a text that the saint dedicated to Pope Eugene III, his pupil and spiritual son, the De Consideratione, based on the fundamental theme of “inner meditation”. “One must guard oneself, observed the saint, from the dangers of excessive activity, whatever the condition and office covered, because many occupations often lead to ‘hardness of heart’, ‘they are nothing other than suffering of the spirit, loss of intelligence, dispersion of grace’ (II,3).” It is likely that Benedict XVI was making this emphasis with himself in mind, being so taken up by countless commitments of his work. He said: “This caution applies to all kinds of occupations, even those inherent to the government of the Church.” And he cited Bernard’s “provocative” words to Eugene III: “This is where your damned occupations can drag you, if you continue to lose yourself in them… leaving nothing of you to yourself.”
Michael notes St. Bernard’s importance to someone around here.
In other news, A telegram was sent from the Vatican appealing for the release of a Chaldean priest kidnapped in Iraq last week.
Read Previous Post
