Friday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

National Back to School Month

Saints: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercian Abbot and Doctor, "Last of the Fathers" (1090-1153)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 64:1-6 The Election of an Abbot

Mass: 

Solemnity of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux: Wisdom 7:7-10, 15-16 or Sirach 39:8-14; Ph 3:17-4:1; Mt 5:13-19 or Jn 17:20-26

Feria: Ruth 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22; Resp Ps 146; Mt 22:34-40

For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

How fitting it is on this day that we celebrate the Solemnity of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, that we also begin Saint Benedict's Chapter 64 on the Election of an Abbot. It is there in the Holy Rule that Saint Benedict writes, "Goodness of life and wisdom in teaching must be the criteria for choosing the one to be made abbot" (RB 64:2). Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was certainly one who was blessed with goodness of life and wisdom in teaching. The following comes from one of his sermons on the Song of Songs, 37:1. 

You remember that you have agreed with me that no one is saved without self-knowledge, since it is the source of that humility on which salvation depends, and the fear of the Lord that is as much the beginning of salvation as of wisdom. No one, I repeat, is saved without that knowledge ... 

But what if you have no knowledge of God? Is hope of salvation compatible with ignorance about God? Surely not. For you cannot love what you do not know, nor possess what you do not love. Know yourself and you will have a wholesome fear of God; know him and you will also love him. In the first, wisdom has its beginning, in the second its crown, for "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and "love is the fulfilling of the law." You must avoid both kinds of ignorance, because without fear and love salvation is not possible.

SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX,

MARY, OUR LADY OF CITEAUX,

MARY, OUR LADY OF CLAIRVAUX,

MARY, OUR LADY OF LA TRAPP,

MARY, OUR LADY OF NAZARETH,

MARY, OUR LADY OF KLAARLAND,

MARY, OUR LADY OF THE REDWOODS,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: My oldest sister Kathy and I saw this tempura and gold on wood piece at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 2017. By Italian artist Agnolo Gaddi (1350-1396), it was once part of a larger altarpiece whose center panel is now missing. The four saints you see, from left to right, are Saint Mary Magdalene, Saint Benedict, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

© Gertrude Feick 2021