Saint Who?
Saints Who Taught about Prayer
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Abbot and Doctor († 1153) Feast: August 20
When twenty-three-year-old Bernard left his home to become a monk at Cîteaux abbey, he hoped to spend the rest of his life in seclusion, alone with God in prayer. That was not to be.
Granted, Bernard did become a monk in the new Cistercian order, and he acclimated quickly to its strict regimen of prayer, fasting, and mortification. Eventually he was named abbot, and he was so widely esteemed that emperors, kings, and popes turned to him for guidance and inspiration. Of course, they sometimes wished that Bernard was not quite so brilliant when he publicly corrected their errors and sins.
Bernard had a passionate nature. When he had decided to become a monk, he couldn’t avoid telling all his family and friends about the blessings of that vocation, which is why thirty-one men decided to accompany him into monastic life. He gave an entire series of sermons on the Song of Songs, inspiring his monks to seek God’s love with the passion of the unnamed woman who narrates most of that biblical book. In one of those sermons, he spoke openly about his grief over the recent death of his brother Gerard. Yet Bernard’s ardent love always remained focused on God, and his charity led others to love wholeheartedly as well.
God of love, fill our hearts
with a desire to love as you love.
