ST BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - 20th AUGUST


 

ST BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX-

FEAST DAY 20 AUGUST
St Bernard was a Cistercian monk and mystic and founder of the Abbey of Clairvaux.
His feast day is an opportunity to consider the virtues contemplative prayer. Below is an extract of St Bernard’s work on the Stages of Contemplation, reproduced by John Uebersax (September 10, 2008 at https://catholicgnosis.wordpress.com/.../on-the-stages.../)
From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux:
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me. (Habakkuk 2:1, KJV)
LET US take our stand on the tower, leaning with all our strength on Christ, the most solid rock, as it is written: He has set my feet on a rock, he has guided my steps. Thus firmly established, let us begin to contemplate, to see what he is saying to us and what reply we ought to make to him.
The first stage of contemplation, my dear brothers, is to consider constantly what God wants, what is pleasing to him, and what is acceptable in his eyes. We all offend in many things; our strength cannot match the rightness of God’s will and cannot be joined to it or made to fit with it. So let us humble ourselves under the powerful hand of the most high God and make an effort to show ourselves unworthy before his merciful gaze, saying Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed; save me and I shall be saved. And again, Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul because I have sinned against you.
Once the eye of the soul has been purified by such considerations, we no longer abide within our spirit in a sense of sorrow, but abide rather in the Spirit of God with great delight. No longer do we consider what is the will of God for us, but rather what it is in itself.
For our life is in his will. Thus we are convinced that what is according to his will is in every way better for us, and more fitting. And so, if we are concerned to preserve the life of our soul, we must be equally concerned to deviate as little as possible from his will.
Thus having made some progress in our spiritual exercise under the guidance of the Spirit who gazes into the deep things of God, let us reflect how gracious the Lord is and how good he is in himself. Let us join the Prophet in praying that we may see the Lord’s will and frequent not our own hearts but the Lord’s temple; and let us also say, My soul is humbled within me, therefore I shall be mindful of you.
These two stages sum up the whole of the spiritual life: when we contemplate ourselves we are troubled, and our sadness saves us and brings us to contemplate God; that contemplation in turn gives us the consolation of the joy of the Holy Spirit. Contemplating ourselves brings fear and humility; contemplating God brings us hope and love.”
Source: A sermon by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (Sermo 5 [On the words of Habakkuk 2:1] 4–5. Opera omnia, Edit. Cisterc. 6, 1 [1970], 103–4), as quoted in the Roman Catholic Office of Readings for Wednesday of the 23rd week in Ordinary Time.
As lay people, we may feel that contemplative prayer is something that is beyond our ability; however, meditation is available to us all - we can all meditate on our daily prayer, whether it be the Rosary or the Daily Office - the Psalms or oral prayer. The important thing is to engage at a simple level and to know that all prayer is of value to God.
Perhaps, for those of us whose powers of concentration do not extend to peaceful and prolonged contemplation, it is better to, as one might say, leave the heavy furnace of prayer to the professionals. I draw comfort from the observation of St Teresa of Avila that not everybody is destined to be contemplatives, (“The Way to Perfection,” Aquinas Press Classics, 1991, at p. 78), St Teresa observing that;
“Saint Martha was holy, but we are not told that she was a contemplative. What more could you want than to grow to be like her, who was worthy to receive Christ our Lord so often in her house and to prepare meals for him and to serve him and perhaps eat at table with Him? If she had always been absorbed in devotion, as Saint Mary Magdalen was, no-one would have prepared a meal for this Divine Guest.” (ibid., at pp. 80-81).

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