Universalis: Today

Wednesday 20 August 2008
Saint Bernard, Abbot, Doctor

[About today]

· Email | Your website: Banners · Syndication (RSS feed)
Your PC or Mac: Download/Install | Mobile phone: WAP | Handheld: AvantGo · Download/Install

Tomorrow: Saint Pius X, Pope
NEW: Universalis for the iPhone

Rejoice in God, all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness.

St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153): He was born near Dijon, in France, in 1090, of a noble family. In 1112 he joined the new monastery at Cîteaux. This had been founded fourteen years before, in a bid to reject the laxity and riches of the Benedictine Order (as exemplified by great monasteries such as Cluny) and to return to a primitive poverty and austerity of life.
Bernard arrived at Cîteaux with four of his five brothers and two dozen friends. Within three years he had been sent out to found a new monastery at Clairvaux, in Champagne, where he remained abbot for the rest of his life. By the time of his death, the Cistercian Order had grown from one house to 343, of which 68 were daughter houses of Clairvaux itself.
Bernard was a man of great holiness and wisdom, and although he was often in very poor health, he was active in many of the great public debates of the time. He strongly opposed the luxurious lives of some of the clergy, and fought against the persecution of the Jews. He was also a prolific writer, of an inspiring rather than a technical kind.
The Church is always suffering from corruption and always being renewed. If St Bernard, so often ill, could take a leading part in this renewal, what excuse do we have?
See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

Mid-morning reading (Terce)	1 Corinthians 10:24 - 31 ©
Nobody should be looking for his own advantage, but everybody for the other man’s. Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do at all, do it for the glory of God.

Noon reading (Sext)	Colossians 3:17 ©
Never say or do anything except in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Afternoon reading (None)	Colossians 3:23 - 24 ©
Whatever your work is, put your heart into it as if it were for the Lord and not for men, knowing that the Lord will repay you by making you his heirs. It is Christ the Lord that you are serving.

August 2008
Tue 19	Tuesday of week 20 of the year or Saint John Eudes, priest
Wed 20	Saint Bernard, Abbot, Doctor
Thu 21	Saint Pius X, Pope
Fri 22	Our Lady, Mother and Queen
Sat 23	Saturday of week 20 of the year or Saint Rose of Lima, Virgin
Sun 24	21st Sunday of the year
Mon 25	Monday of week 21 of the year or Saint Louis or Saint Joseph of Calasanz, priest
Tue 26

Calendar used: General Calendar

Scripture readings taken from the Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. For on-line information about other Random House, Inc. books and authors, see the Internet web site at http://www.randomhouse.com.

Site sponsored by Cardbox – "The database for real people"