Commontide
Proper 15
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
The 9th Sunday after Trinity
Keep your Church, O Lord, by your perpetual mercy; and because without you the frailty of our nature causes us to fall, keep us from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable for our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Abbot
Ecumenical Commemoration
Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1090-1153) was the most powerful churchman of his age, and its greatest teacher of the love of God. Before his call to monasticism, Bernard was a young Burgundian nobleman. A natural leader, when he took monastic vows thirty companions followed him into the austere new order of Cîteaux. He built the abbey of Clairvaux into the burning center of the Cistercian renewal. His sermons on the Song of Songs and his book *On Loving God* shaped Christian spirituality for centuries; he advised popes, and rebuked kings, and was named a Doctor of the Church.
Bernard was born near Dijon in Burgundy and entered the Cistercian monastery at Citeaux around 1112. So compelling was his spiritual charisma that he brought a large group of companions with him into monastic life. In 1115, he was sent to establish a new monastery at Clairvaux, which under his leadership grew to become the spiritual and intellectual center of the Cistercian movement. His vast literary output—particularly the 86 Sermons on the Song of Songs (which occupied much of his later life) and his theological treatises—exercised extraordinary influence on medieval theology and devotion. Bernard championed mystical theology emphasizing the affective and experiential dimensions of faith, the role of Mary in redemption, and the transformation of the human will through grace. His correspondence reveals engagement with the highest ecclesiastical politics; he advised popes, counseled kings, and shaped European Church policy. He undertook the preaching of the Second Crusade (1146–1147), a decision he later came to regret, troubled by the violence perpetrated in the name of Christendom. Throughout his life, Bernard maintained the ascetic rigor of Cistercian practice—sleeping little, eating sparingly, maintaining silence—while simultaneously conducting the enormous literary and political work that made him the most influential ecclesiastical figure of his age. He died in 1153, having fundamentally shaped Christian spirituality and monastic renewal.
Bernard's cult developed rapidly after his death. His influence on Cistercian spirituality and mystical theology was immediate and profound. The Cistercian order venerated him as its spiritual exemplar. Post-mortem miracles were recorded, though these are typical hagiographic material. Bernard's primary legacy is his intellectual and spiritual influence rather than miracle-working.