Sermons for the Autumn Season

Author(s): Bernard of Clairvaux, Irene Edmonds, Mark A. Scott, OCSO

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ISBN-13: 9780879074548

Number of Pages: 456

Published: 29/03/2016

On the anniversary of the dedication of the monastery church at Clairvaux, Saint Bernard spoke to the community to explain the meaning of the feast: “What sanctity can these stones have that we should celebrate their festival? They do indeed have sanctity, but it is because of your bodies. . . . Your bodies are holy because of your souls, and this house is holy because of your bodies.”The thirty-eight sermons in this volume carry forth this theme, revealing the holiness of the monastic life as monks alternate through the rhythm of the day and the year between the opus Dei and manual labor, journeying faithfully through life to death and the transitus to glory. The twelfth-century Ecclesiastica Officia of the Cistercian Order required abbots to speak formally to their communities in chapter on seventeen fixed days, mostly liturgical feasts. This volume witnesses to Bernard’s fulfillment of this requirement and includes sermons for the Assumption and Nativity of the Virgin and the Feast of All Saints, sermons devoted to the feasts of particular saints celebrated during the autumn months, sermons for the time of harvest, and funeral sermons that look forward to the eternal joy in the communion of saints.

Bernard of Clairvaux, Irene Edmonds, Mark A. Scott, OCSO

Mark A. Scott, OCSO, is a monk of the Trappist-Cistercian Abbey of New Clairvaux, Vina, California, which he entered in 1978. From 2000 to 2008 he served as appointed superior and then abbot of Assumption Abbey, Ava, Missouri.

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"For those not familiar with the allegorical interpretation of Scripture that Bernard and most of his Christian predecessors and contemporaries used, reading these sermons will be a shock. They are like a quilt made up of many small pieces, sewn into a very complex pattern. If the pieces and patterns are studied and savored, they invite the reader/listener to meet the Word, presented by one of the great wordsmiths of Christian literature. Bernard's intent is to fashion the reader into a dwelling place for the Word."Hugh Feiss, O.S.B., Ascension Monastery, Jerome, ID, American Benedictine Review "Bernard is not easy. This translation, thanks to its clear English and superb introduction, will make it possible to follow Bernard through the liturgical year."The Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies