Chapter Talk for the Solemnity of Saint Bernard,
Doctor of the Church and Cistercian Abbot

In the tradition of our monastic forebears—most prolifically St Bernard himself—Cistercian Abbots and Abbesses offer Chapter talks. Chapter is the daily gathering of the community, usually held before morning work, when the Rule of St Benedict is read aloud, community business is discussed and a short exhortation or teaching is given. These talks, rooted in Scripture and the monastic tradition, are meant to instruct, encourage and foster our ongoing conversion of life.

Here is Mother Fiachra’s reflection for the Solemnity of St Bernard, followed below by a video of our Junior Sisters singing part of the Office for the Saint.

“Any young man who can talk not only his older brothers but even his uncles into sending their wives off to nunneries, in order to accompany him in entering a monastery, really boggles the mind. What is the power of such a man?”

Thus Basil Pennington begins his book Bernard of Clairvaux: A Lover Teaching the Way of Love.1

Certainly Bernard must have been a very remarkable and charismatic figure. Now renowned as the father and leader of Christendom in the first half of the twelfth century, he is celebrated for his wonderful, warm-hearted humanity. In the course of life, he learned many lessons the hard way, through everyday concerns, disappointment, and betrayal—experiences which nevertheless ultimately formed him into a loving father.

As we know, in his earlier years he almost destroyed his own health in his excessive zeal. He had a towering temper, yet was always open to reconciliation and, when wrong, had the humility to apologise. It is his spirituality, however—his integrity and practicality, exemplified in his own life and spiritual journey—which endears him to us as we explore his voluminous writings.

Sainthood, it has been said, is that place of ultimate unity with God—the call to holiness—the only truly worthy goal of a Christian life. In Beyond the Walls: Monastic Wisdom for Everyday Life, Paul Wilkes records the reflections of Fr Raymond, of the monastery of Mepkin:

“Miracles may show me the saint but they do not show me how he became a saint: and that is what I want to see. It is not the completed process that intrigues me, it is the process itself… Tell me what was churning in his soul as he battled his way up from selfishness and the allurements of sin, to the great heart of God.”2

In the life of St Bernard we see the realities of a life-enduring process of conversion: from earnest, charismatic youth, who desired sainthood and sought it by approaching God directly, rather than through the everyday means He provides for us. To choose the path of monastic wisdom—to salvation both in heaven and right here on earth—is a brave choice, since it sets us on a road of conversion that will continue right up until we breathe our very last.

Long before the call of Vatican II, it was Bernard’s genius to go back to the strong foundations of monastic life, the sources of the original inspiration from which our Cistercian charism emerged, and to build upon Benedict’s concept of conversion.

Yet we must remember that neither Benedict nor Bernard ever sought to produce uniformity in their followers. Both well understood that each individual had a different spirit, had different contributions to make, and different demons to fight. They recognised that ongoing conversion would have a far greater impact in recreating people in the image of God, and in building up harmonious communities in which happy, virtuous lives might flourish. And so it is today.

So let us take time today, on this great Solemnity, to reflect on our own call to monastic life and the path of conversion to which we are all committed. Perhaps we might begin by remembering where we were when first we heard our call, and try to identify the milestones which have led to where we are now.

And maybe this might be a good time to reconnect with St Bernard and some of his writings which we have known and treasured in the past—or explore some new ones with which we have yet to familiarise ourselves.

To lose yourself, as if you no longer existed,
to cease completely to experience yourself,
to reduce yourself to nothing is not a human sentiment,
it is a heavenly experience.
— On Loving God 273

  1. M. Basil Pennington, Bernard of Clairvaux: A Lover Teaching the Way of Love (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1997).

  2. Paul Wilkes, Beyond the Walls: Monastic Wisdom for Everyday Life (New York: Doubleday, 1999), quoting Fr Raymond, OCSO, of Mepkin Abbey.

  3. Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God (De diligendo Deo), ch. 27