Feast of St Bernard of Clairvaux

Fr Paul reads today’s Gospel from Matthew (22: 1-14) about the king who sends his servants to call the invited guests to his son’s wedding feast and, afterwards, he shares a little about the life of St Bernard of Clairvaux, whose life and memory we celebrate today.
In the year 1090, Bernard was born in Dijon in France into a noble family. In 1112, he joined the monastery at Citeaux. When Bernard arrived at the monastery, he arrived there with four of his brothers and two dozen friends. Within three years, they were sent to form a new monastery at Clairvaux, where Bernard remained the Abbot for the remainder of his life.

Today, Fr Paul says, we remember and celebrate that Bernard was a man of great holiness; a man of wisdom; and he was a man of prolific inspirational writings. Below is a quote from St Bernard:

There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is Curiosity.
There are those who seek knowledge to be known by others; that is Vanity.
There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve; that is Love.

Bernard was also active in many of the great debates that were happening at the time.

As part of this celebration, Fr Paul sends a shout out to our parish community at St Bernard’s in Telegraph Point. The church at Telegraph Point is named for St Bernard of Clairvaux and it is the reason we have a banner in St Bernard’s honour hanging in St Agnes’ Church. Today we remember him and ask him to pray for us and watch over us.