Guerric, Bl. Aug 19

Blessed Guerric of Igny (+1157), one of the Four Evangelists of the Order of Cîteaux.

Fr. Hugh read the 2nd Vigil Reading and he also Presided at Community Mass this morning of August 19th.

BLESSED GUERRIC August 19th. Blessed Guerric has been described as one of the four Evangelists of Citeaux. Together with St. Aelred and William off St.Thierry he is one of the most important of the first' generation Cistercian writers" He was born sometime between 1070 and 1080 and became a Canon of Tournai and headmaster of the Episcopal School there; a post he held for some years. He entered the novitiate at Clairvaux about the year 1121. At that time he would have been about 45-50; at least ten years older than its Abbot St. Bernard. He was elected Abbot of Igny the fourth daughter house of Clairvaux in 1138 as their second Abbot.It is now a Cistercian convent. Guerric died in 1157 when he would have been in his eighties·and his relics are still preserved at Igny. Guerric's literary remains consist of only fifty-four sermons. On his deathbed he ordered these to be burnt. His monks obeyed but they had a second copy! His sermons are simpler and less ornate than those of Aelred and Bernard whose sermons were embellished and polished up after they had been delivered in the chapter room. Like St. Bernard, Guerric has a great devotion to Christ's Nativity. This together with devotion to Our Lady has a dulcifying element in an austere monastic life. He said in one of his Christmas Sermons (Nat I para 4). 'What incomparable sweetness and loving kindness' that I should see the God who made me, himself made a child for my sake.' Consideration of this, he continues, curbs 'rancour of soul, bitterness of speech and harshness of manner.' 'Unto to us a child is born, unto to us a Son is given', Each individual is a mother of Christ 'who has been born in you and for you.' (Natt, 3 para 5) Whilst being profoundly conscious of the splendour of our Faith he was also very much aware of the inadequacy of his time. Like St Aelred he never thought that he was living in a great age of the Church or in a great period of monastic history. 'Today,' he says, 'if you ask people about their Faith you will find them practically all very Christian, but if you search more deeply you will find that there are very few who are truly Christians. Almost the whole world confesses verbally that it knows God, but it denies Him by its deeds’. (Epiph. IV para 2) Guerric believed that the besetting sin amongst religious of his day was negligence. He accused, himself of this which results in idleness, both intellectual and physical. Nevertheless, Guerric is no gloomy pessimist. He is someone who clearly enjoyed his Faith and his monastic life and was aware oft· the possibilities they offer. In one of his Advent Sermons he speaks of· God's advances towards us: 'However far you journey along it, the way is always waiting to be prepared, so that you must start afresh from the place you have reached and advance along what lies ahead. You are led to do so because at every stage you meet the Lord, for those coming you are preparing, and each time you see· Him in a completely new way and as a much greater figure than you have met before’. (Advent V Para 1). (Fr. Hugh) IGNY ABBEY