St. Aelred, Abbot (1109-1167) | |
SAINT AELRED OF RIEVAULX
Abbot (1109-1167)
"One thing thou lackest." In these words God called Aelred from the court of a royal Saint, David of Scotland, to the silence of the cloister. He left the king, the companions of his youth, and a friend most dear, to obey the call. The conviction that in the world his soul was in danger alone enabled him to break such ties. Long afterwards the bitterness of the parting remained fresh in his soul, and he declared that, "though he had left his dear ones in the body to serve his Lord, his heart was ever with them."
He entered the Cistercian Order, and even there his yearning for sympathy showed itself in a special attraction to one among the brethren named Simon. This holy monk had left the world in his youth, and appeared as one deaf and dumb, so absorbed was he in God. One day Aelred, forgetting for the moment the rule of perpetual silence, spoke to him. At once he prostrated himself at his feet in token of his fault; but Simon's look of pain and displeasure haunted him for many a year, and taught him to let no human feeling disturb for one moment his union with God.
A certain novice once came to Aelred, saying that he must return to the world. But Aelred had begged his soul of God, and answered, "Brother, ruin not thyself; nevertheless thou canst not, even though thou wouldst." However, he would not listen, and wandered among the hills, thinking all the while he was going far from the abbey. At sunset he found himself before a convent strangely like Rieveaux, and so it was. The first monk he met was Aelred, who fell on his neck, saying, "Son, why hast thou done so with me? Lo! I have wept for thee with many tears, and I trust in God that, as I have asked of Him, thou shalt not perish." The world does not so love its friends.
At the command of his superiors Aelred composed his great works, the Spiritual Friendship and the Mirror of Charity. In the latter he says that true love of God is only to be obtained by joining ourselves in all things to the Passion of Christ.
He died in 1167, founder and Abbot of Rieveaux, the most austere monastery in England, and Superior of some three hundred monks.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
| |
12 Jan 2012
Date: Thursday, 12 January, 2012. St. Aelred of Rievaulx 2nd Patron of Nunraw Community Chapter Talk, Br. Barry. SAINT AELRED 2012. Just down the coast there in Yorkshire, St. Aelred sat in his monastery of Rievaulx and ...
18 May 2008
St Pachomius - St Aelred of Rievaulx. Fr. Hugh will be celebrating his 80th Birthday 27th May 2008. In his thumbnail comment for the Feast of St. Pachomius he made the association with the like mind of St. Aelred. He later ...
21 May 2010
From Nunraw two of the community attended the St. Aelred of Rievaulx 'Workshop' at Mount Saint Bernerard, Fr. Hugh and Fr. Nivard. On the return home, Fr. Hugh gave at talk about the event in the Chapter. He has now ...
12 Jan 2010
900th Anniverary Ailred of Rievaulx. This year, AD 2010, we honor the 900th anniversary of Saint Aelred's birth. Saint Aelred of Rievaulx 2nd Patron of Nunraw Abbey. Solemnity 12th January 2010. St. Aelred - Born 1110, ...
https://enlargingtheheart.wordpress.com/category/cistercian/aelred-of-rievaulx/
(8 Posts)
Aelred of Rievaulx: The Memory of His Passion in Our HeartFriday, Mar 2 2012
Aelred of Rievaulx and CISTERCIAN and MONASTIC Christ, Christ's passion, Cross, heart, memory,paschal mystery, redemption, sin, victor
Rievaulx Abbey
After the people of Israel left Egypt with Moses at their head, the Amalekites, a savage race, came and did battle against them.
Moses sent an army against them, while he himself went up on to a mountain to pray for them and raised his hands to the Lord.
And it came to pass that while he kept his hands raised, the people of Israel were triumphant but whenever he lowered his hands Amalek started to win.
Why was it, do you think, that the raising of his hands possessed such grace? Without doubt God usually takes more account of the attachments of the mind than of the postures of the body.
Why was it then? Did his prayer have no effect before God unless he raised his hands? That lifting up of his hands had such an effect that their enemies could not withstand the Israelites.
The reason why this lifting up of hands had such force was that it signified the raising of the hands of him who said in the psalm, The lifting up of my hands is like an evening sacrifice.
For, when evening had already come upon the world, his sweetest hands were stretched out on the Cross and there was offered up that evening sacrifice that took away the sins of the whole world.
So that raising of Moses’ hands signified the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ who went up on to a mountain to pray because he ascended into heaven to plead our cause with the Father.
There he lifts up his hands so that Amalek – that is, the devil – will not be able to vanquish us.
For there he appears in God’s sight on our behalf and represents to him the Passion that he underwent for us.
As for us, brothers, as long as…our fight is against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of the dark things of the world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens, we need to have our Lord lifting up his hands within us.
That is to say, the remembrance of his Passion should be continually present in our minds.
We can be quite sure, my brothers…that as long as the memory of his Passion is in our heart, as long as our hope is directed to where Christ is pleading our cause at the right hand of the Father, the spiritual Amalek – that is, the devil – will not be able to vanquish us.
And therefore…let us see that this attachment, this remembrance, does not through some negligence on our part grow lukewarm in us.
For then we shall immediately grow faint and our enemy will gain the upper hand and cause us distress.
Aelred of Rievaulx (1110 – 1167): Sermon 13.27-29 (1st Clairvaux Coll.); tr. Berkeley & Pennington, from Cistercian Fathers 58, from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Wednesday in 2nd Week of Lent, Year 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment