Dear Son in Christ, this is today the first step and on the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady. Not only because he was a Frenchman. He was considered a good Germanic type, you know. simply in this way, you know, that there came indeed a new element which we all recognize now in the historical distance and the knowledge of proper perspective that this objectivity of the distance can give to us, that simply and truly with St. Bernard's, that first phase of Benedict monasticism, that in some way had reached a climax, when you say, in Gregory VII.

[01:14]

I say that with a little hesitation, but I mean that's to a certain extent the historical truth. He was the representative of the Cluniac reform in Rome and he was the one who in some way tried to cement, to stabilize that hierarchic, strictly hierarchic structure that one can say in many ways was really influenced by the figure and the idea of the curious Lord Christ as the Lord, as the one in whom all things are being restored. Only that, of course, we realize that very well and especially living in our modern times, we realize that the world is not identical with the Mediterranean world.

[02:24]

But for the people in that time, it simply was. Christ was the, he was the ruler of this kingdom, of this divine kingdom that then finds in the Pope, the patriarch of the West, of Rome, rather, of Rome, the city of Rome as the capital of the world, finds its last its highest authority. And then comes the second phase of the reform of the papacy, which was then under the influence of people like Eugene III, and that was then already the Cistercian movement. The Cistercian movement certainly there represented in many ways, I think it really represented a certain resurgence, a certain awakening of the laity.

[03:38]

But the laity, of course, in those days, was first of all represented, at least in this specific phase, I think, in which St. Bernard lived. It was represented by the knights, by the feudal lords. As in the other, in the centuries before, there was Charles, Karl the Großer, Charlemagne, you know, his successors and the whole idea of the Holy Roman Empire. But that was evidently new powers came into play and especially then the knights and the knightdom at that time still had a great, I think, universal I mean in the sense of universality of Christendom, at least Western Christendom.

[04:41]

had a great sense of coherence, a sense of supernational belonging to one another and cooperation. Although one must say then that the Crusades themselves led when these various knights of these various nations went together and lived together en masse and in the distress and the strain of war, they certainly also with this closer knowledge maybe a certain element of disillusioned, you know, was connected and then jealousies and enmities of a national character began to rise just at the time of St. Bernard.

[05:43]

But the other element, of course, that St. Bernard also, you can say, mobilized to a certain extent was, of course, the people in the towns and in the cities. even also to a certain extent already the peasants. St. Bernard was the first who in a big way really opened his monasteries to these people and the institution of the lay brothers was the entering into in being taken in of these layers of the population into the religious and, of course, mainly at that time monastic framework of society, especially in the church, the context, let us say, of the holy things, of the striving for sanctity.

[06:49]

So St. Bernard had really there It's evident a tremendous influence, but just in this truly, in this sense that he addressed himself, and that was, I think, a great element in this Cistercian reform, to man as man, to the human being as human being. I think one can say that without becoming unjust to Cluny, that Cluny was certainly much more received its stamp from the glory of the kingdoms. rather than from man as man. Saint Bernard was a popular man, and not one of the abbots of Cluny was in that way ever popular in the way in which Saint Bernard was.

[07:58]

He was a leader of the masses, and I think as such also a completely new phenomenon. I'll never forget that. It's so wonderful, I mean, so significant and beautiful to see that at Vézelay. You all know that Vézelay is one of the expressions and the center from which the crusade movement in Europe started. And there is then this wonderful layout of the hills that forms a natural amphitheater. and has this natural, the voice is carried in a natural way in great distances. And that was St. Bernard, that was his, there he gathered his audience in order to usher in the second crusade, to preach to the masses as masses.

[08:59]

Of course, he was a man who had this tremendous, he was a spark, you know, that would, you know, light up, you know, the fire of enthusiasm in the hearts of those who listened to him. And that all this is a new note in the Middle Ages there, in these early Middle Ages, a new note. It is Before also the preaching and the sermon, you know, was much more formal. But here it became also, one can see that in St. Bernard's Latin. Latin is the expression of the heart under his powerful influence of his so deeply let's say, emotional personality, it takes a new sweetness, it takes a new fire, and therefore is able to become contagious.

[10:02]

And that was I was at St. Bernard's time. That was a new, really, phenomenon. We know of these tremendous gatherings in Thessaly. We knew of them in mines, in warms, in these places there along the Rhine, where the knights and the people listened to him by the thousands and thousands. And a new enthusiasm The enthusiasm of the masses spread in the church and became an element in the church. Of course, by that also influenced then the second phase of the reform of the papacy more in an attempt to interiorization. Not so much to the canonical structure, the hierarchical structure, the definition of authority as under Gregory VII, but more the mobilization of the inner spiritual power of Christianity.

[11:13]

That, of course, As we can see from St. Bernard's book to the Consideration to Eugene III was evidently a tremendously difficult attempt in the milieu of the Roman Curia. The success was not very evident. So I only speak about these things because it's a constant. It's not only a thing at the time of St. Bernard, it's a constant problem of the Church of all ages. And we are, with the Second Vatican Council, we are again in one of these periods where in some way where the free breathing of the spirit, the inner life, the interiority, where also therefore the heart, the person, speak and they are urged to speak.

[12:26]

in a special way. And of course it is for us, especially here at Mount Saviour. We never really in any way, with all admiration for Cluny, we did not embark on a strictly, how can one say, hierarchical course. We were much more conscious, and I think the success and the future of our community depends very decidedly on the cooperation and the spontaneity of the Holy Spirit and what we call on the horizontal, from brother to brother. and not so much in the establishment of a hierarchical framework.

[13:29]

We are not, as we say, an imperial abbey. It's clearly not an imperial abbey. Nor are we a liturgical abbey. We are not an abbey at all, as yet. It's just a convent. You can't say we are conventuals, this particular phase of art. But I think we are all clear about that, you know, and we are clear that that causes not only a kind of revolution, but it is simply a fermentation in the best sense of the word. The ferment of the Holy Spirit entering into the life of every single, every individual and their fraud.

[14:34]

So the spark that kindles and that is expected, not only in some way from above, through the word of authority, but through the mutual fraternal encouragement That's, I think, what we reacted to the last time when our two friends, Ralph and Stephen, left us and when they spoke about the Coursillo movement. That is, the grace of God lived in common. That means this horizontal is a mutual encouragement. The positive, deeply positive, loving approach of one brother to the other and of all brothers among themselves as the little symbol of the kiss of peace tries to express that.

[15:36]

And I say that because you realize that in this week we are again hosts to the group of Sodalists from Syracuse who have been here, coming here for many years. And to me this group of dedicated Laman is a representative of this new life of the church. They are representatives of the people of God, under-acting and putting themselves and dedicating themselves to the guidance and the influence of the Holy Spirit. And doing that, thank God, under the roof here of St. Benedict and his rule, as we try to live it here at this place. And we are glad to extend our hospitality to them, and I'm sure that the community

[16:43]

will pray for the success of this retreat, for the descent of the Holy Spirit into the souls of these friends of ours. So that again, here too, in that inner union, in that living together during these days, that unity between the monasticism and the Christian layman living in the world receives a kind of concrete expression.

[17:18]

@Transcribed_v004
@Text_v004
@Score_JJ