 St. Bernard, master of conversion.
Bishop Eric Varden is the pride of all Cistercians this week, as he preaches the Lenten retreat to the Roman Curia. There have not been many Cistercians to do so, if any, but Varden knows that one very famous Cistercian gave a papal retreat of sorts. His name was Bernard of Clairvaux, and his papal exhortation is the famous De Consideratione. In it, Bernard criticizes (the Cistercian) Pope Eugene III for his overloaded schedule, for moving away from apostolic works toward hearing too much litigation. The risk of high office is always the distortion of that office into something else and the moral disfiguration of the office holder. Bernard, indeed a monastic father to Eugene if not the far senior novice master that armchair historians sometimes seek to make him, recalls Eugene to the essence of his religious commitment. Bernard recommends leisure. Perhaps Bishop Varden will need to be less strident on this point than if he were preaching to Pope Francis, who was said to never take a day off, much less go on vacation. Pope Leo XIV, on the other hand, goes to the gym and plays tennis regulary. More power to him!
0 Comments
 This drawing from the December, 1921 issue of Chi lo sa? portrays a seminarian holding his first speech, presumably in a class on public speaking. No, he is not looking at his smartphone. The drawing was made by a fellow seminarian at the Venerable English College in Rome. Chi lo sa? is the seminary diarium. The Venerabile is the seminary magazine, old issues are online here.
 The play was „Das Opfer“ (The Sacrifice [of the Mass]) by Ludwig Nüdling (1874–1947), a German priest who wrote several Eucharistic dramas. The photo shows the highly symbolic religious dimensions of the play, which seeks to explain that each Mass re-presents — makes eternally present — the event of the Crucifixion. The lay brothers at Schlierbach Abbey staged the play from within their own ranks in 1929, casting boys from the abbey school to help with minor roles. See "Ludwig Nüdling", in: Kritische Online-Edition der Nuntiaturberichte Eugenio Pacellis (1917-1929), Kurzbiografie Nr. 3778, URL: www.pacelli-edition.de/gnd/119541890.
|
AuthorPater Alkuin Schachenmayr Archives
February 2026
Categories |
RSS Feed