Festinate for Crist Luve

In the monastic calendar, January 12th is the feast of Saint Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx (1109–1166), also known as "The Bernard of the North."

Our Order is the Cross of Christ

Saint Aelred, the English 12th century abbot of Rievaulx, has long been a dear friend. More than once, I have quoted his memorable definition of Cistercian life: “Our Order is the Cross of Christ.” In saying this, Saint Aelred used the word Order to signify, not an institutional organization, but a way of life. For Saint Aelred, the Cross is the pattern of monastic life: a configuration to The Wounded Christ in the mystery of His priesthood and victimhood.

Tolerance of the Infirm

Plagued all his life by bad health, Aelred administered his abbey of more than six hundred monks from the infirmary, often gathering the brethren around his bed for familiar spiritual chats. Saint Aelred used to say: “It is the singular and supreme glory of the house of Rievaulx that above all else it teaches tolerance of the infirm and compassion with others in their necessities. All whether weak or strong should find in Rievaulx a haunt of peace, and there, like the fish in the broad seas, possess the welcome, happy, spacious peace of charity.”

Christ, the Dearest Friend of All

Saint Aelred saw friendship as the cement of community life. For Aelred, every true friendship opens onto the sweet love of Christ, the dearest friend of all. “God is friendship,” he said, “and he who dwells in friendship, dwells in God and God in him.”

The Bruised Reed

I cannot read what Holy Father Benedict says in the Rule concerning the abbot without thinking of Saint Aelred: “Let him keep his own frailty ever before his eyes and remember that the bruised reed must not be broken” (RB 64). Saint Aelred’s Pastoral Prayer reveals a man conscious of his own infirmity and full of confidence in the mercy of Christ:

You know, Lord, my heart.
You know that my desire is to devote wholly to their service
whatever you have given your servant; to spend it completely for them.
You know also that I am ready to be myself wholly spent, poured out, for them.
May all I perceive and all I utter,
my leisure and my occupation, my thoughts and my actions,
my prosperity and my adversity, my life and my death,
my health and my sickness,
yes all that I am be spent on them,
be poured out for them, for whom you yourself did not disdain to be poured out.
Grant me, Lord, through your grace that is beyond our understanding,
grant that I may bear their infirmities with patience,
that I may have loving compassion for them,
that I may come to their aid effectively.
Taught by your Spirit may I learn to comfort the sorrowful,
confirm the weak and raise the fallen.
May I be myself one with them in their weaknesses,
one with them when they burn at causes of offence,
one in all things with them, and all things to all of them, so that I may gain them all. And since you have given them this blind leader,
this unlearned teacher, this ignorant guide,
if not for my sake then for theirs
teach him whom you have made to be their teacher,
lead him whom you have bidden to lead them,
rule him who is their ruler.

Like the Leper of the Gospel

The Saint Aelred revealed in the Pastoral Prayer is not unlike the leper in yesterday’s Gospel (Luke 5:12-16). He resembles that leper insofar as he is conscious of his infirmity, confident in the mercy of Christ, and bold in approaching him. For us, the experience of the leper is a possibility every day. In every Holy Mass the Heart of Jesus is moved with pity for us. He touches us, not with his hand only, but with the healing mysteries of his Sacred Body and Precious Blood. And in every Holy Communion, for those who have ears to hear, he whispers, “I will. Be thou cleansed. ” (Lk 5:13).

He Spoke the Lord's Name in English

Saint Aelred’s biographer and friend, Walter Daniel, describes the abbot’s death. Saint Aelred’s last words were, “Festinate, for Crist luve.” Walter Daniel explains: “He spoke the Lord’s name in English, since he found it easier to utter, and in some way sweeter to hear in the language of his birth.: “Festinate, for Crist luve.” Hasten, for Christ’s love! Aelred’s words at the hour of his death can be ours as we approach the adorable Mysteries of Christ's Body and Blood. May Saint Aelred obtain for us the grace of a healing communion with Christ our Physician, of a loving communion with Christ our Friend, of an adoring communion with Christ our God.