Treatises and Pastoral Prayer: Volume 2

Alered of Rievaulx is not recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, but will be truly seen as such by any serious reader seeking the true love of God. He was a priest who not only loved the Father with all his heart, but, just as importantly, loved those whom God put in his charge and recognized the tremendous responsibility that was his in his position. This book is of value to each reader and especially is important to the Kingdom of God for each of those readers who choose to emulate Aelred.

Aelred of Rievaulx, the 12th century Cistercian monk who became abbot of one of the greatest monasteries in Yorkshire, is best remembered today (and rightly so) for his incredible book on friendship. But he was a prolific author who penned many other works. Three of them are collected in this excellent little book edited by David Knowles, himself a monk and a great scholar of monasticism. The Cistercian monastic theologians, along with all theologians up to the Reformation, believed that scripture can and should be read on several different levels (biblical literalism is really a recent invention, despite its claim to be 'old timey religion'). In the first treatise reprinted here, "Jesus at the Age of Twelve," Aelred focuses on Jesus' trip as a lad to the Jerusalem Temple as an opportunity to explore the historical, allegorical, and moral aspects of the story. The second treatise, "Rule of Life for a Recluse," appears to have been written for Aelred's sister, who embraced a vocation as an anchoress. Religious hermits, then as now, are especially tempted by their seclusion to spiritual dullness, and Aelred is concerned to warn his sister (not to mention the rest of us!) away from this failing. "How few there are today," he writes, "indeed how few, who are set on fire by fervor. We are all wise, all prudent, all discreet. We sniff war from afar and are in such dread of bodily disease before it makes itself felt that we take no notice of the spiritual sickness which is already troubling us." (p. 69) The third selection, the "Pastoral Prayer," is my favorite. As abbot of Rievaulx, Aelred was spiritual shepherd not only to his fellow monks, but also to laypeople in the surrounding countryside. His "Pastoral Prayer" is a kind of memo to himself, reminding him of the responsibilities and duties of a pastor. I wish if were required reading for all candidates for ordination today . Just one excerpt (p. 114): "Taught by your Spirit may I learn to comfort the sorrowful, confirm the weak and raise the fallen; to be myself one with them in their weakness, one with them when they burn at causes of offence, one in all things with them, all things to all of them, that I may gain them all."