Today the Church remembers the
life and ministry of St. Aelred who was born in 1109 in Durham and died on this
day in 1167. Aelred became master of the
Household of the King of Scotland., but he found success at court unsatisfying. At the
age of 24, he entered the Cistercian monastery at Rievaulx in Yorkshire.
Bernard of Clairvaux encouraged him to write his first work, The Mirror of Charity, which deals with
seeking to follow the example of Christ in all things. In 1147 he became abbot
of Rievaulx, a post which he held until his death of kidney disease twenty
years later at the age of 57. His most
famous work is called Spiritual
Friendship.
Let us pray: Almighty God, you
endowed the abbot Aelred with the gift of Christian friendship and the wisdom
to lead others in the way of holiness: Grant to your people that same spirit of
mutual affection, that, in loving one another, we may know the love of Christ
and rejoice in the gift of your eternal goodness; through the same Jesus Christ
our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever. Amen.
Your servant in Christ,
Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal
Church
Galveston, Texas 77550
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