Books in the Cistercian Fathers series

Spiritual Exercises

Gertrud the Great (12561302) entered the monastery of Helfta in eastern Germany as a child oblate. At the age of twenty-five she underwent a conversion that led to a series of visionary experiences. These centered on ';the divine loving-kindness,' which she perceived as expressed through and symbolized by Christ's divine Heart. Some of these experiences she recorded in Latin ';with her own hand,' in what became book 2 of The Herald of God's Loving-Kindness.Books 1, 3, 4, and 5 were written down by another nun, a close confidant of the saint, now often known as Sister N. Book 5 details the sickness, deaths, and afterlife fates of various Helfta nuns, novices, and lay brothers, as witnessed by Gertrud in her visions. It also describes Gertrud's preparations for her own death and her predictive visions of her ultimate glorification in heaven. The Herald concludes with Sister N.'s personal account of her presentation of the whole book to the Lord at Mass, the welcome he gave it, and the privileges he attached to it.The Book of Special Grace, which mainly records the visions of Mechtild of Hackeborn, was probably compiled by Gertrud herself with the help of Sister N. Parts 6 and 7 recount the deaths of the abbess Gertrud and of Mechtild, her younger sister. As many passages overlap, sometimes verbatim, with corresponding chapters in book 5 of The Herald, a translation has been included for purposes of comparison.

During his twenty years as abbot of the Yorkshire monastery of Rievaulx, Aelred preached many sermons: to his own monks, in other monasteries, and at significant gatherings outside the cloister. In these thirty-one homilies on Isaiah chapters 13-16, together with an introductory Advent sermon, Aelred interprets the burdens that Isaiah prophesied against the nations according to their literal, allegorical, and moral senses. He sees these burdens as playing a role both in the history of the church and in the progress of the individual soul. This collection of homilies is an ambitious, unified work of a mature monk, synthesizing biblical exegesis, ascetical teaching, spiritual exhortation, and a theory of history.

Sermons for Advent and the Christmas Season

On Contemplating God, Prayer, Meditations

A scholar turned monk, Isaac combined the increasingly technical vocabulary of the cathedral schools with the spiritual tradition of the monastery. Dialectic is here combined with meditative reflection.

Exposition on the Song of Songs

Dialogue on the Soul

On Grace and Free Choice

A Cistercian Anthropology

Mirror of Charity

Treatises and Pastoral Prayer

The Herald of God's Loving-Kindness Books 1 and 2

The Steps of Humility and Pride

Sermons on the Song of Songs Volume 1

The Case for Citeaux

Homilies in Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Five Books on Consideration: Advice to a Pope

Sermons on the Song of Songs Volume 2

Sermons on Conversion

The Golden Epistle

In Praise of the New Knighthood

Sermons on the Song of Songs Volume 4

Taking up Saint Bernard's unfinished sermon-commentary, Gilbert ruminates on verse 3:1-5:10 in forty-eight sermons, leaving the task to be finished by John of Ford.This volume contains sermons 33 through 48.To encounter a person who makes holiness attractive is an enviable experience. Such a person was Gilbert of Hoyland, abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Swineshead in Lincolnshire, a friend of Aelred of Rievaulx, and the continuator of the sermons on the Song of Songs begun by Bernard of Clairvaux.When the great saint of Clairvaux died in 1153, his sermon commentary had reached only the first four verses of chapter three of the Canticle. Gilbert took up the task, but left the commentary unfinished at his death. It was brought to completion by another English abbot, John of Ford.Those who know and admire Bernard's eloquence and contemplative insight will enjoy making the acquaintance of his successors. While conscious of continuing Bernard's work and remaining true to his spirit, they infused their sermons with their own personalities and shared their own rich experiences of God. As Lawrence C. Braceland says in his introduction to this first English translation of Gilbert's work, 'Gilbert is an experience. He has found the Beloved.'

Cistercians and Cluniacs

The Art of Preaching

Sermons on the Song of Songs Volume 1