08/20/2026
Daily Mass Reflection: Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot
Ezekiel 36:23-28; Matthew 22:1-14
Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church, and the readings give us a beautiful message about what God desires to do in our lives.
In the first reading, God makes a remarkable promise through the prophet Ezekiel:
“I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities… I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.”
God is not simply interested in changing our behavior. He wants to change our hearts.
And that connects beautifully with the Gospel.
Jesus tells us about a king who prepares a wedding feast for his son. Everything is ready. The food is prepared. The celebration is ready to begin. And the king sends his servants to invite the guests.
But they refuse.
Some are too busy with their farms. Others are too busy with their businesses. They have other things they consider more important than the invitation of the king.
So the king sends his servants into the streets and invites everyone they can find “bad and good alike.”
That is the incredible generosity of God.
The banquet is prepared. The invitation is given. God wants us at His table.
But then we encounter the strange part of the Gospel: the king finds one of the guests without a wedding garment and has him removed.
Why?
Because Jesus is teaching us that it is not enough simply to accept the invitation. We must also allow God to change us.
God invites everyone to the banquet, but He also expects us to come with a heart that is willing to be transformed.
And that is exactly what Ezekiel is talking about: a new heart and a new spirit.
Sometimes we want God to change our circumstances, but we don't necessarily want Him to change us.
We say, “Lord, fix this problem.”
But God says, “Let me first change your heart.”
“Lord, make that person treat me differently.”
God says, “Let me teach you how to love that person.”
“Lord, take away my difficulties.”
And God says, “Let me give you a heart that can trust Me even in the middle of those difficulties.”
That is what holiness is about.
And this is where St. Bernard gives us a beautiful example.
St. Bernard lived in the 12th century and became a monk, abbot, preacher, and great teacher of the faith. He was extraordinarily gifted. He could have pursued honor, influence, and success in the world. Instead, he chose to give his life to God.
But what made him holy was not simply that he entered a monastery or accomplished great things.
He allowed God to give him a new heart.
His heart became increasingly centered on Christ.
And perhaps that is the challenge for us today.
We are constantly invited to many things. We receive invitations from the world every day: invitations to seek success, popularity, money, recognition, entertainment, comfort, and pleasure.
But every day, God gives us another invitation:
“Come to my feast.”
Come to prayer.
Come to the Eucharist.
Come to confession.
Come to forgiveness.
Come to love.
Come to holiness.
Come and let Me give you a new heart.
The tragedy in the Gospel is that some people were invited to the banquet but were simply too busy with other things.
And we can do the same.
We can become so busy with work, school, responsibilities, phones, social media, entertainment, and everything else that we slowly stop responding to God's invitation.
The invitation is still there.
The banquet is still prepared.
Christ is still waiting for us.
And every Mass is a reminder of that invitation. We come to the Eucharistic banquet, where Christ gives us not merely food, but Himself.
So perhaps the prayer we should take from today's readings is very simple:
“Lord, give me a new heart.”
Take away whatever has become hard in me.
Take away my resentment.
Take away my pride.
Take away my selfishness.
Take away my indifference.
Take away whatever keeps me from accepting Your invitation.
And give me a heart of flesh—a heart capable of loving, forgiving, serving, and receiving You.
St. Bernard understood that the Christian life is ultimately about falling more deeply in love with Christ.
May his intercession help us today to accept God's invitation—not merely with our lips, but with our whole lives.
The banquet is ready. The invitation has been given.
May we come to the table with hearts that God has made new.
ST. BERNARD, ABBOT AND DOCTOR
It has been said of St. Bernard that "his personality was so attractive, his power of persuasion so difficult to withstand, that we are told that mothers hid their children and wives clung to their spouses lest he attract them into the monastery.”
Who was this remarkable man? Bernard’s father was a knight who had died in battle and his mother also died when Bernard was still quite young. In the year 1098 Bernard felt called to join a monastic community of reformed Benedictines. In his excitement about entering the monastery, he also persuaded twenty-four of his friends, four of his brothers and two of his uncles to join with him, which indicates the influence that he had even at a young age. The community had been dwindling, so we can imagine what it meant when this zealous young man showed up with thirty other men, ready to learn and live the monastic life.
Bernard really wanted to live a hidden life, spending his time doing manual work and praying to God. Instead, St. Bernard and eleven others were sent out to establish a monastery. Before the monastery was established the town was called Wormwood and was a haven for thieves; after the monastery was established the area was known as Clairvaux, the Valley of Light. It was there in Clairvaux that Bernard was positioned as abbot and became well-known throughout Christendom.
This newly established monastery grew fast and soon had a hundred and thirty monks. At first St. Bernard was very strict about fasting and would allow the monks to eat very little, but an experience with serious sickness helped him to understand that God had created the body with a need for food, so he reformed the requirements, although life was still quite strict.
He felt led to start preaching and became so famous for his preaching that he was sought from all over and people started flocking to hear Bernard of Clairvaux. The teachings brought many people, and St. Bernard also prayed for the sick who came. Many of them were healed by God – sometimes when St. Bernard simply made the sign of the cross over them.
All St. Bernard wanted was a life of contemplation in Clairvaux, but his reputation was wide spread and his advice sought after by princes, popes, and other high ranking leaders in the religious and political arenas. St. Bernard used his influence to work for real justice and he did his very best to make sure that holy and righteous men were placed in positions of leadership. In fact, St. Bernard influenced many bishops and other leaders to change their ways and humble themselves.
As St. Bernard grew older, he began to tire from all his travelling and preaching, and settling disputes, but finally he was able to return to Clairvaux where he continued in his meditations and writings. He spent his last few years writing, and his works are still among the classic works on the Catholic faith.
On August 20, 1153 he gathered those who were close to him and received the Last Sacraments. He died at the age of sixty-three.
He was declared to be a Doctor of the Church in 1830 by Pope Pius VIII, and is traditionally referred to as the Doctor Mellifluus (the "Honey-Tongued Doctor").
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O God, by whose grace the blessed Abbot Bernard, kindled with the fire of thy love, became a burning and a shining light in thy Church: Grant, at his intercession; that we may be inflamed with the same spirit of love, and may ever walk before thee as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
