Feast of Saint Bernard

Woof.

I'm sorry... it's terrible. But whenever I see this wonderful Saint's name... all I can think of is a big splotchy dog, bounding through the snow, to the rescue of the helpless and lost.

It's probably because I pronounce it ber-NARD, like the dog. Fortunately, at Mass today, the priest pronounced it BERN-rd. It was easier to hear what was being said about Saint BERN-rd because the image of the brandy bearing hound didn't come barreling into my mind.

Saint Bernard is an awesome saint (we have SO many of those! Ain't it cool?). He's a doctor of the Church, which means he left behind him much sound and illuminating writing about the Faith (I guess writing was a task he doggedly pursued. :))

He was a member of the Cistercian order (sort of Super-Benedictines). He founded the monastery at Clairvaux (which means place of Light - and it was).
He is credited with writing the Memorare, the beautiful prayer to the Blessed Mother (which I recommend saying at the end of your rosary). I take great comfort in that prayer (thanks BERNard!)

The first time I remember hearing that prayer was not in Church, nor from any cleric or nun (Cistercian or otherwise). It was on the TV Show "Emergency!" The paramedics were rescuing a group in an overturned school bus. Paramedic Roy DeSoto was helping the driver - a nun named Sister Barbara. Sister Barbara asked him to say the Memorare with her as she lay injured, pinned in the bus. He did.

Funny how God sometimes gets his info across! I never forgot that prayer afterwards, even though I was not practicing my faith when I saw it aired. It stuck with me.
(The show got two things right about the Catholic world: The Memorare, and the fact Nuns are notoriously bad drivers.)

Fun BERNard facts: He is the patron of beekeepers; bees; candlemakers; chandlers; wax-melters; wax refiners; Gibraltar; Queens College, Cambridge.
His symbols are the beehive; bees; three mitres on a book; white dog (woof!); inkhorn and pen; Passion implements; book.

Often portrayed with the Blessed Mother (seeing her in a vision).

He battled evils, befriended Popes, founded monasteries. He worked miracles in Christ's name, and fought sin and secularism among the clergy and nobles. EWTN's web site states: "While singing Mass he restored to Josbert de la Ferte, a relative of his who had been stricken dumb, the power of speech. The man was enabled to confess before he died, three days later, and to make retribution for many acts of injustice. There are also accounts of sick persons whom Bernard cured by making the sign of the cross over them, all attested to by truthful eyewitnesses.... The election of unworthy men to the episcopacy and to other Church offices troubled Bernard deeply, and he fought it with all his might. A monk, his enemies said, should stay in his cloister and not bother himself with such matters. A monk, he replied, was as much a soldier of Christ as other Christians were, and had a special duty to defend the He of God's sanctuary. Bernard's outspoken censures had their effect in changing the way of life of several high churchmen. Henry, archbishop of Sens, and Stephen, bishop of Paris, renounced their attendance at court and their secular style of living."

Bounding through the snow, to the rescue of the helpless and lost... I guess BerNARD isn't such a bad way of saying it after all.