Vigils Reading – Gethsemani Church

THE DEDICATION OF OUR CHURCH

From a sermon by St Bernard of Clairvaux4

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My brethren, we ought to observe today’s festivity all the more devoutly for the reason that it is so peculiarly our own. All the other sacred solemnities which we keep are common to us with the faithful in general. But this is so proper to ourselves that if we do not keep it, it will not be kept at all. It is our own feast, because it is the feast of the dedication of our own church. It is still more our own because it is the feast of our own selves. For what of sanctity can belong to these dead walls which cause them to be honored with a religious solemnity? They are undoubtedly holy, but it is because of your bodies. Will anyone question that your bodies are holy, since they are “the temples of the Holy Spirit”? Consequently your souls are sanctified because of the spirit of God “Who is in you”, your bodies are sanctified because of your souls, and this house is sanctified also because of your bodies. The Psalmist prayed “Preserve my soul for I am holy”. Truly “God is wonderful in His saints”, not alone in His saints in heaven, but also those on earth. For He has His saints in both places and shows Himself wonderful in them all, beatifying those above, consummating the sanctity of those below.

Accordingly it is your own festival, dearest brethren, your very own, that you are celebrating today. You have been dedicated to the Lord and the Lord has chosen and adopted you as His own peculiar people. Oh, how wisely you have acted, dearly beloved, in renouncing all that you might have possessed in this world, since by doing so you have deserved to become the peculiar people of the world’s Creator, and to have Him as your special possession, for He is undoubtedly “the portion and inheritance” of His own!

See, therefore, if it is not right to observe as a festival the day on which the Lord adopted us as His own and took formal possession of us through His ministers, thus accomplishing in fact what He had promised long ago, saying, “I in the midst of them shall be their God”, while we should be “the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand”. For when this house was consecrated to the Lord by the ministry of the Bishop, it was manifestly for our sakes it was done; not only for the sake of those who were actually present then, but also for the sake of all those who until the end of time shall serve God in this holy place. Therefore, dearest brethren, it is necessary that what has already been accomplished in the walls in a visible manner should be invisibly accomplished in ourselves