Today is the Feast of St Bernard and asking his intercession we may pray today for our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. St Bernard's disciple became Pope Eugenius III and fulfilling his request, St Bernard composed for him the book "On Considerations" - the most beautiful book ever written on the Papacy.
....Innocent II died in 1143. His two successors, Celestin II and Lucius, reigned only a short time, and then Bernard saw one of his disciples, Bernard of Pisa, Abbot of Three Fountains, and known there-after as Eugenius III, raised to the Chair of St. Peter. Bernard sent him, at his own request, various instructions which compose the Book on Considerations - click to read online, the predominating idea of which is that the reformation of the Church ought to commence with the sanctity of its head. Temporal matters are merely accessories; the principal are piety, meditation, or consideration, which ought to precede action. The book contains a most beautiful page on the papacy, and has always been greatly esteemed by the sovereign pontiffs, many of whom used it for their ordinary reading...
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