We should meditate on the mysteries of salvation

Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

Today, October 7, as our Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary we are first invited to reflect on a passage from the letter of the apostle Paul to the Galatians (3:22 – – 4:7), entitled “Through faith we are the sons and heirs of God”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a sermon by Saint Bernard, abbot.

This commemorative feast was established by Saint Pius V on the anniversary of the naval victory won by the Christian fleet at Lepanto. The victory was attributed to the help of the holy Mother of God whose aid was invoked through praying the rosary. The celebration of this day invites all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, following the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary who was so singularly associated with the incarnation, passion and glorious resurrection of the Son of God.

Bernard of Clairvaux, venerated as Saint Bernard, was an early eleventh century abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templar, and a major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order through the nascent Cistercian Order. He was sent to found Clairvaux Abbey in southeast France in an area known as Bar-sur-Aube. In the year 1128, Bernard attended the Council of Troyes, at which he traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights Templar, which soon became an ideal of Christian nobility. Both monastic rule and military manual, the Rule is a unique document and an important historical source.

The Galatians to whom the letter is addressed were Paul’s converts, most likely among the descendants of Celts who had invaded western and central Asia Minor in the third century B.C. and had settled in the territory around Ancyra (modern Ankara, Turkey). Paul had passed through this area on his second missionary journey and again on his third. It is less likely that the recipients of this letter were Paul’s churches in the southern regions of Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Pamphylia where he had preached earlier in the Hellenized cities of Perge, Iconium, Pisidian Antioch, Lystra, and Derbe; this area was part of the Roman province of Galatia, and some scholars think that South Galatia was the destination of this letter.