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In the gospel of Saint Matthew, Jesus is “Emmanuel,” God-with-us, or, as Jesus himself puts it, he is “I-Desire,” “Coming-I-Will-Heal,” and “I-Am-with-You-Always.” The brief commentaries collected here, initially presented by Cistercian abbot Mark A. Scott in a series of chapter talks to his monastic community, will welcome the reader into an intimate encounter with the love of Jesus, as the evangelist Matthew presents him in chapters four through nine of his gospel. These reflections also weave insights from the Rule of Benedict along with reflections on monastic life offering to all ecclesial communities and individual Christians rich nourishment for their loving Jesus in return.

On the anniversary of the dedication of the monastery church at Clairvaux, Saint Bernard spoke to the community to explain the meaning of the feast: “What sanctity can these stones have that we should celebrate their festival? They do indeed have sanctity, but it is because of your bodies.... Your bodies are holy because of your souls, and this house is holy because of your bodies.”The thirty-eight sermons in this volume carry forth this theme, revealing the holiness of the monastic life as monks alternate through the rhythm of the day and the year between the opus Dei and manual labor, journeying faithfully through life to death and the transitus to glory. The twelfth-century Ecclesiastica Officia of the Cistercian Order required abbots to speak formally to their communities in chapter on seventeen fixed days, mostly liturgical feasts. This volume witnesses to Bernard's fulfillment of this requirement and includes sermons for the Assumption and Nativity of the Virgin and the Feast of All Saints, sermons devoted to the feasts of particular saints celebrated during the autumn months, sermons for the time of harvest, and funeral sermons that look forward to the eternal joy in the communion of saints.

The sermons of Bernard of Clairvaux evoke the inner conversion of the human person who is open to the Word/words, the external conversion that is submission to the obedience of community life, and, finally, the personal recognition of the true nature of the divine Word. This volume contains Saint Bernard's sermons for the liturgical seasons of Lent and Easter. Included are sermons for the Purification, Septuagesima, the feast of Saint Benedict, and the feast of the Annunciation, all of which are interpreted by Bernard in light of the paschal mystery. In the sermons for Lent, especially, one gets to know a more hesitant and searching Bernard than appears in his other liturgical sermons. This volume is the third of a projected five volumes of Bernard's liturgical sermons.

At Home with Saint Benedict is a selection of the author's conferences on Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries delivered to the monks of Assumption Abbey of Ava, Missouri, when he was abbot there. The author's intention was simply to share with his brother monks what Saint Benedict through his sixth-century Rule might have to offer monks of the early twenty-first century. It is hoped that these conferences, published here, will now speak to men and women outside the monastic cloister. This book is a door to the chapter room of Assumption Abbey. Readers are invited to open the door, sit down with the monks and their abbot, and feel at home with Saint Benedict.Mark A. Scott, OCSO, is a monk of the Trappist-Cistercian Abbey of New Clairvaux, Vina, California, which he entered in 1978. From 2000 to 2008 he served as appointed superior and then abbot of Assumption Abbey, Ava, Missouri.