Last year I stumbled upon a different volume in this series, 15 Days of Prayer with Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati by Père Charles Desjobert, OP, and really enjoyed it. I did some research on the series and this was the ninth volume I have work and prayer through. In my research to date there have been at least 40 volumes in this series. Many written in French and then translated, including this volume, this book was first published in French in 1995, the English edition appeared 2000. There does not appear to have ever been an eBook edition of this volume.
I believe as of the writing of this review there have been 40 volumes in the series; the earliest I found was from 1999 through to a volume which was published in 2025. The earlier editions were published by Liguori, but they have moved to New City Press now, part of Focolare Media. Only about a dozen seem to be in print currently and of those only a handful appears to have eBooks. With my dual form of dyslexia this is disappointing. I greatly prefer eBooks so I can change the font, and the colour of font and page to make reading easier. I have added all the eBook editions I could find to my wish list. And have been tracking down older out of print editions like this one and scanning them to read them. About the Series we are informed:
“15 Days of Prayer Series
On a journey, it’s good to have a guide. Even great saints took spiritual directors or confessors with them on their itineraries toward sanctity. Now you can be guided by the most influential spiritual figures of all time. The 15 Days of Prayer series introduces their deepest and most personal thoughts.
This popular series is perfect if you are looking for a gift, or if you want to be introduced to a particular guide and his or her spirituality. Each volume contains:
• A brief biography of the saint or spiritual leader
• A guide to creating a format for prayer or retreat
• Fifteen meditation sessions with reflection guides”
The description of this specific volume states:
“Follow in the footsteps of Saint Bernard
Bernard of Clairvaux was a twelfth-century Cistercian monk whose influence extended into many areas of Church life. His monastic reforms emphasized mystical prayer as the foundation of daily observance, bringing the Cistercian order into a position of unprecedented expansion and renown. He fought successfully for acceptance of Innocent II after a disputed papal election, and aggressively countered theological heterodoxy within the Church. Bernard was also a great champion of the Second Crusade and obtained recognition for the Knights Templar as a dedicated order of Christian warriors.
Stand fast in the Gospel
Saint Bernard’s most enduring contribution to the Christian Faith is his body of writings, including his letters, homilies, and a variety of theological studies. Perhaps his best-loved works are his collections of sermons, including Homilies in Praise of the Blessed Virgin and Sermons for the Seasons of the Year, which reveal Bernard as an experienced guide for your spiritual journey and resolve the paradox of his varied life: secluded monk and Church leader, man of peace and man of the sword, humble servant and bold reformer—always a dedicated preacher and champion of the Gospel. Let Saint Bernard accompany you on the path to spiritual renewal in Christ.”
About the author on the back cover we are informed that:
“Brother Pierre-Yves Emery has been part of the Taizé community for over 40 years. A pastor and theologian, his special area of study is Saint Bernard and his disciples.”
The chapters in this volume are:
How to Use This Book
A Brief Chronology of Saint Bernard
Introduction
Day One—Christmas: God’s Humility, a Model for Our Own
Day Two—Christmas and the Ascension: The Conversion of Understanding and Desire
Day Three—Assimilate the Word of God
Day Four—The Qualities of Prayer
Day Five—The Fulfillment of Prayer
Day Six—Prayer: The Conversion of Desire
Day Seven—Gratitude: Grace and Thanksgiving
Day Eight—Seeking God
Day Nine—Our Holiness Is a Work in Progress
Day Ten—With God During Suffering
Day Eleven—Contemplate Christ:
Humbled, Glorified
Day Twelve—A Dynamic Stability
Day Thirteen—Fraternal Love
Day Fourteen—Preparing Oneself for Death
Day Fifteen—Humility and Greatness in Mary
Notes
Bibliography
I highlighted a number of passages while reading this volume some of them are:
“During his youth, he was the subject of many temptations, but his virtue triumphed, often heroically; he often thought of retiring from the world to live a life of solitude and prayer.”
“Bernard drafted the outline of the Rule of the Knights Templar at this council.”
“During the last years of his life, Bernard was greatly saddened by the failure of the Crusade he had preached—assuming the entire responsibility for its failure.”
“Saint Bernard exerted a great influence on monasticism: he encouraged monks to devote themselves to mystical prayer in the regular framework of monastic observance; and he modified the concepts of early Citeaux in practice, developing the Cistercian order.”
“To Bernard, faith is something else. But our affectivity is urgently invited to enter into the movement of faith in order to become fervor, a spark and love, so that faith, instead of remaining only cerebral, also seizes our desire and makes it the force of our will.”
“Another theme serves to frame the book, since it characterizes the first and last chapters (days), reappearing again in the eleventh: humility, one of the great focal points of Bernard’s works—humility as a means of gratitude and choice of the true grandeur, first in God, as well as in Mary, and then in ourselves.”
“The spark for our search depends upon our experience with the presence of God. What a requirement...yes, don’t be discouraged, for God does not ask for us to have already arrived, but that we constantly continue the journey; our holiness is a work in progress.”
“Everthing begins with an astonishment. Everything: faith, a Christian life, the action of repentance, spiritual reflection, prayer, and feelings for someone else.
An astonishment that is constantly renewed. An astonishment to see that God always takes the initiative to come to us, like he did at Christmas.”
“We are only ourselves as a result of what we receive from God and what we offer of ourselves to him in response to the gift that he made to us of himself. God’s law is the law of giving.”
“Faith and understanding are not meant to be separated. In fact, Jesus came to us that we might understand. Yes, we must have faith, since there are mysteries we cannot understand, but it is always faith seeking understanding. In light of the revelation that Jesus has imparted, we must direct our desire toward the singular goal of knowing and understanding everything in the light of Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life.”
“In other respects, what becomes of our sensitivities, our subjective reactions in the spiritual adventure of faith? The problem is actually posed with a certain acuity. Some people, naively and voluntarily intermingle faith with what they feel. In fact, they replace faith with feeling, in this way becoming, themselves, the norm of truth, the thermometer of their fervor, the yardstick of the qualities of their prayer and love, the barometer of their spiritual progress.”
“If the Son of God was united with us at Christmas, and during his entire life on earth, it was (Bernard tells us) in order to allow the apostles—and us through their teachings—to have access to God’s truth, the revelation of his project of alliance.”
“Do I separate faith and understanding in my life? Or do I desire to unite the two? Is my faith seeking understanding? Do I attempt to view the world—to understand the universe around me—in light of the revelation of Jesus Christ? How does the revelation of Jesus Christ affect my relationship with the people I encounter, with the books and articles I read, with the choices I make concerning the environment? How do I unite the decisions I make in my life to my desire to understand Jesus in the light of faith?”
“Bernard noted that between the two comings (advents) of Christ, which are well known to Christians, the first being his birth in Bethlehem, the second when he will establish his Kingdom, there is a third. Yes, a third advent, or rather an intermediate advent where Jesus is now with us “in the Spirit and power,” to be our comfort, which makes us progress from the first to the last advent.”
“If you keep the Word of God in this way, without a doubt, you will be kept by it.”
“We see that, without understanding and memory, the heart will not recognize Christ in his words. But, without the heart, the understanding will limit itself to one understanding: left to itself, it could only peel away biblical passages by cutting them away from the One who is speaking.”
“We must reread the last paragraph of Bernard’s text that is cited above: if we mobilize all our strength to keep the Word of God in this way, we will be kept by it, and all things will be made new in us. This comment is important. To act in the name of faith is to let it happen. To keep is to be kept.”
“The third peril which threatens prayer is that it may be lukewarm instead of bursting forth from a vivid spark of our affective strengths.”
“Take our “delight” in the Lord? Yes, so that our prayer will truly become the agreement of our desire with that of God, we must first have this conviction: God, more lucidly than I, and even better than I, knows and wants my true well-being.”
“Thus, prayer is presented as a privileged moment where the spark of desire—the heart—is called to unite with the judgment of reason, which, as we know, is the instance in us when we receive the light of faith.”
“We say the words “say thank you” to a child so often that it almost seems instinctual for us to take rather than receive and the spontaneous desire to possess without owing anything to anyone. Yes, for many it is difficult to give, and it is even more difficult to receive.”
“To seek because we have found: that is a perfect contradiction, humanly speaking. But it is an incredible truth (however believable), when God is concerned. The Fathers of the Church liked to say it: Saint Augustine, Saint Gregory the Great.... And in the same way, Bernard says it here in a magnificent way.”
“And if my desire now, which is spontaneously all encompassing, and egocentric as well, encounters Christ, and if I allow myself to be regenerated through his Word, in faith and baptism, what will become of this desire that I am? It will become a search for this Lord who sought me, through whom I allowed myself to be found, and in whom I recognize God, the source of this desire, and the only one who can fulfill it one day.”
“There is a significant space that concerns us all: the space between the people we are and the people we are called to be. This space can be quite discouraging. But God’s mercy must always be kept in mind.”
“This is not a statement that is well-received nowadays. We don’t like such ideas, we suspect—not always wrongly so— that they express a morbid taste for suffering, or at least a passive manner of allowing oneself to be beaten down by them and a too easy justification for unhappiness.”
“That is what the Apostle effectively affirmed: what is realized in the initial verses of Romans 5. This future of glory, that is hope, is already found to be present in suffering (just as the fruit is already present in the seed). Suffering itself is an experience of glory. Remember that from the time suffering appears to you, it is a way of choosing the future in God. Make suffering the goal of your life.”
“It is better for me, Lord, to have suffering, as long as you are with me, rather than ruling, feasting, or knowing glory without you. It is better even for me to keep you in my embrace through suffering, and passing through the furnace with you, than to be without you, even in heaven.”
“It is not that suffering, in itself, is useful, necessary, and, in fact, desirable. No, it is because of the promise: the Lord is with us in it. But it is also because we would have “taken care to have always been with him.” In other words, suffering will be our way to choose him, to give ourselves to him, to belong to him and trust him, and, in all of this, to mysteriously enjoy his presence.”
“When I suffer, am I aware of the presence of God in the midst of my trials? Do I feel a sense of peace knowing that suffering has been made holy by Jesus Christ?”
“We thus evade two symmetrical dangers: this form of pride which is intellectualism, by serving as a pretext for faith that brings no fruit of life; and this temptation for religious sentimentalism which takes the place of faith.”
I hope those quotes give you a feel for this volume. Of the volumes in this series that I have read this was the one I have connected with the least. It was more cerebral than I expected, or maybe than I am use to. Do not get me wrong it is a great read. I just found that sometimes I had to go back and reread sections to make sure I was getting what was being said, with how it was being said. I am not sure if that is from the saint it is based off, the author who wrote it or the translation team who worked on translating it.
This is a good volume in an excellent series. Spending these 15 days with Bernard, was a very different experience for me than the other 8 volumes I have read. I just really wish all of the 40 volumes were available as eBooks, I would work through them all if so. If you read all 40 volumes back to back without tasking a day for the introduction, and biography between it is 600 days of praying. If you do take extra days for those sections, or end up missing a day here or there, or choose to reread a day from time to time It would take close to 2 years to work through the collection. They are excellent books. As mentioned I just wish they were all in print and available digitally!
An good read in a great series!
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