An Introduction to Blessed Guerric of Igny

Fr Charles Cummings, OCSO

Blessed Guerric (c. 1070/80–1157) was abbot of Igny near Rheims, France, for nineteen years from 1138 till 1157.  He died at age 79 or even 89 if the earliest date of his birth is accepted; however the later date, 1180, is more likely.  The chronology is far from firm.  Guerric became abbot at around 60 years of age, when his health had begun to decline.  He was too ill to follow the common life, especially the manual labor. 

Guerric came from Tournai, Belgium near the border of France, and received an excellent education in his native city.  After studies, he preferred to continue his prayerful and studious life by living as a hermit near a church in Tournai (before the construction of the cathedral that is now a World Heritage Site).  His attraction for solitude may have always remained close to Guerric’s heart, even though he chose cenobitic life at Clairvaux under St. Bernard.  Bernard, in letters from around 1125, refers to Guerric as a novice.  Guerric may have entered at age 45, already mature and formed in his intellectual life.  However, he became a student again under his younger master for around thirteen years, before being installed as second abbot of Igny.  All knew that he was Bernard’s choice for that office. 

Fifty-four of Guerric’s sermons have been preserved.  They are assigned to feast days or to the liturgical seasons, such as our present selection, the first of his Advent sermons.  Presumably these sermons were preached to the monks and later polished up for publication.  Guerric has a skilled Latin style and a comprehensive knowledge of Scripture.  His sentences are usually easy to understand and frequently inspiring in their message or scriptural interpretation.

One of Guerric’s major themes, although it does not appear in his first sermon, is that our spiritual life consists in taking on the form of Christ as marked by the major events in his life.  Christ is born in us, grows to maturity in us, prays and praises in us, is tempted in us, helps others in and through us, suffers and dies in us, and even shares his risen life with us.  Thus we take on the form of Christ’s life and become other Christs (see Gal 4:19).

The first sermon for Advent is on waiting for the Lord.  It is an example of Guerric’s virtuosity in speaking in the language of Scripture.  Section no. 4, is a remarkable prayer to Jesus in which Guerric proposes a striking allegorical interpretation.  He envisions himself hanging on a cross as Jesus did, far above all earthly concerns, and prays that he may persevere until he merits to die there.  The horizontal beam of the cross appears to him as the topmost rung of a ladder to heaven.  He prays that, after his death, he might ascend “from there to heaven all the more easily, stepping as it were off the topmost rung” (S 1.4; p. 5).

A good research project would be for someone to discover whether this interpretation of the beam of the cross is original to Guerric.  Reading Guerric of Igny, one of the four greatest Cistercian writers of the twelfth century, promises to be enriching and appealing.

An “Application” of Blessed Guerric of Igny First Sermon for Advent

Sr Maria Gonzalo, OCSO

You are waiting. It is the appointed time, the appointed place, but there are no signs of him. We all have had this experience, waiting for a good friend at some place downtown, or even at the monastery. As time passes, questions accumulate, and their tone may change gradually: why isn’t he here? It was today, wasn’t it? Oh, he is always late; he really doesn´t care. Did something happen to him? What should I do?

Waiting is part of life, a necessary stage for growth–you need to wait for a seed to sprout; a mother has to wait till she finally can kiss her child´s face. But it does not have good press in our society, which tries to avoid it by means of “one-day shipping” and drive-in shops. Waiting points to the void inside us, shows us that we are not as self sufficient as we would like to be. We do not have all under our control. “Hope long delayed grieves the soul and desire unfulfilled brings it weariness,”says Guerric, quoting the book of Proverbs 13:12, and many would agree.

Only the strongest promise can make most happy he who is waiting in suspense (Adv I:4). Do you remember the nights before Christmas? Maybe we need to become more like little children in order to grasp the kind of hope Guerric is talking about:the soul does not have just a bare hope; it overflows with hope, mounting upon hope as trial comes upon trial, delay upon delay (Adv 1:2). Only the true lover or the child can pronounce these words in their full meaning: I am absolutely sure that in the end he will appear and will prove not to have deceived me; so in spite of the delay he imposes I shall go on waiting for him confidently (Adv I: 2).  

“What am I waiting for,” a righteous man may ask, “but the Lord”? (Adv I: 1). After I entered the monastery, I explained to my friends how my experience of time had changed: every year there were no vacations to wait for! In one blow, or maybe in more than one, monastic life had placed me in an empty cell, my attention fixed on high and my expectancy hanging upon the Lord (Cf.  Adv I: 1). I had signed up for that consciously, but what I did not expect was how it was going to feel. To be, as it were, between heaven and earth, unable as yet to grasp heavenly affairs but preferring even so not to have contact with those on earth (Adv I:3); to be in suspense.  Was that what I was experiencing then? Was I doing something wrong or was this good even if it did not feel good?

“Let him who would believe not be in a hurry to see what he believes” (Is 28:16) I think I have heard that advice before…. But is not easy not to be in a hurry. Just as Guerric describes it, this process has brought us to the cross, and that hurts. Moreover, as Jesus chose to hang from the cross, we need to choose it too. I shouldever wait there for you unmoved, until I see what I believe (Adv I:4). Or as the Rule puts it: his heart quietly embraces suffering and endures it without weakening or seeking escape (RB 7: 35-36) So... even if you feel like running, hold on.

The kind of thoughts and feelings that rush in when we are waiting for a friend, who does not to show up as expected, can have some similarity with our reaction to the Lord’s delay. The temptation is not only to leave the monastery, but to “take any other husband or lover” (Hos 3:3), even when we remain. It is the temptation to stop waiting, our heart numbed by the busyness we have partly created for ourselves.

Guerric is not promoting suffering, but alerting us that monastic life, by its own structure and goal, is going to put us in this awkward position, that of hanging from the cross of our delayed desire. He knows that, when you wait on this cross of hope, something happens, something changes. There it is we are (Adv 1:4), where even thieves can recognize with joy their awaited Savior, and with a childlike step enter paradise.

But certainly he shall come, the Lord of ours, our dread and our desire, the rest and the reward of his laborers, the sweetness and embrace of his lovers, the blessedness of all, our Savior Christ Jesus (Adv I:4).