Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church

God promises to take out the stony heart and replace it with a natural one - to put his spirit within us and make us his people. The psalm asks for what God has already promised: create in me a clean heart. The wedding feast is prepared and the servants have gone to the main roads - all are invited, good and bad alike. Let us come to this Mass as those who accept the invitation and put on the garment the feast requires: the new heart God has been forming all along.

Ezekiel announces God's great reversal: I will gather you, cleanse you, give you a new heart of flesh in place of your stony hearts, put my spirit within you, make you live by my statutes - you shall be my people and I will be your God. Psalm 51 prays for exactly what God has promised: a clean heart, a steadfast spirit, the joy of salvation restored, a willing spirit sustained. The Gospel gives the parable of the wedding banquet: the original guests refused; the servants went to the main roads and gathered everyone; one arrived without a wedding garment and could not explain himself; many are invited but few are chosen.

Lord Jesus, you are the son for whom the wedding feast was prepared, and you yourself are the garment we are to put on: Lord, have mercy. Christ Jesus, your Spirit within us is the new heart Ezekiel promised - taking our stone and giving us flesh: Christ, have mercy. Lord Jesus, on this feast of Bernard who wrote of your inexhaustible love, you are the source of the honey his voice carried: Lord, have mercy.

Introduction: God our Father, you promise to give us new hearts - to take out the stone and give us flesh - and to put your spirit within us. On this feast of Bernard, who spent his life transmitting that love, we pray for hearts capable of receiving the feast you have prepared.

1. For the Church - that she would send servants into the main roads, gathering everyone without exception, and help them find the wedding garment; we pray to the Lord.
2. For those who hold authority over nations - that they would be led by the spirit God promises to put within us, not by the stony heart of power; we pray to the Lord.
3. For those in our community whose hearts have grown stone - through grief, disappointment, hardening, or accumulated wound - that God's Ezekiel promise would reach them; we pray to the Lord.
4. For the families of our parish - that our homes would be places where the wedding garment is worn daily, where the new heart is practiced in the small things; we pray to the Lord.
5. For the Pope's August intention for evangelization in the city - that the Church's servants would go out into the main roads and find the ones who have not yet been invited; we pray to the Lord.
6. For those who have died - especially [name] - that the God who promised a new heart would receive them as people whose stony hearts have at last been removed; we pray to the Lord.

Concluding prayer: Father, create in us clean hearts and renew steadfast spirits within us. Take from us the stone. Give us flesh. Put your spirit within us. You have prepared the feast. Let us arrive wearing the garment. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.