For Your Own People

Responsible before God for the members of his monastic community, the abbot guides, protects, and serves his monks. Aelred of Rievaulx, a twelfth-century Cistercian abbot renowned for pastoral care, in this prayer, suitable for all pastors, entreats Jesus to assist him in the awesome task of bringing to God the brothers whom Christ has called together. He proclaims his love for them and identifies them as Jesus' own people, the new Israel, the community of Christ's brothers.