On Thursday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time our Church invites us to read and reflect on a passage from the beginning of book of Lamentations (1:1-12, 18-20) entitled "Jerusalem abandoned". Our treasure, which follows, is from a discourse on the psalms by Saint Bruno, priest.
Saint Bruno, was the founder of the Carthusians. He personally founded the order's first two communities. Saint Bruno was born in Cologne, Germany, became a famous teacher at Rheims, and was appointed chancellor of the archdiocese at the age of 45. He supported Pope Gregory VII in his fight against the decadence of the clergy, and took part in the removal of his own scandalous archbishop, Manasses. Saint Bruno suffered the plundering of his house for his pains.
Saint Bruno is known for his biblical commentaries, including a significant work on the Book of Psalms. His approach combines rigorous grammatical analysis with deep mystical and Christological interpretation, grounded in the teachings of the Church Fathers. Bruno wrote his commentary during his time as a celebrated master at the cathedral school of Reims. His work reflects a new, more sophisticated exegetical tradition emerging in the 11th century, in contrast to the atomistic verse-by-verse interpretations of earlier commentators like Augustine.
Saint Bruno was never formally canonized, because the Carthusians were averse to all occasions of publicity. However, Pope Clement X extended his feast to the whole Church in 1674.
The Book of Lamentations is a collection of five poems that serve as an anguished response to the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C., after a long siege by the invading Babylonian army. While there are connections in theme and vocabulary among all five chapters the poems may have been composed separately and grouped together later. In any case, they are anonymous compositions probably used by survivors of the catastrophe of 587 B.C. in a communal expression of grief and mourning.
