SAN Nov 13
Monastic Saints-5
A Reading about the Monk's Love
for Christ from a Book by Fr. Wilfrid Tunink*
A STORY told of St. Benedict
illustrates the place of Christ in the life of the monk. St. Benedict, at Monte
Cassino, sent the following message to a hermit ·who had bound himself by a
chain to his cave. "If you are a servant of God, do not bind yourself by
an iron chain, but by the love of Christ,"
The love of Christ is a chain that
holds the monk's heart captive in the pursuit of. monastic perfection, lasting
purity of heart. In this sense Christ is Himself the spirit of St. Benedict and
of Benedictine life. The Benedictine monastic way of life is founded on Christ
as on its foundation, and ends in Him as its completion and fulfilment. The
life and love of Christ are the monk's sole desire and ambition. The reign of
Christ in his heart is his aim and goal, the key to a successful and holy
monastic life. To establish the sovereign rule of Christ's love in his heart is
his daily hope, in order to solidify his monastic vocation, to safeguard and strengthen
his monastic spirit, and to encourage him in striving for perfect charity. To
establish this sovereign reign of Christ's love is the aim of the Abbot's
teaching and direction, the goal of all the labors of the novice master,
procurator, and all the officials in the execution of their duties and responsibilities.
Many a reason is strong enough to bring a man to the monastery; but only a
supreme love for Christ, which begets a preference for Christ over everything
else, can keep the monk ceaselessly engaged in the pursuit of his goal through
the proper and wise use of all the necessary means. No chain of iron, only the
chain of Christ’s love, can keep a monk stab le in the monastery, zealously working
at the reformation of his life. Supreme love for Christ is the divine alchemy
which, through the s low process of the common life, changes a man in to the
true Benedictine monk.
But the monk cannot love Christ supremely
unless in the darkness of faith he sees Christ alive in and identified with the
members of the monastic community. For the monastic community is the Church,
head and body, vine arid branches. The monastic community is Christ, the total
Christ, Head and members. Christ lives on in the monastic family, and the
supreme joy of the monk who loves Christ with a sovereign love is to know that
by faith he can see, and touch, and reverence, and adore the object of his love
in each and every one of his confreres. The Christ whom the monk loves sovereignly
is indeed in glory; but that Christ lives on in and therefore is identified
with His members on earth. Hence the sacrificial love which the monk wants to
pour out on Christ's own person, he pours out on Christ's members. The monk
finds his sovereign Lord as present not merely in heaven; the same faith which
brings him in contact with the glorified Christ at the right hand of the Father
places him in contact with Him present in his monastic confreres. Christ is not
far from the monk. Christ is near at hand, very near at hand, for He is in the entire
community and each member of it, and Him the monk loves all the affection of
his heart. Thus by faith the monk penetrates the “mystery of Christ,” the secret,
“kept hidden from the beginning. of .the time in the all-creating mind of God"
but “now revealed by the spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, “–a secret
which is essentially “Christ among, your hope of glory.” Christ in the Church of
the monastic family is the monk’s hope of eternal glory.
*
Vision of Peace" New York 1963, 81- 82.
Breviarium Cisterciense
Reformatum 1951
http://www.newmelleray.org/saints.asp
Cistercian Monks and Nuns
Who Appear in the Ordo
Who Appear in the Ordo
http://www.newmelleray.org/saints.asp
Friday, January 10, 2012
St. William of Bourges, Bishop of Our Order
St. William of Bourges, Bishop of Our Order
William de Don Jeon was born at Nevers France. He was educated by his uncle Peter, archdeacon of Soissons, became a canon of Soissons and of Paris and then became a monk at Grandmont Abbey. He became a Cistercian at Pontigny, served as Abbot at Fontaine-Jean in Sens, and in 1187 became Abbot at Chalis near Senlis. He was named Archbishop of Bourges in 1200, accepted on the order of Pope Innocent III and his Cistercian superior, lived a life of great austerity, was in great demand as a confessor, aided the poor of his See, defended ecclesiastical rights against seculars, even the king, and converted many Albigensians during his missions to them. He died at Bourges on January 10, and was canonized in 1218 by Pope Honorius III. His feast day is January 10th.Taken from http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=588
Sunday, January 12, 2012
St. Aelred, Abbot of Our Order
St. Aelred, Abbot of Our Order
Born in Hexham, he was educated there and in Durham. As a young man, he lived at the Scottish court. He entered Rievaulx in 1134, became novice master, then first abbot of Revesby. In 1147 he was elected abbot of Rievaulx, which post he maintained, in spite of increasing ill-health, until his death. His writings include The Mirror of Charity, On Spiritual Friendship, Rule for a Recluse, Jesus at the Age of Twelve, Pastoral Prayer. His was a radiant and sympathetic personality, unique among the writers and abbots of that age. Highly gifted, strong both to do and to suffer, he was an abbot whose wisdom appeared primarily in his personal love and sympathy and his wise direction of souls. As his disciple and biographer Walter Daniel could say: "He who loved us all was deeply loved by us in return, and counted this the greatest of all his blessings." His last words were, "Festinate, for crist luve." Walter Daniel explains: "He spoke the Lord`s name in English, since he found it easier to utter, and in some way sweeter to hear in the language of his birth."Taken from http://liamdevlin.tripod.com/nunraw/menjan.htm
Sunday, January 26, 2012
Our Holy Fathers St. Robert, St. Alberic and St. Stephen, Founders of the Cistercian Order
Our Holy Fathers St. Robert, St. Alberic and St. Stephen, Founders of the Cistercian Order
St AlbericNothing is known of his origins or early life. According to the Exordium Parvum he was "a man of letters, well versed in divine and human science." He became a disciple of St Robert, first at Colan and later at Molesme, where he was prior. He was a prime mover in the desire for reform which led to the foundation of Citeaux. There he was again prior, and shortly after Robert`s return to Molesme, was elected second abbot. It fell to Alberic to effect the consolidation of the New Monastery, both materially and morally. One of his first moves was to obtain a bull of papal protection for Citeaux from Pope Paschal II. Finding the original site unsuitable, he moved the location of the monastery a short distance away, and saw to the construction of the permanent buildings. He was probably responsible for the first "Institutes" of Citeaux. He died after ten years in office.Taken from http://liamdevlin.tripod.com/nunraw/menjan.htmSt Robert of MolesmeOf noble parentage, in his early youth he entered the Benedictine abbey of Montier-la-Celle near Troyes, and sometime after 1053 became their abbot. During the following years he took part in several cenobitic and eremetical experiments, and in 1075 founded Molesme in the diocese of Langres. This community prospered and became one of the more successful reform abbeys of the late 11th century, dedicated to Robert`s ideals of the ascetic standards of the desert practised within a monastic framework. However, its very success and expansion made it difficult for the small group of founders to maintain their control, and it gradually became more and more like the neighboring Cluniac abbeys.In 1097 Robert and some of his monks, among them Alberic and Stephen, obtained permission from Hugh, the papal legate, to make a new foundation and early in 1098 they set out for Citeaux. However, the monks of Molesme appealed to the Pope for Robert to return as their abbot, which he did, obediently if reluctantly, and he governed that house until his death.Taken from http://liamdevlin.tripod.com/nunraw/menapril.htmSt Stephen HardingSt Stephen was born to noble Anglo-Saxon parents about 1060 and as a youth he spent some time in the Benedictine Abbey of Sherborne in Dorsetshire. At the Norman conquest he had to flee to Scotland and then to France where he completed his studies in Paris. With a fellow-refugee from England, Peter, he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome and there he became assured of his monastic vocation. On their return to France, they both entered Molesme and from there went to Citeaux in 1098.On St Alberic`s death in 1109, the monks elected Stephen to succeed him. During his abbacy of twenty-five years, due in large part to his creative genius as organizer and legislator, Citeaux grew from a single reformed community to what was in effect the first "Order" in monastic history, held together by a firm legal framework and in the process of unprecedented expansion. His scholarly bent and his zeal for authencity led him to search for the true Ambrosian hymn texts and melodies, and to undertake the restoration of the Vulgate of St Jerome. He fostered the simplified liturgy and architecture which were to characterize the Cistercians. His concern for the unity of all Cistercian houses gave rise to the Charter of Charity, with its admirable balance between central authority and local autonomy. Not the least of his accomplishments was the spiritual formation of St Bernard, whom he received as a novice in 1113. In 1133, St Stephen resigned his office and in the following year he died at Citeaux in great peace and joy.Taken from http://liamdevlin.tripod.com/nunraw/menmarch.htm