A Reading about the First Cistercians by Thomas Merton.

Saints OCSO, 

Founders ocso Nunraw

Sts Robert, Alberic & Stephen. (26 Jan., 1980)

A Reading about the First Cistercians by Thomas Merton.

The churches and cloisters of abbeys like Fontenay and Thoronet, their mellow stones glowing in a setting of quiet woods, still speak eloquently of the graceful mysticism of twelfth-century Citeaux. It was for the abbot of Fontenay that St Bernard wrote his tract, Degrees of Humility, with its wonderful twelfth chapter on mystical prayer. Fontenay itself represents the direct influence of 5t Bernard and is the precise application of his principles on architecture. I n such settings as these, the purified Liturgy of the Cistercians became a thing of tremendous effect. But their contemplative life implies penance as well as prayer, because in contemplation there are always two aspects: the positive one, by which we are united to God in love, and the negative one, by which we are detached and separated from everything that is not God. Without both these elements there is no real contemplation.

The penance of the Cistercians is essentially the common penance of the whole human race: to "eat your bread in the sweat of your brow" and to "bear one another's burdens." Underlying the Cistercian insistence on manual labour was a powerful element of what some call "social consciousness". The poverty and labour of the early Cistercians had explicit reference to the social situation in which they lived. Besides being a return to St Benedict and the Gospel, their way of life was also a protest against the inordinate wealth of the great feudal abbeys.

One of the strongest criticisms levelled by Citeaux against the Cluniac regime was that it was rooted in social injustice. The Cistercians could not accept the notion of a life of contemplation in which the interior peace and leisure of the contemplative were luxuries purchased by the exploitation of serfs and the taxation of the poor. 5t Benedict had prescribed that the monk was to be the poorest of the poor and live by his own labour.

If the monk has abandoned the cares and distractions and burdens of life in the world, that does not mean he has renounced the society of other men or the responsibility of providing for himself by the labour of his own hands: far from it. I n giving up his possessions, material ambitions, and independence, the monk dedicates his whole life, body and soul, to the service of God in his monastic community. From the moment he makes his vows he gives to God everything that he has and everything that he is or can be. But the gift is not accepted directly by God. God's representative is the abbot of the monastery, and the monk understands, by the terms in which his vows are made, that his gift of himself to

God will consist chiefly in a gift of himself to his abbot and his brothers.

To give up everything and devote your self without compromise to the love of Christ in the common life is to glorify and offer him the worship that most pleases him; it most resembles his own infinite generosity and the gift of himself to us in the incarnate Word. And it enables us to love one another as he has loved us.

The Waters of Siloe, New York 1949, pp. 15-20.

Saints OCSO, Cistercian Founders 26th January

Cistercian Founders    

Monday, 26 January 2015

Community Chapter Sermon - on the eve of the Solemnity, 

Fr. H... launched the theme in mind with the recent Letter from, 

POPE FRANCIS ON THE OCCASION OF THE YEAR OF CONSECRATED LIFE Apostolic Letter...

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Consecrated Life,  

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The Founders of Cîteaux
Sts Robert, Alberic and Stephen	Saints Robert, Alberic and Stephen founded the reformed monastery of Cîteaux in 1098. Their aim was to refresh the institutional forms of monastic life and to bring them into closer conformity both with the Rule of Saint Benedict and with the aspirations of the age. In particular this involved an emphasis on authentic poverty and simplicity even in the liturgy, manual work, non-involvement in secular affairs, and, at the level of the Order, mutual concern and supervision among the different monasteries, as a means of maintaining fervour. The prime documents of this period are the Exordium Parvum, describing the origins of the reform, and the Charter of Charity, giving its constitutional basis.  (OCSO.org)
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Dom Donald's Blog: Cistercian Founders 26th January: Solemnity of the Founders of Cistercian Order Saints Robert, Alberic & Stephen Today we are celebratin...

Cistercian Founders 26th January

Solemnity of the Founders of Cistercian Order Saints Robert, Alberic & Stephen Today we are celebrating the feast of our three founders, Robert, Alberic and Stephen. Actually there were possibly 21 founders, but we mention only the first three abbots of the new foundation. The Rule of St. Benedict gives a lot of power to the abbot and one of the reasons the twenty-one monks left the Benedictine monastery of Molesme to settle in a place called Citeaux in Burgundy, was because they wanted a stricter interpretation of the Rule of St. Benedict. But it takes more than an abbot to make a monastery. In fact I can think of nothing worse than a monastery full of abbots bossing each other around! Daily life in a monastery is a complex interchange between authority and obedience and often times it is difficult to know who has which - no matter what the official documents say. Take for instance the job of cantor. Who has more power than the cantor? Who could put a note on the board on a Saturday stating, "The Mass readings for Sunday have been changed from the ones given in our Mass reading booklet!" So, what if the abbot had a homily prepared based on the old readings! So the homily you are about to hear, is based on six scripture readings! It will be twice as long too! Really, all the Mass readings are concerned with one theme, the call of God. Our founders, all twenty-one of them, left one monastery to found another based on certain ideals they had about how the monastic life should be lived. It was not a smooth transition. The first abbot, Robert, was ordered back to his original monastery. No one joined the new group for years. They were on the verge of giving up when St. Bernard arrived with a large group and joined. After a lot of trouble they were eventually able to live out their dream. Pastoral Now almost a thousand years later, we are celebrating their memory. It is a good occasion to look at our own calling, our own dream. The scripture reading chosen for this celebration gives us a way of evaluating how we are doing. The first reading, Gen 12:1-4a, is the call of Abraham. The call to leave his country, his relationship with his father's house. Each of us is free to interpret what that means for us. The early desert monks called it the three great renunciations or detachments. Country meant all the wealth and riches of the world, to leave your kindred and relationships meant the life of sin and vice that cling to us and become like kindred to us. To leave our father's house means the whole visible world as opposed to the invisible world of the Spirit. These are radical renunciations just as are the ones in today's Gospel, Mt 19:27-29, and even more so the ones Paul speaks of: 1 Cor 1:26-31,leave our own wisdom and justice, even our own holiness. What does all this mean? All this renunciation and detachment? I think it means that each of us is called to go out of ourselves, to go beyond ourselves. Take the journey to a new place, an unknown place. In the letter to the Hebrews we read that our ancestors set out on the journey not knowing where they were going. They were living on a promise and they died before the promise was fulfilled. We too live on a promise. We can demand nothing. Monks have been accused of being Pelagians, making things happen by our own effort. If we fast or get up at 3:00 am, we will become spiritual men. Life is not like that. Life is a great teacher of detachment. We don't set our program and then watch it being fulfilled. We live our life and then come to understand it in the light of scripture. Life is a call to move out of ourselves. As youth gives way to middle age we are challenged to detach from perceived ideals. As middle age gives way to old age we are forced to give up false ambition and pretenses. As old age progresses, we are made to detach from physical health itself, our body. The world we wanted to create is slowly taken from us and something unfamiliar and new replaces it. It slowly dawns on us that God is calling us and leading us on-no matter how dark it seems or how unfamiliar the road. The new self made in this image of Christ is replacing the old self. We leave ourselves to find ourselves again. Are we good monks? Are we following our Founder? Are we good Christians? Who are we to judge? Life is teaching us. Let us put ourselves in the hands of the Lord of Life. Fr Brendan ocso (New Melleray) Cistercian Publications is putting out the collection of homilies and chapter talks in April.

   

Stephen Harding: A Biographical Sketch and Texts (Cistercian Studies) Paperback – 1 Dec 2008

  by Claudio Stercal  (Author)

Customer Reviews Amazon.com

Stephen Harding: A Biographical Sketch and Texts (Cistercian Studies)     

5.0 out of 5 stars well done, December 27, 2008 By  Bjoern Gebert "Student der Geschichte des Mit... (Berlin) This review is from: Stephen Harding: A Biographical Sketch and Texts (Cistercian Studies) (Paperback) This short book concerning the live of the third abbot of Citeaux provides a lot of reliable information about Stephen Harding and the early years of the later Ordo Cisterciensis. But Claudio Stercal does even more than sifting all the available sources "that can with certainty be attributed to Stephen Harding" and combining them to a short biography with success - he critically reviews quite a lot of the biographical studies on Stephen Harding published in the last centuries. Besides the "biographical sketch" the author and the translator provide the print of five texts "considered as having been written by Stephen Harding" in latin and english language. At the end of the book the author gives a list of used sources and a detailed bibliography in chronological order and afterwards in alphabetical order. An index of names (mentioned historical persons and cited historians) completes the book. Although it does not count more than 158 pages, it is an useful, substantial and stimulating study.

Eve of St Bernard

On the Eve of St. Bernard, the community Chapter Sermon was by Br. Patrick

----- Forwarded Message ---- From  Patrick …> Sent: August 19, 2010 Subject: Eve of ST BERNARD ST BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX Bernard of Clairvaux is surely one of the most outstanding figures in the history of western civilization.  To recount his life would be to write the history of the monastic orders, of orthodox theology, of heretical doctrines, of the second crusade, of the destinies of France, Germany and Italy for a period of almost forty years.  He was the colossus of the twelfth century, spanning both ecclesiastical and civil society.  Counsellor and reconciler of popes and kings, his tireless activity and his profound an extensive writings touched on every aspect of human life and left an indelible mark on the Christian civilisation of the west.             I think most of us are familiar with the outline of his life.  Born in1090 to a family of the lower nobility, he entered the monastery at Citeaux at the age of twenty two, along with thirty of his close family and friends, he was the son of a crusader and his family, particularly his other, were renowned for their charity and devotion to the church Few monasteries could ever have boasted so large a number of eager postulants at one time and in the worn down community of Citeaux, these dynamic young people breathed new life.  Three years later, Bernard was appointed abbot of the new foundation at Clairvaux.  With the new and vigorous life that Bernard had breathed into the Cistercian Order, it continued to flourish and expand.  In 1118   Clairvaux founded three daughter abbeys – it was in fact to have the most numerous offspring of any Cistercian house and it was the influence of Bernard that promoted the extraordinary rapidity with which the order grew.  At the end of Bernard’s life there were 338 Cistercian abbeys of which no fewer than 68 were directly founded from Clairvaux.  It was the bounding energy, the huge personal magnetism, the leadership and the eloquence of St. Bernard that made this possible.  The finest spirits of the age flocked to the Cistercian abbeys where silence, simplicity and the doctrine that work is prayer were the order of the day. We have heard so often that because of the effect of St Bernard’s preaching, mothers hid their sons and wives their husbands in case they should desert the home fireside for the Cistercian cloister. With such a giant as St Bernard, in a talk like this, we can only deal with one or  two aspects of his many faceted character,  One very striking characteristic of his, so evident all his life long, was his incredible influence, both spiritual, ecclesiastical and political. We know that grace builds on nature and I‘m  sure he had natural, personal gifts which had an impact on those people with whom he dealt, but I  believe there was a great deal more to it than that.  St Augustine says “Love and do what you will” which has been interpreted as “The secret of influence is love”.  I would suggest that, even among the saints, he was outstanding for his love for God and for his fellow man. The influence of his writings still persists. When Angelo Roncalli was elected pope as John XXIII he chose to read “On Consideration” a remarkable piece of writing giving advice to the newly elected Cistercian pope, Eugene III.  As far as his other writings are concerned, I do not feel qualified to comment  as my own experience of them  was ploughing through the two volumes of his sermons on the Canticle of Canticles when  was a novice, and reading the occasional quotes from his other writings. St Bernard is also well known for his preaching of the second crusade, which did his reputation a great deal of harm.  His reaction to the criticism was typical of him. He said “It  better that they blame me than God”.  He is still criticised for his advocacy of this cause and yet he was not responsible for the terrible conduct of so many of the crusaders.  He himself was very much a peacemaker as shown in his response to the request that he go and mediate in Metz where civil war had broken out.  He rose from his sick bed and made the long journey.  He was too weak to preach, but instead he visited each camp. Where his frailty proved even  more effective that any oratory.  Deeply ashamed of themselves, the warring sides made peace. I think we are all aware of Bernard’s great love for Our Lady, a love which is one of the continuing characteristics of the Cistercian Order. After his intervention in Metz, St Bernard returned to Clairvaux where he died on 20thAugust 1153.