monastic wisdom series: number twenty-six

Francis Acharya, ocso

Cistercian Spirituality
An Ashram Perspective
 monastic wisdom series
Simeon Leiva, ocso, General Editor
Advisory Board
Michael Casey, ocso Terrence Kardong, osb
Lawrence S. Cunningham Kathleen Norris
Patrick Hart, ocso Miriam Pollard, ocso
Robert Heller Bonnie Thurston
monastic wisdom series: number twenty-six

Cistercian Spirituality
An Ashram Perspective

by

Francis Acharya, ocso

Edited with an Introduction by

Michael Casey, ocso

Cistercian Publications
www.cistercianpublications.org

LITURGICAL PRESS
Collegeville, Minnesota
www.litpress.org
 A Cistercian Publications title published by Liturgical Press

Cistercian Publications
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© 2011 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights re-

served. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print,
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Press, Saint John’s Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500.
Printed in the United States of America.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Acharya, Francis.
   Cistercian spirituality : an Ashram perspective / by Francis Acharya;
  edited with an introduction by Michael Casey.
    p.  cm.
   ISBN 978-0-87907-026-7 — ISBN 978-0-87907-900-0 (e-book)
   1. Cistercians—India.  2. Monastic and religious life—India.  I. Casey,
  Michael, 1942–  II. Title.
  BX3403.A24 2011
  255’.120954--dc22 2010036916
 O MONK!

Do not harbor any illusion about the quality of your life.

Your charism will not flourish or shine simply
by keeping the rules and prescriptions printed in books,
nor will your life be deepened by irresponsibility or
the shallowness of hazardous innovations.

The true strength of the monastic charism

is to be sought in your openness to renunciation,
to personal enjoyment of quiet and silence,
in your love of prayer, both personal and in community,
to realize the value of the Cross in your life!

The genuine renewal which it should bring about

is the growth of your life in Jesus and His life in you,
with docility to His Spirit.
The growth of your life in Him,
must be sought at the source of life:
the Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus.
 Contents

Introduction by Fr. Michael Casey, ocso  xi

Prologue  xv

PART ONE:
MONASTIC TRADITION AND CISTERCIAN LIFE

Chapter 1: The Root Vocation of Christian Dedicated Life  3

1.  The Fullness of Christian Life  3
2.  Monastic Life and Contemplative Life  5
3.  The Various Forms of Monastic Life  6
4.  Models of the Monastic Life  8
5.  The Monk in the Church  13

Chapter 2: Benedictine Monasticism  15

1.  The Monopoly of the Benedictine Rule in the West  15
2.  Saint Benedict and the Monastic Tradition  15
3.  The Benedictine Tradition  17

Chapter 3: Cîteaux  19
1.  The Spirit of Early Cîteaux  19
2.  The Reforms of the Order of Cîteaux  22
3.  Tradition and Renewal  24
4.  Conclusion  26
5.  A View of Benedictine History  27
vii
viii Cistercian Spirituality

PART TWO:
THE SCHOOL OF THE LORD’S SERVICE LEADING
TO PERFECT LOVE

Chapter 4: The Great Renunciation  31

1.  Compunction of Heart, Conversion, Renunciation  31
2.  Dedicated Chastity  33
3.  Evangelical Poverty  34
4.  Humility and Monastic Obedience  38
5.  Solitude and Silence, with Universal Brotherly Love  41
6.  Stability  44
7.  The Monastic Habit: Symbol of Renunciation  45

Chapter 5: The Monastery, School of the Lord’s Service  47

1.  The Spiritual Fatherhood of the Abbot  47
2.  The Abbot and His Collaborators  50
3.  Fraternal Life  52

Chapter 6: Bodily Asceticism  56

1.  The Meaning of Bodily Asceticism  56
2.  The Great Laws of Asceticism  57
3.  Bodily Exercises and Manual Work  58

Chapter 7: The Monk’s Prayer  61

1.  Essence and Dimensions of Christian Prayer  61
2.  Stages of the Life of Prayer  62
3.  Liturgical Prayer and Private Prayer  64
4.  The Component Parts of Liturgical and Private Prayer  65
5.  The Guard over the Heart and Unceasing Prayer  70
 Contents ix

PART THREE:
THEOLOGY OF THE MONASTIC LIFE

Chapter 8: The Deification of the Christian  79

1.  The Holiness and Nearness of God  79
2.  Supernatural, Mystical Anthropology  83
3.  The Redeeming Economy  87
4.  Sacramental Grace and Personal Effort  89
5.  The Word of God and Spiritual Life  91

Chapter 9: The Growth of the Life in Christ  93

1.  The Active Stage of the Spiritual Life  93
2.  Purity of Heart, Aim of the “Active Life”  95
3.  Contemplation and Spiritual Sobriety  96
4.  The First Manifestation of Contemplation  97
5.  Pure Prayer and Unceasing Prayer  98
6.  The Law of Unceasing Progress  99

Epilogue  100

Appendix: The History of the Monks in Egypt  109

 Introduction

The life of Abbot Francis Mahieu Acharya (1912–2002) is al-

ready well known from the excellent biography written by his
niece, a year before his death.1 At the age of twenty-three he
entered the Cistercian abbey of Scourmont in his native Belgium.
For twenty years he lived as a Strict Observance Cistercian be-
fore setting out for India in 1955 with the intention of founding
an Indian-style monastery. In 1958, accompanied by Fr. Bede
Griffiths, osb, he moved to Kurisumala in the southern Indian
state of Kerala. Here, on the Mountain of the Cross, he built his
Cistercian Ashram; instituted a way of life that combined Cister-
cian, West-Syrian Christian and Indian traditions; and formed
disciples by his profound teaching and commonsense judgment.
In more ways than one the ashram was a sui generis monastery,
quite unlike anything else then existing in the Church. It was
practically independent, coming loosely under the authority of
the local Syro-Malankara bishop and the Vatican Congregation
for the Oriental Churches. Fr. Francis reveled in the freedom
of his situation and was able to fine-tune the monastic lifestyle
without outside interference. When, however, he reached the
age of eighty and various health problems made thoughts of his
mortality unavoidable, he began to be concerned about the future
leadership of the ashram.
At this time he started making inquiries about the possibility
of aggregating his monastery to the Order in which he himself

1. Marthe Mahieu-De Praetere, Kurisumala: Francis Mahieu Acharya: A

Pioneer of Christian Monasticism in India, Cistercian Studies 214 (Kalamazoo:
Cistercian Publications, 2007).

xi
xii Cistercian Spirituality

had been formed. A first step was to begin negotiations with

the abbot of Scourmont, his own former monastery, who visited
the ashram in 1993. He was followed, in the next year, by Abbot
General Bernardo Olivera. After the favorable vote of the Gen-
eral Chapter of 1996, the formal process of incorporation was
initiated, which included the provision that a monk of the Order
would spend time with the community, helping it to realign its
vision of monastic life to harmonize with the spirit of the Order
it was about to join.
During 1997 and 1998 I spent a fair amount of time at Kurisu-
mala, spaced over several visits. My first task was to review with
the community the foundational Cistercian texts of the twelfth
century with a view to appreciating their essential values and
the ways in which they were practically expressed. At that time
I had the very strong impression that Kurisumala was already
profoundly Cistercian in spirit and in practice and that, in many
ways, the manner in which the monks lived their monastic life
was much closer to the primitive observance than what could be
observed in many established monasteries of the Order. Over the
years this impression strengthened. It was my judgment that Fr.
Francis’s community was already deeply imbued with the Cister-
cian charism and that a long period of transition and preparation
was not necessary. This conclusion was subsequently confirmed
by two visiting abbots and July 9, 1998, was set as the date for
the ceremony of affiliation.
The ashram was now raised to the status of an abbey and pas-
torally supported through the structures of the Order, but the
question of succession remained urgent. Although he had earlier
strongly resisted the idea of codifying ashram practice, Fr. Francis
now became convinced that it was necessary to have some form of
spiritual directory for the ongoing guidance of his community—
an updated and inculturated version of the nineteenth-century
volumes he had known in his early days at Scourmont.
And so, already in his late eighties, Fr. Francis began work.
Although his library at Kurisumala was relatively small, he was
not without resources—and he was helped in his task by a good
memory, a systematic approach and a synthetic mind. Before he
 Introduction xiii

came to India, he had received an excellent monastic formation

under Dom Anselme Le Bail at Scourmont; he had studied at
Rome and Paris, served as Master of Novices at Caldey, was a
keen reader in many languages and a lifelong student. He had
more than sixty years of varied monastic experience and he was
a spiritually literate man with sound and balanced judgment.
With a vigor typical of him, but still surprising in a man of his
age, he sought to bring together in compact form not only the
fruits of many years of study, but also to shape it according to
the spirit that he desired to impart to his monks at Kurisumala.
Father Francis wrote as he spoke. At heart there was a contem-
plative fascination with the mysterious depths of God and great
appreciation of the quasi-sacramental channels by which, over
the course of a lifetime, the grace of God softens the heart and
increases the pace of conversion. He was in no doubt about the
efficacy of the monastic observances in providing an environ-
ment in which this transformation or deification occurs, and he
was quite shrewd in identifying ways in which a monk might
seek to escape its rigor. He was not a harsh man but he could be
a stern master, bluntly pointing out delusions and evasions and
not afraid to insist on greater effort. His writing is possessed of
this same dual character: a mystical elevation alternating with a
down-to-earth realism.
The book he produced at this time was a simple photocopied
edition, continually revised and corrected, with many inserts
and interpolations. Father Francis was exigent in his desire to
get things just right and was always seeking to improve his text,
using whatever materials daily Providence arranged. Having
heard the result read at meals during my stays at Kurisumala, it
seemed to me that his work would be helpful for a wider reader-
ship. Although it is written mindful of the specific customs and
conditions of Kurisumala, it stands up well as a clear exposition
of monastic tradition from a Cistercian viewpoint, enhanced as it
often is with the experiential wisdom Fr. Francis gleaned during
a long monastic lifetime.
In editing the text I have attempted to make Fr. Francis’s
own voice as audible as I could. I have removed some of the
xiv Cistercian Spirituality

supplementary material that he had later included. Often this

impeded the smooth passage of his ideas without adding any-
thing substantial to his presentation. I have not attempted to
identify the sources from which he drew his content, but I have
been aware that often he was summarizing or paraphrasing part
of a book or article, without bothering with footnotes. He was
more concerned with the final product than with its ingredients.
Indeed, once or twice I have been flattered to have some of my
own words recycled.
This book is offered to a wider world in the hope that it will
serve as a means of making and deepening contact with the spirit
of the Cistercian tradition not so much as it is written but as it
has been lived for over six decades by a deeply spiritual man. To
those who know of Kurisumala Ashram or who have read the
biography of Fr. Francis, it will provide a gateway to an under-
standing of the interior life of this remarkable monk. In particular,
his description of the stages of the experience of prayer will cer-
tainly be helpful to many who, like him, are lifelong seekers of
the unseen God.

Michael Casey, ocso

Tarrawarra Abbey
 Prologue

It is never the intention of the founders of a monastery to es-

tablish in the Church a new way of religious life, but rather to
revive in its original fervor the ancient tradition of monasticism.
Similarly, the teachings of Saint Bernard and of the writings of
the first Cistercian generations aimed at being only a living and
personal echo to the monastic and patristic traditions.
Cistercian spirituality should therefore not be considered in
the light of the modern orders or congregations whose ideal of
perfection was determined by the particular aim they pursue for
the service of the Church. The monk is essentially a disciple who
inserts himself into a tradition. The Cistercian Fathers knew this
and consciously made themselves disciples of the monks whose
examples and teachings are channels of grace for their heirs. Thus
it is the whole monastic tradition which is the family wealth of
Cistercian monks.
Moses Bar Kepha, a monastic Father of the tenth century in the
Antiochean tradition of Mesopotamia, in a homily given after the
service of the clothing of monks, traces back the monastic charism
to the origins of the human family, to the Cosmic Covenant:

Understand, my sons,
what is the monastic charism (monachatus)
and the doctrine of this way of life,
and let it be known to all who are here.
The practice of the monastic charism
is older than the ordination of the monastic habit.

Indeed with our forefathers there was no habit:

Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek,

xv
xvi Cistercian Spirituality

Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Daniel and many others practised

continence, abstinence, righteousness, justice and holiness.
Some of them even kept virginity.

And when Christ the Savior of all appeared,

John the Baptist and the holy apostles and evangelists
and their followers
were endowed with the same holy monastic charism.
And, with it, they lived for God.

Later, in the time of Anthony the Great,

the Lord Himself, with other graces,
also gave the monastic habit as the monk’s garment.
And all who were clothed in it while being worthy of it
were called monks, and their dwelling places monasteries,
names conveying the austerity of their way of life.

Following Cassian, Saint Bernard, in his Apologia (# 24), relates

the origins of the monastic life to the early Church of Jerusalem:

The Monastic Order was the first order in the Church.

It was out of this that the Church grew .  .  .
The Apostles were its moderators,
and its members were those whom Paul calls “the saints.”
It was their practice to keep nothing as private property,
as it is written,
distribution was made to each as each had need.
There was no scope for childish behavior.
All received only as they had need,
so that nothing was useless, much less novel or exotic.
The text states “as each had need.”
This means with respect to clothing, something
to cover nakedness and to keep out the cold.
Do you think that they wore silks and satins
or rode on mules with hundreds of gold pieces?
Do you think that their beds had catskin coverlets,
and multicolored quilts
seeing that distribution was made
only as each had need?
 Prologue xvii

Contemporary interpreters of the Acts of the Apostles share the

view of Saint Bernard:

Which components of the three texts of Acts have been given

pride of place in monastic literature? The reference to cor unum
et anima una must recur with the greatest frequency. What about
the other elements of the text? How often are they quoted and
how are they interpreted? This calls for further study.
  Historically, we have here a core of solid information on the
original way of life adopted by the earliest Christian commu-
nity of Jerusalem. This community organized itself along mo-
nastic lines. If monasticism is an integral Christian life, must we
not also say conversely that Christian life is basically monastic?
The consequence would be that every Christian is a monk, at
least at heart. The encounter with Indian monasticism invites
us to ponder on the implication of this.1

Moreover, if the monastic tradition possesses a deep unity, the

institutions and the spiritual teachings of the Fathers have given
birth to various trends, according to the emphasis put on one
or another aspect of the common ideal. The Fathers of Cîteaux
have adopted a definite attitude regarding these various trends.
The Cistercian tradition is the fruit of their own vocation as well
as of the trends of their time. They have conceived an idea of
the monastic life which was both traditional and new, and was
to be a norm of life for those who followed them. We will try to
discern the spiritual trends which gave to the Cistercian ideal its
particular features.
Thus it is in the light of the monastic tradition as a whole, but
interpreted according to the ideas of the Fathers of Cîteaux, that
we intend to explain and describe the monastic ideal. It is not
our intention to make a detailed study of the teachings of the Fa-
thers of the monastic life, but rather to take our inspiration from
them, in order to frame a doctrine capable of giving life today to
the members of our community, taking into account the “signs

1. Lucien Legrand, in The Sign beyond All Signs, 64. See Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-
35; 5:12-16.
xviii Cistercian Spirituality

of the time,” the change of mentality and the doctrinal progress

which have taken place in the Church since the beginnings of
the monastic life and since the time of the Cistercian Fathers.
It is therefore as men of the twentieth century that we will put
ourselves under their guidance.
We should like to show here that the monastic life does not
consist simply in the fulfillment of some duties or in the practice
of certain observances or in conforming to external exercises
prescribed by a Rule or by Constitutions. While these provide a
useful framework, our lives are the fruit of an unceasing dialogue
between God who calls us and our own freedom, the freedom
of the children of God. It is a free answer to an incessant call of
God, addressing us exteriorly in the person of our abbot and in
the directions of the Holy Rule, and interiorly by the intimate
promptings of the Holy Spirit, which constitute the New Law
engraved in our hearts. This law sets us free from all external
compulsion and from the slavery of the law by conforming us
in the very depths of our being to the divine will.
The call to interiority is in fact the main character of the New
Covenant, already predicted by Jeremiah:

This is the Covenant I shall make with the house of Israel. I

will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts,
and I will be their God and they shall be my people. (31:31)

We then live not only by fulfilling duties imposed on us, but

under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as Benedict tells us in the
conclusion of his chapter on the Ladder of Humility. (See also
Ezek 36:26; Heb 10:16.) Obedience to the law and fulfillment of
the observances (Mosaic Covenant) remain, keeping us in one
body, the body of Christ; but their fulfillment becomes a matter
of the heart. This is why we pray so often: “Create a new heart
in me, O God; put a new and a steadfast spirit within me” (see
Ps 51:10).
The message of this twofold call, exterior and interior, is the
same: to go, like Abraham, from our country and our kindred,
that is, to break with all attachments here below so that we may
 Prologue xix

always put first God and the values of His Kingdom revealed
in the Gospel.
These values are the following: repentance with humility and
meekness of heart, forgiveness and compassion, peace and the se-
cret of joy of the Holy Spirit; in one word, God’s own life poured
into our hearts, as Jesus disclosed in the Beatitudes, the Sermon
on the Mount, and the Last Supper discourses.
May this directory, by recalling the deep meaning of the mo-
nastic life, help the members of our community to live this per-
petual departure to the promised land of our heart, where we
meet our Lord, the promised land which is reached only in the
measure in which we never cease to make progress toward it.
PART ONE

MONASTIC TRADITION AND CISTERCIAN LIFE

 Chapter 1

THE ROOT VOCATION

OF CHRISTIAN DEDICATED LIFE

1. The Fullness of Christian Life

At the outset the monk can be described as “a Christian leading a
religious life according to Christ’s call to perfection in the Gospel
and according to the early tradition of the Church.”
The monk is a religious, that is, a Christian well aware of the
demands put on him by Christ’s discipleship. In his desire to
conform to Him, he has entered a state of life in which everything
is arranged so as to promote the growth and the flowering of the
life of grace, of the Holy Spirit in us. The aim of the religious life
is not different from that of a simple Christian life; the religious
is not seeking a perfection higher than that offered to the simple
Christian. Every Christian has the duty to seek the perfection of
charity. What is proper to the religious is that he has chosen a
stable way of life in which everything is directed to the pursuit
of this aim only.
The religious is not marked off from the simple faithful as one
“consecrated,” distinguished from one “nonconsecrated.” Every
baptized person is consecrated, a member of a holy nation and
set apart from the ungodly world, the world of evil, in order to
belong entirely to God. But the religious, by his profession, is
established in a state of life, officially sanctioned by the Church,
in order to allow this baptismal consecration to find its full ex-
pression and to be worked out in a privileged manner.
The monastic life is also a religious life, but one framed accord-
ing to the ancient traditions of the Church. This does not mean
that it is an antiquated relic of a bygone age, but that its structure

3
4 Monastic Tradition and Cistercian Life

was established between the fourth and the twelfth centuries.

It is a religious life conceived by the Church, the Fathers of the
Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and it is from this
that it draws its permanent value. Just as the doctrinal writings
of the Fathers remain for the Church ever-living springs, so the
ascetical teachings of the masters of the spiritual life of the first
centuries have created a form of religious life which must remain
alive in the Church at all times.
What gives to the life and thought of the Church of the Fathers
its proper character, its fullness, its all-embracing synthesis, is
the absence of specialization. To the monastic life belongs this
character of fullness. It is simply a life in which everything is
arranged for the pursuit of perfect discipleship, the full flower-
ing of the life of Christ in us, without any kind of specialization.
All the means of which it makes use, according to tradition, are
directed to this sole aim: renunciation of marriage and of earthly
possessions. Solitude and service, prayer and silence, obedience,
fasting, vigils, austerity of life, manual labor, liturgical and pri-
vate prayer, lead the soul toward unceasing prayer, nearness to
Jesus, unbroken communion with Him.
The monk is thus distinguished from the religious belong-
ing to a modern institute by the absence of a “secondary aim.”
Indeed modern religious institutions are usually organized so
as to lead their members at the same time to the perfection of
charity and to assume for the Church a particular task: education,
health care, preaching, works of charity, and the like. Sometimes,
even, the founders have dedicated their institute to a particular
devotion, such as the cult of reparation to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the adoration of the Blessed
Sacrament, or of the Precious Blood, and the relief of souls in
purgatory. Because of this, modern institutes, while keeping the
principal means established by the Church’s tradition to assist in
the pursuit of the common and principal aim—the perfection of
charity—have reduced the part given to some of these means; for
instance, the withdrawal from the world which favors a spiritual
atmosphere, the Liturgy of the Hours and private prayer. They
gave their life and adapted it to the needs of the “secondary aim.”
 The Root Vocation of Christian Dedicated Life 5

2. Monastic Life and Contemplative Life

According to the monastic tradition, the phrases “active life”
and “contemplative life” do not refer to distinct states of life,
distinguished by different “secondary aims” as would be the
active apostolate and works of charity on one side, and on the
other side the liturgical celebrations and spiritual exercises, cor-
responding to different vocations. They mean rather two stages,
two complementary aspects of the spiritual life, two facets of the
same coin. The “active life” is described as the practice of asceti-
cism and virtues, especially fraternal charity; the “contemplative
life” is the life of deep union with God, the moving experience
of His intimate presence to which a generous ascetical effort
usually leads.
In this way, the monastic life is inseparably active and con-
templative. It is active, not in the sense that it is organized for a
particular ministry in the Church but as consisting, essentially,
in the practice of evangelical virtues and brotherly service, as
required by the ordinary circumstances of life. It is contemplative,
not in the sense that the monk would have as “particular aim” the
celebration of the sacred liturgy or the practice of some spiritual
exercises, but as directed exclusively to promote a life of deep
union with God in which prayer permeates the whole life and
is practically identical with the perfection of theological charity.
This being established, there is room, within the monastery,
for more active vocations, inclined to the humble service of the
brethren in the common life, and for more contemplative voca-
tions attracted by the sacred liturgy or by simple prayer of the
heart. This is beautifully illustrated by Saint Bernard in a descrip-
tion which he calls “the cloistral paradise”:

The monastery is truly a paradise, a region fortified with the

rampart of discipline. It is a glorious thing to have men living
together in the same house, following the same way of life.
How good and pleasant it is when brothers live in unity. You
will see one of them weeping for his sins, another rejoicing
in the praise of God, another tending the needs of all, and
another giving instruction to the rest. Here is one who is at
6 Monastic Tradition and Cistercian Life

prayer, another is reading. Here is one who is compassionate,

and another who inflicts penalties for sins. This is one aflame
with love, and that one is valiant in humility. This one remains
humble when everything goes well and the other one does not
lose his nerve in difficulties. This one works very hard in active
tasks, while the other finds quiet in contemplation. (Div. 42:4)

Fourteen styles of monastic living—some of them incompat-

ible, even opposite, observes Fr. Michael Casey. Most communi-
ties would recognize their own members in Bernard’s list. What
is unity? It is that which binds together what is different and
unique. Its opposites are envy, competitiveness, petty-minded-
ness, intolerance, self-justification, self-assertion, and the refusal
to be absorbed in community life, which Bernard calls singulari-
tas, that is, individualism.
It is left to the spiritual discernment of the superiors to dis-
tribute the offices and duties according to this legitimate diver-
sity. It will be advisable, however, to see that brotherly service
does not degenerate into activism nor endanger the essentially
contemplative orientation of the monastic life. And in case some
tasks requiring active service have to be entrusted to souls at-
tracted by a deeper contemplative life, these will have to bear
this trial without losing their peace of mind and rather transform
all activity into prayer by the deep orientation of their heart to
God alone.

3. The Various Forms of Monastic Life

A secluded life is the distinctive mark of the monk in contrast
to the first ascetics who lived in the midst of the Christian com-
munity during the first three centuries. It was toward the end of
the third century, when the ascetics began to withdraw into the
desert or to the mountains, that monasticism first asserted itself as
a new way of life in the Church. However, as the life of seclusion
was led individually, the new institutions soon developed in two
ways: the way of the hermit (the recluse or the pilgrim monk)
and the way of the cenobites (those who lived in a community).
 The Root Vocation of Christian Dedicated Life 7

As such, the cenobitic life is directed rather to the perfection

of the “active life” and the eremitical life to be a full flower-
ing of the “contemplative life.” It is for this reason that a whole
school of monastic spirituality considered the first to be a simple
preparation for the second, to which every monk having a real
contemplative ideal should aspire.
Origen pleads for, and practiced, contemplation in the world:

You who follow Christ and imitate Him, You who live in God’s
word and practise his commandments: you are always in the
sanctuary and never leave it. It is not in a place that the sanc-
tuary is to be sought, but in your actions, in your life, in your
behavior. If your life is pleasing to God and fulfills his precepts,
it matters little whether you are at home or at the market place.
It even matters not that you are in the theatre: if you are at the
service of God, you are in the sanctuary. Do not doubt it. The
ultimate end can be summed up in this way: with a pure heart,
become like God in order to draw more and more near to him
and to live in him.

Further, because of the dangers threatening the solitary life, many

masters of the spiritual life would keep the great majority of
monks in the cenobium during their whole lifetime. But at the
same time they would enforce seclusion from the world, silence
and authentic contemplative life. In addition to that, obedience
and the loving submission to his superiors and to his brothers,
shown in the details of everyday life, was a path of renunciation
which conformed the cenobitic monk intimately to the Christ of
the Gospel, meek and humble of heart. Thus community living
was the equivalent of the hermit’s rigorous solitude. This last
view, which spread very early in the West through Cassian, was
adopted by the first Cistercians.
Saint Benedict’s Rule reflects this view in the first chapter:

The first kind of monks is that of the cenobites, those who live
in monasteries (community) and serve under a Rule and an
Abbot. The second kind is that of the anchorites or hermits,
those who .  .  . after their formation in a monastery, having
8 Monastic Tradition and Cistercian Life

learned among many brethren how to fight against the devil,

go out well-armed from the ranks of the community to the soli-
tary combat of the desert.  .  .  . to fight single-handed against
the vices of the flesh and their own evil thoughts. (RB 1:2-5)

It would not be fair to argue from the social character of Christi-

anity and give cenobitism an exclusive preference, as Saint Basil
did. Truly, the cenobium is a distinguished manifestation of the
unity of the Mystical Body. But it is a manifestation only, on the
level of things that can be seen. The deep reality of the union of
all members of Christ in charity transcends all particular realiza-
tions, ever imperfect here below and until the Parousia comes; it
is given in its all-embracing fullness only in the innermost heart.
Therefore, a hermit who possesses a higher degree of charity,
who has reached the stage of unceasing prayer, is more deeply
united with all people than a cenobite possessing charity in a
lesser degree.
The cenobite must therefore be convinced that his relative
solitude, which is ensured mainly by silence with respect to his
brothers themselves, should help him to enter more deeply into
the mystery of the communion of the saints than fraternal ex-
changes sought indiscriminately. An authentic cenobitic life is
expected to favor a personal search for God, a drawing near to
the Lord, as we profess on the day of our solemn clothing as a
monk, a life with Jesus and in Him. “Abide in Me as I abide in
you,” said Jesus to His disciples. “I wish to draw near to God. Be
good to me, Lord, my trust, that I may recount all Your wonders,”
proclaims the candidate at the beginning of the sacramental ini-
tiation of his clothing as a monk.

4. Models of the Monastic Life

Rather than make use of abstract notions to describe their ideal
of life, monks of old used similes or comparisons, as Jesus re-
vealed the mysteries of the Kingdom of God in parables. These
soon became traditional as they contained a whole theology of
the monastic life.
 The Root Vocation of Christian Dedicated Life 9

4.1. The Angelic Life

Christian antiquity described monasticism as the “Angelic Life”
because it is organized so as to promote in every possible way
detachment from the present world and dedication to the world
to come, to the city of the angels and of the saints. The monk’s
life of divine praise, chastity, poverty, simplicity and single-
mindedness is, at the same time, his sign of the preference he
gives to the “eschatological” realities, eternal life and the fruit of
the new life poured out into his heart by the Holy Spirit. Litur-
gical prayer as well as silent contemplation are a participation
in the liturgy of the heavenly city:

I think that because of the perfect renunciation of the world

which it demands and the singularly lofty spiritual life which it
favors and by which it is raised above all other ways of life, [the
monastic way] makes those who profess it and love it different
from men and similar to angels. It reconstitutes the image of
God in man, it configures us to Christ as baptism does. (Saint
Bernard, On Precept and Dispensation, 54)
  The life you profess is a lofty one. It surpasses the heavens,
it is on a par with the angels, it is like them in its purity. For
you have made a vow not only of holiness, but of the perfec-
tion and the completion of holiness. You do not stop at the
common precepts, you do not ask only what God commands,
but what he wants, investigating the will of God—all that is
good, all that is acceptable to him, all that is perfect. Others
have the function of serving God; yours is to adhere to him.
Others are expected to believe in God, to know him, to love
him, to revere him; you are expected to savor him, to under-
stand him, to make his acquaintance, to enjoy him. (William
of Saint Thierry, The Golden Epistle, 15–16)

Our Prayer with the Harp of the Spirit refers repeatedly to our as-
sociation with the angels, as described in Revelation 8:1-4.1

When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in
heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who

1. See also The Clothing of Monks in the Antiochean Tradition, 124.

10 Monastic Tradition and Cistercian Life

stand before God. They were given seven trumpets. Another

angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar. He was
given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayer of all
the saints on the golden altar in front of the throne. And from
the angel’s hand the smoke of incense went up before God with
the prayers of His people. (Rev 8:1-4)

4.2. The Prophetic Life

The monastery is a prophetic place: an anticipation of the world
to come, a permanent declaration of a universe remade in God,
a universe whose poles are charity and the praise of God, fixed
points to which all others are referred. Established in a state of
life which anticipates the eschatological destiny of humankind,
the monk, thanks to the power of the spirit living in him, wit-
nesses to a prophetic way of life. The Fathers were inclined to
see in the prophets of the Old Testament, and especially in Elijah,
Elisha and John the Baptist, models and prefigurations of their
way of life:

What shall we say of prophecy? .  .  . Until John came, there

were the Law and the Prophets. Thus says Truth Himself. Yet he
who, after Saint John, said, “We know in part and we prophesy
in part,” was not an adversary but a disciple of truth. Prophecy
has ceased, because now we have knowledge, and yet it has not
ceased altogether, since we prophesy in part. “When that which
is perfect has come, that which is imperfect will be done away
with.” The prophets prior to John foretold the two comings of
the Lord, and nevertheless the two parts of our salvation were
not yet entirely known: they remained hidden in the prophecy.
Now your way of prophesying, the kind of prophecy to which
you have dedicated your lives, is of a high order, as I see it.
According to the Apostle’s teaching, it consists in regarding not
the visible things but the invisible. That is what it really means
to prophesy: to walk according to the Spirit, to live by faith,
to seek only the goods of heaven instead of those of earth, to
forget the past and apply ourselves exclusively to that which
is before us. Yes, that is to prophesy in great part. For how can
our life be in heaven, if not by the spirit of prophecy? It is thus
that the prophets of other times, bridging time by a flight of
 The Root Vocation of Christian Dedicated Life 11

thought, launched into the future, separated themselves from

their contemporaries and thrilled with joy at the idea of see-
ing the day of the Lord. They saw it, and this vision inebriated
them with joy. The manner of prophesying, .  .  . demands a
superior way of life; for in it one becomes attached to spiritual
and eternal realities. (Saint Bernard, De Diversis, 37:6-7)
  Your state is not some innovation. It is the fruit of the ancient
religion, of the perfect piety which is founded in Christ. It is
the ancient heritage of the Church of God, foreshown at the
time of the prophets and, when the Sun of the new grace was
rising, restored and reborn in Saint John the Baptist. (William,
The Golden Epistle, 11)

4.3. The Apostolic Life (The Life of the Early Church of Jerusalem)
Under the guidance of the Spirit of Pentecost and under the guid-
ance of the apostles who had led a similar common life with Jesus
during the years of his messianic ministry, the Christians of the
early Church of Jerusalem endeavored to put fully into practice
the Lord’s teachings on renunciation of earthly goods for the sake
of the Kingdom of God, and on giving away one’s possessions to
the poor. The common life described in the Acts of the Apostles
was taken as a sign of the coming of the eschatological times and
as the first fruits of the gathering of all the children of God in
the heavenly city. To adduce adequate grounds for their way of
life, the monks of old liked to turn to this “apostolic life,” which
they sought to perpetuate in the Church. Even the hermits who
distributed their possessions to follow Christ appealed to it. (See
Acts 2:42-46; 4:32-35.)
Saint Bernard saw in the life of the early Church of Jerusalem
the origin of the monastic order:

The monastic order was the first order of the Church. It was
out of this that the Church grew .  .  . The apostles were her
wonderworkers, and her members were those whom Paul calls
“the saints.” It was their practice to keep nothing as private
property, as it is written: Distribution was made to each as each
one had need. There was no place for childish behavior. All
received only as they had need, so that nothing was useless,
12 Monastic Tradition and Cistercian Life

and much less novel or unusual. The text says: “As each had
need.” This means with respect to clothing something to cover
nakedness and to keep out the cold. (Apologia, 24)

Together with this policy of holding everything in common while

sharing according to the needs of each one, there was a deep
concern with poverty. In their early documents the Cistercians
described themselves as “poor with Christ the poor” and even
found fault with any display of splendor in church buildings or
in the common way of life:

O vanity of vanities, a vanity as insane as it is vain! The Church

is resplendent in her walls, but in her poor she languishes.
She has covered her stones with gold, but has left her children
naked. (Apologia, 28)

4.4. The Monk and the Martyr

For the Christians of the first three centuries, martyrdom was the
highest perfection that could be reached by a disciple of Christ
who wished to follow his Master to the end. The martyr, or wit-
ness, is one who gives the greatest witnessing to Christ by offer-
ing his life for the Lord’s sake, a man of the Spirit; he enjoys the
experience of the power of the risen Christ who triumphs in him
over Satan and the world by giving him a love for God stronger
than all enticements of the world here below.
When the persecutions came to an end, the monks made an
appearance as the successors of the martyrs. They were united
with Christ’s passion, seeing their monastic life as a war against
Satan and a work of love. Martyrdom was considered a second
baptism, or a baptism of blood in case the martyr had not yet
been baptized, because in it is fully realized the configuration to
the death and resurrection of Christ, sacramentally inaugurated
at baptism. So, too, the monastic life as a whole was considered a
second baptism or the highest fulfillment of baptism as the monk
freely unfolded in his life the sacramental mysteries. Later this
view was applied to the celebration of the monastic profession.
 The Root Vocation of Christian Dedicated Life 13

As a model of the monk in his spiritual combat, the martyr is

a model also on account of his contemplation, as contemplation
is but the experience of the love of Christ poured out into our
hearts by the Holy Spirit. (See the martyrdom of Saint Stephen,
especially in Acts 7:54-60.)
Saint John Cassian sums up beautifully the teaching on mar-
tyrdom as part of the monastic charism:

The patience and strictness with which monks remain so de-

votedly in their profession, once they have taken it up, never
fulfilling their own desires, crucifies them daily to this world
and makes living martyrs of them. (Conferences, 18:7)

5. The Monk in the Church

From what has been said up to now, it appears that in the mo-
nastic order the Church reconnects with her origins, not by an
archeological return to the past, but by a movement toward that
which belongs to her deeper life. She becomes again the Church
of the apostles, of the martyrs, of the Fathers. At the same time
she reveals more clearly than anywhere else her eschatological
character.
In the Church the monastic life is not a ministry or a particular
function. Unlike priestly life and married life, it is not based on a
particular sacrament. If we consider what belongs to it as proper,
it is not to be ranked among the sacramental signs but among
the realities of the life of grace signified by the sacraments. The
monastic life or, better, the monastery, is the place where every-
thing is organized so that the means of sanctification entrusted
by Christ to the Church as a sacred deposit may bear all their
fruits in the life of the Spirit.
Therefore monkhood can very truly be said to be at the heart
of the Church, summing up, so to say, the whole mystery. The
monastic institute stands for the way of life which the Church,
as teacher of perfection, offers to him who wishes to live exclu-
sively, and of his own free will, for the full growth of the seeds
of grace sown in his heart at baptism and later by the procla-
mation of the Word of God and the celebration of the Divine
14 Monastic Tradition and Cistercian Life

Mysteries. As such, monkhood stands as the most interior aspect

of the Church’s tradition and it offers a model to all believing
Christians.
On the other hand, in the measure in which these means of
sanctification bear fruit in him, thanks to his prayer and to the
holiness of his life, the monk possesses—as does every friend of
God—a distinctive power of intercession which can be regarded
as a spiritual priesthood. At the same time the holy monk and
the monastery where he lives, by the radiance of spiritual beauty,
enjoy a power of attraction on believers who are meeting with
trials, but also on those who seek a spiritual renewal by entering
more deeply into the mystery of the Kingdom of God and its
hidden presence here below, on earth:

Rid yourselves of all malice and deceit, insincerity and jealousy

and recrimination of all kinds. Like newborn infants that you
are, you must crave for pure milk—spiritual milk I mean—so
that you may grow into salvation, if indeed you have tasted
that the Lord is good. Draw near to Him, our Living Stone.
Though rejected by mortal ones, He is the Chosen One of God,
precious in his sight. Come and let yourselves be built into a
spiritual house. Become a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Pet 2:1-4)