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Please use this page to ask questions about monastic life, to share anything about your own vocation story, or to suggest what might be helpful on this site.
Cistercian vocation
Thoughts to help or interest those discerning vocation to monastic life
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marieteresa said
Does your community have an apostulate other than prayer? I ask this because many of the cistercian monasteries here in the states either make candies or communion waffers.
Sr Eleanor said
Hi, Marieteresa, welcome to the site and thanks for being the first one to come by and leave a question!
The main focus of our life is prayer and the praise of God, and so we don’t have any external ministry or get involved in things like teaching, social work, directly caring for the poor. In that sense we don’t have any other apostolate.
However, we do work, quite hard sometimes! First of all this is to earn our living. Our main industries are making eucharist bread (the hosts for Mass), and producing a range of greeting cards. We also have a farm, which this year will be mostly given over to growing barley. You can see in the photo on the “About” page that we are situated out in the countryside, in a beautiful river valley.
As well as supporting ourselves, it is important that people are engaged in some form of work in order to stay balanced and healthy, both mentally and physically.
Some sisters are not directly involved in the income-generating works I’ve mentioned above, but there are other tasks like looking after guests (we have a small guest house for retreatants), giving formation to the novices, doing the accounts and all kinds of administration, kitchen work, looking after the grounds, etc.
The community at Wrentham, MA, was founded by my community in 1949. I have tasted some of their candies, and also those from Mississippi Abbey in Iowa, and they are delicious!
God bless,
Sr Eleanor
locilocisu said
I’ve this question that’s been bothering me about the monastic orders in the Church. In the Cistercian Spirituality page, it is stated that the main purpose of the spirituality is to seek God, and I believe and agree that by living a monastic life helps that process. But what is there after finding God? or is it a never ending process? How does the act of seeking God in a monastic way becomes or transform into love for people? Thank you
Sr Eleanor said
Locilocisu, your questions go straight to the heart of some really important issues. Two Cistercians who are much better at explaining things than I am have already addressed this topic, and I’m happy to refer you to them: St Bernard in the 12th century, and a 21st century monk who also bears the name of Bernard and is the present Abbot General of our Order, Dom Bernardo Olivera.
St Bernard, in his 84th Sermon on the Song of Songs, comments on the verse “At night in my bed I sought him whom my soul loves.” He says:
“It is a great good to seek God; in my opinion the soul knows no greater blessing. It is the first of its gifts and the final stage in its progress.” (So it’s not something we move beyond, or a stage we grow out of).
Then he goes to the point you raise:
“I do not think that a soul will cease to seek God even when it has found him. It is not with the steps of the feet that God is sought, but with the heart’s desire; and when the soul happily finds him, its desire is not quenched but kindled. Does the consummation of joy bring about the consuming of desire? Oh no! Rather it is oil poured upon the flames. So joy will be fulfilled, but there will be no end to desire, and therefore no end to the search.” So the search is eternal – as is the finding. I suppose it’s a consequence of God being infinite.
St Bernard adds:
“Think of this eagerness to see God not as caused by his absence, for God is always present; and think of the desire for God as without fear of failure, for grace is abundantly present.”
Later in the same Sermon, he talks about our seeking God being a response to an initiative taken by God:
“The soul seeks the Word, but it has first been sought by the Word. …. ‘I sought him whom my soul loves’ – this is what you are urged to do by the goodness of him who anticipates you, who sought you and loved you before you loved him. You would not seek him or love him unless you had first been sought and loved.” This gets it in its right perspective.
St Bernard then goes on to the relationship between seeking and loving, which you mention:
“Love is the reason for the search, and the search is the fruit of love.”
Dom Bernardo, our Abbot General, puts it like this: “I seek by desiring, and I find by loving. The monastic observances are at the service of — and at the same time manifestations of — my seeking-finding and reciprocal love with the Lord.” He wrote this in a circular letter to the Order earlier this year, which he entitled “I hear in my heart ‘Seek My Face’ “. The whole letter is devoted to the topic of seeking, finding, and loving God. Thanks to the wonderful world of the web, the text is freely available at http://www.ocso.org/HTM/aglet2008-eng.htm (and in French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and German too!) It’s very readable, very personal, and very authentic.
I hope this helps you somewhat in your own quest.
God bless,
Sr Eleanor
Pamela said
Hi Sr Eleanor,
Well done on your Blog,great work, it is really interesting and helpfull.
I should be studying right now,but this has caught me again!!!but I dont mind,much more exciting than interest rates etc..
Thanks for your prayers.
Keep up the good work.
Chat Soon.
Pamela
Sister Laurel M O'Neal, erem said
Dear Sisters,
I just wanted to thank you for including a link to my blog on your site. I will be sure and reciprocate. All good wishes for a blessed Pentecost!!
Sincerely,
Sister Laurel M O’Neal, erem
Stillsong Hermitage
Diocese of Oakland
Ann said
Just wondering….how Sr Josephine is getting om in Abaliki, how the movices/ postulants are getting on at St Mary’s, and does Cistercian Order attract an equal number from rural and urban areas since quite a bit of the hands-on work seems to be agricultural or live-stock related? And…what about Lent in your monastery?
Meegs said
Dear Sr. Eleanor,
Have the Sisters ever thought about making a foundation here in Australia? We have the OSCO men but not the women. There are a group of Benedictine women in NSW but I sense after visiting them, that the Cistercian spirituality is somehow different.
Blessings and peace,
Meegs