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Charism

   
The Cistercian charism can be identified by its unique and delicate balance between three pillars: lectio divina, prayer, and work.  
   
   
These three pillars provide the rhythm of the monastic day.  
   
Lectio Divina  
Just as our body needs food to remain healthy,
so do our spirit and our soul. In order to nourish our unity with God and with one another, we take time each day for Lectio Divina, reading God’s Word.

Reading with a heart that is receptive, which is open to being touched and awakened, and which responds to this touch.

We carry the Word with us throughout the day, meditatively repeating it, ruminating on it, rocking it in the arms of our heart. This process slowly transforms us.
   
Prayer  
We desire to live in a continual awareness of God’s presence.

“Blessed is the one in whom the Word is present,
who lives for the Word,
who is moved by the Word.”

(St.Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercian)

 

The rhythm of our day is interrupted seven times for common prayer (the Divine Office). The tradition calls this the “Work of God”: God working on us, His Spirit praying in us, and our zeal for the Kingdom of God.

We sing God’s praises during the Divine Office,
confiding the joys and sorrows of the entire Church
and all humanity to the One who is present in our midst.
 

 
   
   

The center of our prayer is the celebration of the Eucharist,
source of unity and Christian life.
 

  

   
There is also time and space for personal prayer and meditation.

“At rest in the center of our being, we meet a world in which everything rests in itself in the same way.”

(Dag Hammerskjöld)

 

  

 

 

 

“Today we are going to read something from the book of experience.”

(St. Bernard)

   

 

 

“Contemplation
is a sudden gift
of awareness,
an awakening
to the Reality
within each reality.”

(Thomas Merton)

   

 

“God is present
in us
in the same way that wild animals are present in the forest:
you don’t often see the deer;
first you have to be patient and become very quiet.”

(Rainer Maria Rilke)

 

  
 

 

  

WORK.

Then they are truly monks
when they live by the work of their hands.

(from the Rule of St. Benedict)


We earn our own living.
The tradition speaks of manual labor, first and foremost, as freeing the spirit to turn to the Other.
Manual labor grounds a person, keeping body, soul, and spirit in balance.
We serve one another through our work, sharing in the process of creation.
Work also contributes to our personal and spiritual development.


“Many seek Jesus during prayer in the church and don’t find Him there,
but they do find Him unexpectedly during their work.”

(Bl. Guerric of Igny)



 
   

 

© Abdij Koningsoord