At noon today (in Rome), in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience those who are participating in the General Chapter of the Order of Cistercians of Strict Observance (OCSO).
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome you with joy on the occasion of your General Chapter. I thank every one of you for this visit, beginning with the Abbot General who has spoken on your behalf, illustrating the scope and the objectives of your assembly. Through you, I wish to send a cordial greeting to all your confreres and to the Sisters in your monasteries located in various countries. My heart and my thoughts go out to your silent cloisters, from which there is a constant stream of prayer for the Church and for the world. I thank the Lord for the unceasing presence of monastic communities which represent a spiritual treasure and a constant call to seek above all the things from above, in order to live earthly realities in right measure.
During these days of reflection and of exchanging your experiences, you are called to identify goals and paths which will allow you to live your vocation and your consecration with ever-growing authenticity, taking account of the needs of the present moment, so as to be witnesses of assiduous prayer, sobriety and unity in charity.
Your contemplative life is characterized by assiduous prayer, an expression of your love for God and a reflection of a love that embraces all of humanity. Following the example of Saint Benedict, you do not oppose anything that is the work of God (opus Dei): I urge you to give great importance to meditation upon the Word of God, especially in lectio divina, which is a source of prayer and a school of contemplation. To be contemplative requires a faithful and persevering journey, so that you may become men and women of prayer, ever more pervaded by love for the Lord and transformed into his friends. It is a matter of being not professionals - in a negative sense - but lovers of prayer, including outward faithfulness to the practice and the norms that regulate it and mark each moment not as an end but as a means of progressing in personal relationship with God. In this way, you will become teachers and witnesses offering Him sacrifices of praise and intercession for the needs and salvation of all people. At the same time, your monasteries will continue to be privileged places where true peace and genuine joy can be found, gifts which God alone, our sure refuge, can give.
From the very beginning, Cistercians of strict observance have been characterized by a great sobriety of life, convinced that this was a valid way of concentrating on the essential and of more easily reaching the joy of spousal encounter with Christ. This element of spiritual and existential simplicity preserves all of its value as a witness in today's cultural context, which too often leads to the desire for passing things and illusory artificial paradises.
This lifestyle also favours your internal and external relationships in the monastery. You do not live as hermits in community, but as cenobites (in community) in the same desert. God manifests himself in your personal solitude, as he does in the solidarity that unites you to other members of your community. You are alone and separated from the world in order to enter into the path of divine intimacy; at the same time, you are called to make yourselves known and to share this spiritual experience with other brothers and sisters in a constant balance between personal contemplation, union with the liturgy of the Church and welcome extended to those who are seeking moments of silence in order to be introduced to the experience of living with God. Your Order, like every religious institution, is a gift offered by God to the Church; therefore, it is necessary that you should live, well integrated into the communal dimension of the Church itself. I encourage you to be qualified witnesses of the search for God, a school of prayer and a school of charity for all people.
The Charity card, a document that establishes the paths of your vocation, duly authenticated by the Church, establishes the essential features of the General Chapter, called to be a sign of unity in charity for the entire Institute. This unity in charity is a paradigm of every religious family called to follow Christ more closely in the dimension of communal life, and to express itself above all in your own monastic communities in a climate of true and cordial fraternity, according to the words of the Psalm: How beautiful it is and how sweet when brothers live together (Ps 133:1). In this regard, the invitation of Saint Benedict still resounds: No one is disturbed or saddened in the house of God.
Unity in charity is also expressed in fidelity to spiritual heritage, which is to say to the identity of your Order. In this regard, your General Chapter is a propitious occasion to renew the communion of intent in search of God's will in a climate of dialogue and mutual listening. I exhort you to question yourselves with serenity and truth concerning the quality of your witness of life, concerning the dynamism of your fidelity to your charism, how it has been lived by your various monastic communities and by individual monks and nuns. The protection of your charism is in fact one of the principal responsibilities of the General Chapter and a vital experience of the present that lies between gratitude for the memories of the past and prospects for a future of hope.
Your Order, throughout its lived history, has known times of grace and moments of difficulty; but it has always persevered in faithfulness to the pursuit of Christ, having as its purpose the glory of God and the good of all people. In faithfulness to your spiritual tradition, you can interpret the present state of your Order in its shadows and lights and, in the novelty of the Spirit, courageously point out new possibilities and opportunities to bear witness to your charism today in the Church and in society.
I hope that this witness will be made ever more eloquent by an increasingly well founded coordination between the various branches of your Order.
May the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of the Church, model of every consecrated life, accompany the work of your Chapter and the journey of your Order with her maternal intercession. With such thoughts, while asking you to pray for me, I impart my Apostolic benediction and extend it to all the monks and nuns of your community.
Thank you.
Address of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
to the General Chapter of Cistercians
Dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome you with joy on the occasion of your General Chapter. I thank every one of you for this visit, beginning with the Abbot General who has spoken on your behalf, illustrating the scope and the objectives of your assembly. Through you, I wish to send a cordial greeting to all your confreres and to the Sisters in your monasteries located in various countries. My heart and my thoughts go out to your silent cloisters, from which there is a constant stream of prayer for the Church and for the world. I thank the Lord for the unceasing presence of monastic communities which represent a spiritual treasure and a constant call to seek above all the things from above, in order to live earthly realities in right measure.
During these days of reflection and of exchanging your experiences, you are called to identify goals and paths which will allow you to live your vocation and your consecration with ever-growing authenticity, taking account of the needs of the present moment, so as to be witnesses of assiduous prayer, sobriety and unity in charity.
Your contemplative life is characterized by assiduous prayer, an expression of your love for God and a reflection of a love that embraces all of humanity. Following the example of Saint Benedict, you do not oppose anything that is the work of God (opus Dei): I urge you to give great importance to meditation upon the Word of God, especially in lectio divina, which is a source of prayer and a school of contemplation. To be contemplative requires a faithful and persevering journey, so that you may become men and women of prayer, ever more pervaded by love for the Lord and transformed into his friends. It is a matter of being not professionals - in a negative sense - but lovers of prayer, including outward faithfulness to the practice and the norms that regulate it and mark each moment not as an end but as a means of progressing in personal relationship with God. In this way, you will become teachers and witnesses offering Him sacrifices of praise and intercession for the needs and salvation of all people. At the same time, your monasteries will continue to be privileged places where true peace and genuine joy can be found, gifts which God alone, our sure refuge, can give.
From the very beginning, Cistercians of strict observance have been characterized by a great sobriety of life, convinced that this was a valid way of concentrating on the essential and of more easily reaching the joy of spousal encounter with Christ. This element of spiritual and existential simplicity preserves all of its value as a witness in today's cultural context, which too often leads to the desire for passing things and illusory artificial paradises.
This lifestyle also favours your internal and external relationships in the monastery. You do not live as hermits in community, but as cenobites (in community) in the same desert. God manifests himself in your personal solitude, as he does in the solidarity that unites you to other members of your community. You are alone and separated from the world in order to enter into the path of divine intimacy; at the same time, you are called to make yourselves known and to share this spiritual experience with other brothers and sisters in a constant balance between personal contemplation, union with the liturgy of the Church and welcome extended to those who are seeking moments of silence in order to be introduced to the experience of living with God. Your Order, like every religious institution, is a gift offered by God to the Church; therefore, it is necessary that you should live, well integrated into the communal dimension of the Church itself. I encourage you to be qualified witnesses of the search for God, a school of prayer and a school of charity for all people.
The Charity card, a document that establishes the paths of your vocation, duly authenticated by the Church, establishes the essential features of the General Chapter, called to be a sign of unity in charity for the entire Institute. This unity in charity is a paradigm of every religious family called to follow Christ more closely in the dimension of communal life, and to express itself above all in your own monastic communities in a climate of true and cordial fraternity, according to the words of the Psalm: How beautiful it is and how sweet when brothers live together (Ps 133:1). In this regard, the invitation of Saint Benedict still resounds: No one is disturbed or saddened in the house of God.
Unity in charity is also expressed in fidelity to spiritual heritage, which is to say to the identity of your Order. In this regard, your General Chapter is a propitious occasion to renew the communion of intent in search of God's will in a climate of dialogue and mutual listening. I exhort you to question yourselves with serenity and truth concerning the quality of your witness of life, concerning the dynamism of your fidelity to your charism, how it has been lived by your various monastic communities and by individual monks and nuns. The protection of your charism is in fact one of the principal responsibilities of the General Chapter and a vital experience of the present that lies between gratitude for the memories of the past and prospects for a future of hope.
Your Order, throughout its lived history, has known times of grace and moments of difficulty; but it has always persevered in faithfulness to the pursuit of Christ, having as its purpose the glory of God and the good of all people. In faithfulness to your spiritual tradition, you can interpret the present state of your Order in its shadows and lights and, in the novelty of the Spirit, courageously point out new possibilities and opportunities to bear witness to your charism today in the Church and in society.
I hope that this witness will be made ever more eloquent by an increasingly well founded coordination between the various branches of your Order.
May the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of the Church, model of every consecrated life, accompany the work of your Chapter and the journey of your Order with her maternal intercession. With such thoughts, while asking you to pray for me, I impart my Apostolic benediction and extend it to all the monks and nuns of your community.
Thank you.
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