Holy Founders and Erin's Entrance as a Postulant

Feast of Our Holy Founders, Robert, Alberic and Stephen
 
On March 21, 1998, the 900 ^th centenary to the day of the founding of Citeaux, there were great celebrations at the monastery of Citeaux with monks and nuns of both Cistercian Orders gathered not only from France but from all over the world.  Of all the activities of that celebration, the one that still fills me with quiet awe and tenderness is this one:  all those who could and who desired to do so, met at Molesme and walked together from there to Citeaux.  What thoughts and memories and dreams they must have had as they walked.  How they must have recalled with wonder and gratitude that very first walk when the steps of a small group of monks made so long ago in such faith and ardent responsiveness to the Spirit’s call bore fruit beyond all dreaming.  How Robert, Alberic, Stephen and the other founding brothers must have hovered about these pilgrims walking again in their footsteps.  Truly tiny steps made in the faith that says a wholehearted yes to God, have within them the very stuff that God can use to set many hearts on fire.  We never know what words and deeds of ours will send lasting ripples of blessing to the world.

And so today we have another step forward, another Cistercian blessing.  Robert, Alberic and Stephen have sent us a postulant, a postulant who did not tire to knock again and again and again until she finally had the door opened to her.  This in itself is a favorable sign as St. Benedict says. Now Erin begins to walk in this blessed way of community and solitude, liturgy, lectio and labor, obedience and humility, and now too begins that special Benedictine discernment: Is she truly seeking God?  Does she have a real love for the Work of God combined with a willing acceptance of obedience and of any demands on her humility and patience that monastic life may make on her?

Eagerness for the work of God is eagerness for the prayer of the Church, the prayer of the whole Christ.  When we go back day after day, Vigils through Compline, being open to whatever comes, the heights and the depths,  the deep prayer of the Spirit within as well as the distractions, tiredness, aridity, difficulties with the music, difficulties with the neighbor, then we are truly becoming pure praise for God and intercessors for his people.  Then we are truly beginning to forget ourselves and our own interests.  This is where eagerness for the work of God leads us.  Let us follow the example of St. Stephen and every time we reach the door of the Church deliberately leave behind all other thoughts but that of giving our hearts eagerly to prayer.

Eagerness for obedience is an eagerness to hear God’s voice instructing us, guiding us, loving us.  It has everything to do with his voice, both hearing it and heeding it and, first of all, believing in it; believing that the Church has truly recognized in Robert, Alberic, Stephen and the other founders a charism inspired and received from the Holy Spirit.  Those who find themselves moved by this same charism respond in faith, knowing that their obedient response to the Abbess/Abbot and those whom he/she has delegated is the sure way to enter into the obedience of Christ who humbled himself and became obedient unto death.  This is what our Ratio means when it says that the primary sign of a Cistercian vocation is a humble docility born of faith, hope and love that makes the candidate eager to learn.

And finally that more mysterious sign: eagerness for trials.  What does it mean but that one has to come to terms with obedience when it makes demands upon our humility and patience?  We can hardly speak of this as an infrequent occurrence.  In fact this is what the 4 ^th step of humility is all about, the step that in a major way makes the monk a monk.  And so, let us pray to our Fathers that our lives and efforts may make them very happy, that God will bless Erin very much as she begins her monastic life at Mt. St. Mary’s Abbey, and that God will bless Sister Hazel and Sister Robert abundantly for their generous yes to this way of life given over so many years.