CISTERCIANS: PRESERVE YOUR SPIRITUALITY

VATICAN CITY, SEP 19, 2002 (VIS) - This morning in the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace at Castelgandolfo, the Holy Father received 220 abbots and abbesses of the Cistercian Order of Strict Observation who are celebrating their general chapter in Rome. "The Pope is grateful to you," he said at the beginning of his speech, "because from the silence of your cloisters incessant prayer ascends to heaven for your ministry and for the intentions and needs of the entire ecclesiastical community."

After John Paul II recalled that the two general chapters of the Order had gathered during these days "to reflect on how your common spiritual patrimony, while preserving the spirit of its origins, can better respond to the demands of the present moment."

"From their beginnings," explained the Holy Father, "the Cistercians were characterized by a 'mystical passion' demonstrating that a sincere search for God, through an ascetic way of life, can lead to the indescribable joy of a conjugal encounter with God in Christ. ... This elevated spirituality maintains its value as testimony in the present cultural context which too often encourages the desire for deceptive goods and artificial paradises. Your vocation ... is to give witness to the high ideal of sanctity which is summarized in unconditional love for God and, as a result, a love which in prayer mystically embraces all of humanity."

The Pope urged them to preserve their charismatic patrimony which he defined as "a source for all Christian people." Referring to the present context of the Order, he said that its development today put monks, "especially those in the Far East, in contact with different traditional religions with which it is necessary to promote prudent and wise dialogue so that the unique light of Christ shines in all places in the plurality of cultures. Jesus is the resplendent sun of whom the Church must be a faithful reflection."

"Do not lose heart," he said, "because of the trials and tribulations, as painful as they may be." And he recalled in particular the seven monks of Notre Dame d'Atlas, killed in Algeria in 1996. "May their bloodshed," he exclaimed, "be the seed for many holy vocations for your monasteries in Europe, where the old age of the communities of nuns and monks is noticeable, and in other parts of the planet where the urgency is another, that of guaranteeing the formation of those aspiring to the Cistercian life."

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