Monastic wisdom series #22

Tracing our roots. St. Benedict, Father of the Western monasticism ; Basic rule : service in love flows from the eucharist ; Monastery as the school for the Lord's service -- Founders of the Cistercian Order (Citeaux) ; The call to renunciation and detachment ; Living a life of obedience and humiliations -- St. Bernard of Clairvaux, pillar of the order ; Close relationship between body and soul ; Knowing much of the love of Christ ; Contemplating Christ -- Understanding Cistercian tradition ; The Cistercian charism ; Values of Cistercian reform ; Elements of Cistercian formation ; Modern economy and ancient ideals ; Monasteries helping each other ; Visitation at Tautra Mariakloster, Norway ; The fjords of Tautra give praise and welcome -- Celebrations of monastic life. Reception of the novice's habit ; Fulfilling the law of Christ ; The deifying light -- Solemn profession of vows ; Professing love to the God of love ; Community, the word of salvation ; Love never ends -- Transfer of stabilities ; The cowl as the garment of salvation ; Continuing journey to union with Christ ; Stability means home where God-is-with-us -- Golden jubilee ; A great life spent in humility and hiddenness ; Immaculate conception and fifty years of hidden life in God -- Celebrations in community life. The gift of community life ; Living in community ; Unifying power of the Eucharist ; Gospel lessons on brotherly love ; St. Benedict's gift : teaching on friendship ; Friendship in the monastic life ; Status quo evolving -- Thanksgiving Day reflections. Thanksgiving as a faith event ; Constant gratefulness to God ; Christ at the heart of unity in community -- Treasures of monastic values. Silence, solitude, and enclosure ; The monastic value of silence ; Paradise of solitude ; On solitude and enclosure ; Hiddenness of the contemplative life ; Search for the hidden God ; Ordinary, obscure, and laborious life ; Enclosure as formative tool toward wisdom -- Interior silence and formation. Formation of the heart ; Solitude of the heart ; Obedience "with a good soul" ; Patience leads to self-transformation ; Opportunities to exercise patience -- Obstacles to overcome. Beware of "acedia" ; Fighting the evil in our thoughts -- Humility and exaltation in Christ ; Compunction and compassion ; Striving for the selfless love ; Holding up the ideal before you ; Call to perfection ; Dispossession is to live by the Lord's strength ; Quest for union with God ; Presence and recognition of Christ ; Jesus living through us -- Inspirations from the life of Mary ; Christ's redemptive grace and immaculate conception ; Mother of all living by faith ; Spending the fullness of time with Mary ; Mary's yes to God planted in the heart of her child ; Mary's assumption : after-death, key to life ; Queen and mother of mercy ; The many faces of Mary ; Call on Mary, she forms our hearts -- Inspiration from the saints ; Saints : gifted with persevering faith ; Aspire to become saints -- The divine office as the prayer of Christ. The liturgy of the hours ; Celebrating the divine office as sacrament ; Intense attention at the liturgy -- Night and the monk