To Be a Monk
An Essay on the Cistercian Vocation

  1. To Be a Man
  2. To Be A Christian
  3. Experience of the Divine
  4. Community Life
  5. Solitude
  6. The Word of God
  7. Fraternal Love
  8. Compassion and Humility
  9. To Be A Monk In Practice
  10. Signs of a Call to be a Monk
  11. The Monks of New Melleray
  12. Daily Monastic Schedule
  13. Entering New Melleray
  14. Entrance Procedure

How does the Christian monk experience this sharing in the divine nature? Objectively, it is the hidden work of grace within. Subjectively, it is constituted by the reception of the grace of faith and love. Consciously, it is perceptible in concrete acts of fraternal love and prayer. As a monk makes spiritual progress, God occasionally grants moments of heightened awareness of the Divine. At these times the monk's consciousness is illumined so that he knows God by experience in an extraordinary way. However sublime these temporary states of altered consciousness may be, they are neither the essence nor the end of monastic life. God alone is the only end of the monk's life, and its essence is the search for, and possession of God by love and faith.

These are not passing states or fleeting experiences. Seeking God in love and possessing Him in faith are the permanent, ever present constituents of the monk's experience of God. Every single one of the daily actions performed by the monk is the occasion and embodiment of his experience of the Divine. This is no less true of the Christian called to live in secular society. For monks and non-monks, the only events which are not participation in divine life are our sins. What makes monastic life different is the particular set of Christian values chosen by monks. These values, spelled out in definite observances, provide the elements of the typically monastic experience of God. Let us consider a select few of these basic elements of monastic life.