26th January: The Cistercian Founders

Today is the feastday of our founders, Saints Robert, Alberic and Stephen. In 1098, they left a relatively comfortable Benedictine monastery in France, to go to the “New Monastery” where they established Cistercian life in the harsh and marshy lands!

At the end of this post you will find a podcast recorded last year where you can hear more about our humble beginnings.

This feast is not just a time to remember our forebears of Citeaux, but also those who have accompanied us here in Glencairn. They have trodden a path for us, and we hope we can diligently follow them. May all the Cistercian Saints continue to intercede for us.

Finally, here is some of the homily of Fr Timothy, a Cistercian in the USA, which captures the spirit of our vocation. Fr Timothy says:

In offering us the grace of our Cistercian charism, Jesus asks us to make the simple act of trust of embracing its ideals. Since it is our call, it is through them and nowhere else that he will be able to pull us out of and beyond our private, personal and complicated selves, into conformity with his spiritual childhood, and therefore into the joy of his fellowship with the Father and the Spirit and the whole communion of saints.

Our charism is our wealth. The particular interpretation of the Gospel and expression of its values that have been handed over to us by our Founders belongs to us and represents our unique place in the Church and in the history of salvation. Jesus has promised us that when we embrace the charism it will bear much fruit and we receive much in return. As a gift, it is something we cannot know the extent of unless we receive it. It is only in the living of it that we gain understanding. Likewise, when like the rich man we reject it we really do not know what we have missed out on, except perhaps indirectly in the sadness, restlessness and discontent we may feel. With joy and gratitude for the gift, we have received and confident that the Lord sees our desire to serve him more faithfully, generously and simply let us turn now to the celebration of this mystery in which he gives himself most fully.