Among the abbots who ratified the Charter
of Charity was the thirty-three-year-old abbot
of Clairvaux, Bernard–a man whose reputation for holiness and wisdom was rapidly
growing. His ability as a preacher and writer was also being recognized. It was Bernard,
along with his disciples, William of Saint Thierry, Guerric of Igny and Aelred of Rievaulx
and other early abbots, who gradually articulated a rich theological basis for the
spirituality of the Cistercians. Perhaps nowhere is it expressed so succinctly and
beautifully as in Bernard's letter to the monks of the abbey of Saint John in the Alps:
"Our vocation is to take the lowest place, it is the way of humility, voluntary
poverty, obedience and
joy in the Holy Spirit. Our vocation is to be under a master, under an abbot, under a rule, under
discipline. Our vocation is to cultivate silence, to exert ourselves in fasts, vigils, prayers, manual
labor and above all to keep to that more excellent way which is the way of love, to advance day by
day in these things and persevere in them until the last day".
