Cistercians are Benedictine monks.
Monk is a basic human stance towards life, towards
all reality. There are many kinds or congregations of monks within the Catholic and
Christian tradition. Monks are also found among almost all, if not all the great religious
traditions.
In some traditions monasticism plays a
very important, almost central role. Monasticism
is seen as being at the very heart of the Orthodox Church. Mount Athos, the small
monastic republic in northeastern Greece, is revered as the center of Orthodox spiritual
life." All Orthodox bishops must be chosen from among the ranks of the monastics.
Among the Hindus, especially in India,
the size of the monastic population is
extraordinary. Monasticism is seen as the ordinary culmination of the human journey
and, indeed, the only way to escape from the wheel of reincarnation and attain final and
lasting bliss. Among the Buddhists, monks hold a most honored position. In some
Buddhist countries every male is expected to spend some time, however brief it may be,
as a monk. In theory this acknowledges a deep reality and affords the opportunity for
some intense spiritual training for life. In practice it too often becomes a mere formality
undermining the real significance of monasticism. Be that as it may, monasticism is very
present throughout the Buddhist world.
Monasticism is essentially a response
to an inner call or compulsion. There is a
demand deep within all of us, in response to some kind of an experience, to live a
radical "yes" to what is ultimate. There is at the root of a lived monasticism an
experience that has called for a redirection. There is a conversion.. In some way we
want to know the goal of all human existence. And we know that it is and yet in some
way is not yet within us. There is a tension. There is a need that calls forth a certain
commitment.
The monk is one who is committed, almost
driven, to be present to the ultimate meaning
of life in such a way that we let go of and even renounce all that is not necessary to our
doing this. The monk seeks the unum necessarium, the one thing necessary, the pearl
of great worth–the greatest worth, the treasure of life. The monk seeks to concentrate all
on this one single and ultimate goal.
Every human person seeks to find his true
self, to be at one with himself, something that
can be found only at the very center, at the ground of our being where we are in some
way one with the ultimate Source of Life and come forth from that Source. Monks and
nuns commit themselves, usually in some public manner, to developing in an exemplary
way according to his particular cultural and religious environment the deepest core of his
human-ness. They commit them selves to an uncompromising search for contact with a
cosmic creator.
Our modern age reflects on monasticism
mainly in terms of 'how' questions. Information
is provided about Cistercian architecture, the day to day organisation of the abbey's
affairs, and the political interactions that led to growth and dissolution. However, once
articulated in a particular place the spiritual network cannot be ignored as a framework to
articulate objectives of landscape management that have a bearing on preservation of
physical remains, access to sites and organisation of routes for pilgrimage. It is the
latter notional structures that allow people to return to the 'why, questions that produced
the Cistercian Order.
