1. Chapter talk by Abbot Francis Michael. Talks by the abbot to his monastic community are traditionally given on Sundays in a room designated as the chapter room. The talks themselves are referred to as “chapter talks.” Through these talks, the abbot encourages the monks in their monastic life of prayer, work, and community living.
On Sunday, October 31, 2004, Abbot Francis Michael’s chapter talk on conversion in monastic life was based on a conference given by Abbot Francis Kline of Mepkin Abbey (South Carolina) at the conference for new superiors held in Rome earlier this month. The footnotes below are provided by Brother Chaminade.
Monks in Conversion
Chapter talk given by
Abbot Francis Michael Stiteler, OCSO
Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery
Conyers, Georgia
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Audio (24.7 MB / 15:28 minutes / mp3 format)
Our mission as monks. I am going to continue to speak out of the conferences from Rome.1 This was the beginning of a conference given by Dom Francis Kline, abbot of the Abbey of Mepkin.2
Dom Francis began by asking a very simple question about our mission and whether we have a mission as monks. Talking about our order’s constitutions, he was saying that the constitutions from 1900 told us who we were from the inside as did our new Constitutions.3 When Vatican II came along, there was a huge change in the Church.4 One of the things within Vatican II which the Church underlined—which was new—was the universal call to holiness. That everyone is called to holiness. Whether you are married or single or whatever you are doing, you are called to holiness. That all the baptized are called to holiness.5 And then, in Lumen Gentium—there was a small part there—asking the religious to rearticulate our charisms.6 Our order did that. We looked inside ourselves. We looked at our sources. And we came out with a new constitution. He said, however: “The question remains, who are we in the Church and in the world?”
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“That an intentional community allows one to go deep into Christ, not just for ourselves, but for the world through personal conversion.” Fr. Francis Xavier at midday prayers.
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There was a day when we told the Church who we are as monks and nuns of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance are people who are trying to attain holiness. Then the Church comes along and says, Everybody is called to holiness, not just religious. All baptized people. And so the thing that we told them we were for is now for everybody. Then people say, “If we are all called to holiness, and I am called to holiness as a mother and a wife just as much as you are, then what are you doing? What are you people in the monasteries doing? Because we are all called to holiness.” Dom Francis said that the Church is still waiting for an answer from us—still waiting to hear us articulate what it is we are doing.
Dom Francis gave his own suggestion which I personally agree with and feel very strong about which is one of the reasons I am sharing it.
Repentance and conversion. He said that: “Our particular grace allows us through the experience of repentance and conversion to give ourselves to Christ.” Repentance and conversion. [Abbot Francis Michael continues to quote Abbot Francis:]
An intentional community allows one to go deep into Christ, not just for ourselves, but for the world through personal conversion. We go into our sinfulness, into our brokenness, toward salvation. This experience that we give ourselves to is meant to be a prophetic voice to the world.
Our lifestyle is meant to prophesy to the world that salvation comes through being poor and broken. And admitting that, and giving oneself to conversion. That the whole life, he says, is meant to do that. Our whole life is meant to strip us of delusions and open us to that grace of Christ. Dom Francis said, “If the Church is anywhere, it is in the midst of the intentional poor of spirit celebrating Eucharist. Celebrating salvation—even though broken—through repentance.”
I personally think that is pretty powerful. It is a different way of looking at it. I don’t know that it is new. I believe that monasticism has always been doing this. But that’s not how we talk about ourselves. That’s not what we said to the Church. We didn’t have billboards, but if we had billboards, it wouldn’t have said that.
The point is: we come here to give ourselves to a lifelong process of conversion that doesn’t end in this lifetime. It’s not a matter of not wanting to be holy. One wouldn’t say, “Well we don’t come here to become holy.” No. People do come because they have a desire, hunger and thirst. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for holiness. They shall be satisfied,” Jesus says (cf. Mt. 5:6; Jn 6:35). But we come, many of us acknowledge that—not all of us—but many of us come because we are broken. Because we know how messed up we are. And that this is a place where in faith we can give ourselves to the grace that Jesus is giving to those who are broken and poor in spirit. It’s today’s gospel (Lk 19:1-10). That’s who he came for.
The good news of our brokenness. As I say, I think this has been going on from the very beginning. You can read the Desert Fathers. You can see it in the retreat house, although they didn’t have retreat houses in the time of the Desert Fathers, but you can still see it. Many people who come are hurt, broken, and bearing the weight of their sins. They are looking for some kind of help, and they often come to a monastery because they think that is where the “holy people” are. And maybe these holy people can pray for them. Maybe these holy people can take their part and pray to God. But what usually happens, if they meet a real monk, a real monastic—man or woman—what happens is the person comes and lays out their brokenness, and the monastic says, “Yes. Yes. I know.” And they say, “You know? But you are a monk. You are a holy guy.” “No. No. I know. I’ve been there. Been in the monastery 50 years and I’m still struggling with it.”
And the good news is: that’s OK. That God is with us to save us. And that when Jesus comes, he wants to find us still at that work of conversion.
And so, when these people come, they go, “Wow. You mean you know what it is like to be foul tempered?”—“Yea.” “You know what it’s like to impatient?”—“Yea.” “You know what it’s like to be attached to a job that you don’t want to give up?”—“Yea.” And you just go down the list. Anger. Envy. Lust. Whatever ones you want.
Personally, I think that’s good news. You might go, “Aye, you’re sitting here telling us we are all sinners.” Yea, OK, but brothers, we are. We are. That’s what we are, huh? That’s how God showed his love for us. That while we were still sinners, he sent his only son… to us (cf. Rom 5:8). And that’s good news.
Welcoming others into the process of conversion. How do we say that to new people? New people are coming into the monastery and say, “Here I am. I am thinking of joining the monastery. What do you have to offer me?” We say, “Well, what we have to offer you is the ability to come into a place where for the rest of your life you can come to know yourself with all of your brokenness—every bit of it—and allow God to transform that.” It doesn’t make a very attractive vocation poster.
As Dom Francis got into the formation piece, he really zeroed in on this and said, “This is it, brothers. This is the main piece. And if a person comes and can’t do this, they shouldn’t be in a monastery.” You might get somebody who comes and they’re at every Office. They’re always at work. They’re as friendly as can be. Great voice. If they’re not ready to face themselves everyday and convert, it’s not going to work.
They might live there for 50 years or 60 years, but they’re not going to build up community. They’re never going to take root. Because the whole thing is about that. And all the other things are meant to lead us to that. Right? The prayers. The silence. The solitude. The living with all these other broken people.
Supporting one another. That makes it even worse on the vocation poster. Not only do get to come and work on all your stuff, but you get to do it in a place where there are 50 other people doing the same thing… and not as fast as you would like them to either.
That’s always the danger. That is why we can almost be sure when we get ourselves into a place—and we all get ourselves into that place—where we are looking at everybody else and saying, “What am I doing here in this nut house?” When we start looking at other people and trying to get them converted, it is a sure escape from what we are supposed to be doing here. If you have time to be cataloguing all your other brothers’ faults, you’re obviously not spending time working on your own. And if you give yourselves to conversion—if we give ourselves to conversion—and dare to realize our own need for conversion, and know what we’re working on, we’re going to be less, so much less likely, to slam somebody else.
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The monastic vocation is a very special vocation. After his profession of simple vows, Brother Louis Paul receives congratulations from senior monk Father Malachy. |
Jesus’ call to conversion. Read the gospels. Go back with this mind and read the gospels. It’s there. Page after page. Jesus calling people to repentance, to conversion. Calling the poor of heart to that and telling people who are judging others, “You hypocrites! Don’t you see that God came for the poor, for sinners? And those of you who are self-righteous, who think you’ve got it all in a bag, I have nothing to say to you. There’s no soil to plant seed in.” Until you get to a place where you can break that open, and in faith give yourself to that because it is not something we can do. We can’t convert ourselves, but we can give ourselves to that.
Our special vocation. I guess the last thing I want to say is: brothers, it is a very special vocation. It is a very special vocation. There is not a whole lot of people who want to do that—what I have just described. There are some who want to do it, but aren’t capable of it—at least not in this intentional form. Now everybody has to do it eventually. That’s what purgatory is, if we don’t do it here. So we all have to do it, but there are very few people who are going to put themselves by choice into that process everyday for the rest of their lives. And we’ve been given that gift, brothers. It’s a gift and a grace.
And again, I agree with Francis. We can be a prophetic sign to the Church and to the world. Yes, we’re broken. We’re in massive need of conversion—all of us, everybody. But it’s OK. That’s what Jesus came for.
Giving ourselves to the grace of conversion. What we need to do is simply day by day keep our eyes, our hearts, and our minds open and give ourselves to that process. Give ourselves to the grace that’s coming to us because, again, it’s not something we can crank out.
If you haven’t come up against something that you didn’t have the power to change, maybe you should pray for that grace. I think most of us have, though. Sometimes it’s a small thing; sometimes, it’s a big thing. “I can’t do this. I can’t stop being mean and nasty to people.” Or: “I can’t stop being impatient.” Or: “I can’t stop being angry.” Or whatever. And be able to go to God and say, “God, I give up. I can’t do this.” And God goes, “Yea, I know. I have been waiting for you to see that. But I can do things.” All things are possible with God (cf. Mt 19:26).
Again, it’s not magic. That doesn’t mean God waves a wand and all of a sudden we’re not impatient anymore. We know that. Look in the community. But we also know—and we’ve seen plenty of examples—of people who in the last year of their life something happened and they changed. Something moved inside them—a grace. Not something they made happen. And we have to support each other in that. It’s what the community is for: to help one another do that.
As usual, I don’t have an ending, but the good news is that Jesus is in our midst just for us. No matter what it is that we are struggling with, he’s with us in it if we just surrender and give ourselves to the grace of conversion.
FOOTNOTES
1. The Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance (OCSO) offered conferences at different times of the year for new superiors of three language groups: English, French, and Spanish. The conference in Rome was from September 29 to October 13 at the Abbey of Tre Fontane in Rome.
2. Abbot Francis Kline entered Gethsemani Abbey in 1972. He was elected the third abbot of Mepkin Abbey on January 21, 1990.
3. The current OCSO Constitutions and Statutes were approved by the Holy See in 1990 although modifications have been incorporated visa the order’s General Chapters and, when necessary, from the Holy See.
4. The Second Vatican Council was convened on October 11, 1962 by Pope John XXIII and ended December 8, 1965 with Pope Paul VI presiding.
5. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium [meaning “light of the nations”] was solemnly promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 21, 1964. Chapter five is titled “The Universal Call to Holiness in the Church.”
The Lord Jesus, divine teacher and model of all perfection, preached holiness of life to each and every disciple… It is therefore quite clear that all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to perfection of love (Lumen Gentium #40).
6. Also from Lumen Gentium:
It is the task of the Church’s hierarchy to feed the People of God and to lead them to good pasture (cf. Ezek. 34:14). Accordingly it is for the hierarchy to make wise laws for the regulation of the practice of the counsels whereby the perfect love of God and of our neighbour is fostered in a unique way. Again, in docile response to the promptings of the Holy Spirit the hierarchy accepts rules of religious life which are presented for its approval by outstanding men and women, improves them further and then officially authorizes them. It uses its supervisory and protective authority too to ensure that religious institutes established all over the world for building up the Body of Christ may develop and flourish in accordance with the spirit of their founders. (#45)
