IX. Conclusion

(#27) Salve Window over the main altar of the church sanctuary

A recurrent theme of this examination of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit has been the community's willingness and ability to translate its ancient Cistercian heritage into ever more viable terms. It has consistently opened itself to new times and new missions without compromising its essential monastic commitment. The name chosen for the - then - new foundation by Abbot Frederic proved prophetic, for Holy Spirit Monastery has indeed been attentive to the promptings of the Spirit.

The monastic venture has roots in the distant past, but it is grounded ultimately in the perennial human desire for God, and is thus timeless and boundless. It is not surprising therefore, that this daughter house of a Kentucky monastery founded by monks from Europe should now in the final decades of the twentieth century expand its monastic witness into South America.