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Charter, Customs, and Constitutions of the Cistercians monastic wisdom series: number forty-one Thomas Merton Charter, Customs, and Constitutions of the Cistercians Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 7 monastic wisdom series Simeon Leiva, ocso, General Editor Advisory Board Michael Casey, ocso Terrence Kardong, osb Lawrence S. Cunningham Kathleen Norris Patrick Hart, ocso Miriam Pollard, ocso Robert Heller Bonnie Thurston initiation into the monastic tradition series by thomas merton Cassian and the Fathers: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition (MW 1) Pre-Benedictine Monasticism: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 2 (MW 9) An Introduction to Christian Mysticism: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 3 (MW 13) The Rule of St. Benedict: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 4 (MW 19) Monastic Observances: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 5 (MW 25) The Life of the Vows: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 6 (MW 30) monastic wisdom series: number forty-one Charter, Customs, and Constitutions of the Cistercians Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 7 by Thomas Merton Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell Preface by John Eudes Bamberger, ocso Cistercian Publications www.cistercianpublications.org LITURGICAL PRESS Collegeville, Minnesota www.litpress.org A Cistercian Publications title published by Liturgical Press Cistercian Publications Editorial Offices 161 Grosvenor Street Athens, Ohio 54701 www.cistercianpublications.org Cover design by Ann Blattner. Drawing by Thomas Merton. Copyright of the Merton Legacy Trust and the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine Uni- versity. Used with permission. © 2015 by Merton Legacy Trust. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America. 123456789 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Merton, Thomas, 1915–1968. Charter, customs, and constitutions of the Cistercians : initiation into the monastic tradition 7 / by Thomas Merton ; edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell ; preface by John Eudes Bamberger, OCSO. pages cm. — (Monastic wisdom series ; 41) Includes index. ISBN 978-0-87907-041-0 (paperback) — ISBN 978-0-87907-480-7 (ebook) 1. Cistercians—Rules. 2. Trappists—Rules. I. O’Connell, Patrick F. II. Title. BX3404.Z5M46 2015 271'.12—dc23 2014043311 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface vii Introduction xiii CARTA CARITATIS 1 THE CONSUETUDINES 15 CONSTITUTIONS OF THE ORDER OF CISTERCIANS OF THE STRICT OBSERVANCE 57 Appendix A: Textual Notes 205 Appendix B: For Further Reading 229 Index 231 PREFACE When Thomas Merton, whom we knew as Fr. Louis in those early days, was serving as master of novices at the Abbey of Gethsemani, he expended immense energy in research of the monastic sources of the current norms, practices, and spirituality of the Cistercian life. He undertook this exacting labor by way of preparing the conferences he gave to novices as part of their training and introduction to our community’s way of life. The result of this exploration of the sources that originated from ear- liest times (the text of the Charter) to the twentieth century (the Constitutions) is evidenced by the texts published in this volume. He was at pains to “return to the sources” in order to maintain continuity with traditional monastic values while adapting them to the men and conditions of the mid-twentieth century. He had already entered on such a program of thorough research some years before his appointment as novice master in his talks to the young monks in simple vows. For four years (1951–1955) he had functioned as master of juniors. I can still recall how he would rapidly glance at his extensive notes and, skipping over some paragraphs, spontaneously comment at length on selected pas- sages. Regularly he had prepared more material than he could cover in the allotted time. I was impressed with the extensive and conscientious preparation he obviously brought to bear on each of his conferences which he presented in an alert and attractive manner. Such serious and friendly dedication trans- lated into a respectful concern to provide us with an authentic exposure to the values of our life as Cistercian monks. We eagerly vii viii Charter, Customs, and Constitutions of the Cistercians attended his talks that he was able to make interesting as well as informative. Although buttressed by the authority of considerable learn- ing, Fr. Louis managed to avoid a sense of heaviness by his style of presentation. For Merton invariably brought an enthusiasm to the sessions, imparting a liveliness of spirit that added mark- edly to the interest we felt even in regard to legislative materials. This light touch did much to render more palatable what on paper might seem to anyone reading the printed text rather heavy and even dull in some particulars. Merton, invariably lively and given to spontaneous comments, possessed a sense of humor that provided welcome relief even when treating of disciplinary and legal matters. He had a way of conveying teachings rooted in the past so as to render them suited to our current times. A few years after Fr. Louis wrote and taught these documents, Pope John XXIII was to refer to the same approach he recommended to Vatican Council II as “aggiornamento.” The commentaries on the Charter, the Customs, and the Con- stitutions published in this volume were composed at the end of a long period of development. The Charter text that Merton com- mented on is a writing of the early twelfth century that applied the earlier Rule of Saint Benedict to the new requirements of re- ligious communities of the Middle Ages and that continues in large part to be suited to modern times. The Customary and Con- stitutions reflect an evolution that took place over the intervening centuries. The form these texts had assumed at the period when Merton commented on them reflects the circumstances of mo- nastic life and its practices at the very end of a long period fol- lowing the Council of Trent. By his dynamic and personal contributions to monastic spirituality and observance in his teaching and various writings, Merton contributed appreciably to the climate that prepared for the Second Vatican Council. Shortly after these conferences were written and presented, the event of Vatican II marked the beginning of a new phase in mo- nastic life as well as in the Church as a whole. That Merton con- tributed to the thought and spirit of the Council, and had some Preface ix measure of influence on Pope John himself, is evident by the symbolic gift of his own stole the pope sent to him at Gethsemani 1 as well as from the fact he was invited to contribute to a text on monastic spirituality for the postconciliar synod of October 1967.2 Although less obvious in these commentaries on legislative documents than in more personal writings such as his autobiog- raphy and his diaries, there are at places even in these texts glimpses of a more profound spiritual insight than appears on the surface. In reading these commentaries we do well to recall that Merton was a poet and a master of words. Pope Benedict XVI has cogently observed: “Every great human utterance reaches beyond what was consciously said into greater, more profound depths; there is always, hidden in what is said, a sur- plus of what is not said, which lets the words grow with the passing of time.” 3 Fr. Louis wrote, and more freely spoke, in such 1. See Merton’s April 13, 1960, journal entry (Thomas Merton, A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s True Life. Journals, vol. 3: 1952–1960, ed. Law- rence S. Cunningham [San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1996], 383). 2. See “Contemplatives and the Crisis of Faith,” written jointly by Carthu- sian Procurator General J.-B. Porion, Cistercian Abbot André Louf, and Merton for the synod (Thomas Merton, The Monastic Journey, ed. Brother Patrick Hart [Kansas City: Sheed, Andrews & McMeel, 1977], 174–78); see also the related “A Letter on the Contemplative Life,” written slightly earlier at the request of Pope Paul VI (Monastic Journey, 169–73). On the latter text, and an unpublished intermediate version, see the journal entries for August 21 and 28, 1967 (Thomas Merton, Learning to Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom. Journals, vol. 6: 1966– 1967, ed. Christine M. Bochen [San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1997], 280–81, 282–83); the August 21 and 22, 1967, letters to Abbot Francis Decroix, ocso (Thomas Merton, The Hidden Ground of Love: Letters on Religious Experience and Social Concerns, ed. William H. Shannon [New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1985], 154–59); and the August 29, September 6, and October 13, 1967, and March 30, 1968, letters to Filiberto Guala, ocso (Thomas Merton, The School of Charity: Letters on Religious Renewal and Spiritual Direction, ed. Patrick Hart [New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1990], 344–45, 346, 349–50, 371–73). 3. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions, trans. Henry Taylor (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 254–55. x Charter, Customs, and Constitutions of the Cistercians a manner as to cause even his words to young beginners in the art of monastic living to suggest much more than they explicitly state, if the reader knows how to listen. He himself was alive to this hidden dimension of his style of writing as is evidenced by the concluding words of his preface to the Japanese translation of The Seven Storey Mountain: Therefore, most honorable reader, it is not as an author that I would speak to you, not as a story-teller, not as a philos- opher, not as a friend only: I seek to speak to you, in some way, as your own self.
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