St Benedict’s Rule is a compendium of monastic wisdom, drawing together the experience of those men and women before him who sought to give their lives to Christ and his Gospel in a radical way. The early monks did this through renunciation of family, possessions and an ordinary way of life in society, and by fleeing to the desert to adopt a disciplined way of life under and experienced elder. Benedict’s keen sense of the essentials of this tradition, coupled with the need for moderation on account of human weakness, have made his Rule a classic guide for monks and nuns through the centuries.

Much like Benedict and the Desert Fathers and Mothers, though in very different historical circumstances, the early Cistercians of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Strict Observance movement of the seventeenth century and those associated with La Trappe during the French Revolution, were all seeking to satisfy their thirst for the depths of Gospel living. This thirst was not being satisfied by the Christian or monastic life of their time and was aggravated by the moral excesses, social injustices and even the disintegration of the fabric of their society. For them, love of the Rule meant seeking out the freedom of real solitude, genuine poverty and an authentic separation from all in society that does not bring one closer to Christ. We share this thirst.

For Cistercians today, love of the Rule does not mean trying to observe every detail as prescribed there. Much has changed in the world and in the Church since Benedict wrote his Rule for monks in sixth-century Italy. As twenty-first century women in the United States we, like our monastic forbears, draw from the wisdom of the tradition, while seeking ways of adapting it to our own time, place, and what is best in our culture. This has been called “creative fidelity” to tradition, and it involves careful discernment of how to put into practice the Rule’s central focus on following Christ in obedience, silence, humility, prayer, work, communal living, care for the weak and sick, hospitality and self-giving love.