FROM OUR CONSTITUTION AND STATUTES

The Tradition:
Our Cistercian Diocesan Monastery has its origin in the monastic tradition of evangelical life expressed in the Rule for Monasteries of Saint Benedict of Nursia. Saints Robert, Alberic, and Stephen, in founding the Monastery of Our Lady of Citeaux in 1098, gave this tradition a particular form and attitude of simplicity, on which we based the founding of Our Lady of Little Citeaux.

The Mission: We are a monastery entirely ordered to contemplation. We nuns dedicate ourselves to the worship of God in a cloistered life within the monastery under the Rule of St. Benedict. We lead a monastic way of life in solitude and silence, in diligent prayer, Scripture study, Lectio Divina, spiritual reading, manual labor, and joyous penitence as defined in these Constitutions, thus dedicating to the all-loving God, a life that is at once humble and proud.

The Spirit: Our Cistercian way of life is cenobitic. Cistercian nuns seek God and follow Jesus under a rule and an abbess in a stable community that is a school of mutual Christian love. Since the sisters strive to be of one heart and one mind, we have everything in common, owning nothing personally. By striving to bear one another's burdens and uplift one another, we fulfill Jesus' law, participating in his sufferings in the hope of entering the kingdom of heaven.

The monastery is a school of the Lord's service where Jesus is formed in the hearts of the sisters through the liturgy, the abbess's teaching, and the sisterly way of life. Through God's Word the nuns are trained in a discipline of heart nd action to be responsive to the Holy Spirit and so attain purity of heart and a continual mindfulness of and presence to God's presence.

The nuns follow in the footsteps of those whom, in times past, God called into the desert to engage in spiritual warfare. As citizens of heaven, we strive for detachment from worldly materialism, lifestyle, and behaviors. Living in solitude and silence, we aspire to the interior quiet in which the whisperings of Wisdom can be heard and nurtured within. We practice self- denial in order to follow Jesus. Through humility and obedience we struggle against pride and the rebellion of sin. In simplicity and labor we seek the blessedness promised to the poor. By generous hospitality we share, with those led by the Spirit to the monastery, the peace and joy and hope which Jesus has freely given.

The monastery is an expression of the mystery of the Church, where nothing is preferred to the praise of the Father's glory. Every effort is made to ensure that the common life in its entirety conforms to the Gospel, which is the supreme law. In this way the community will not be lacking in any spiritual gift. The nuns strive to remain in harmony with all the people and creatures of God, sharing our active desire for the unity of all of God's children and the responsibility of compassionate stewardship of all of God's creatures. By fidelity to our monastic way of life, which has its own non-visible mode of apostolic fruitfulness, nuns perform a service for God's whole human family. With a special focus on providing hospitality to persons of all faiths and a special focus on living in harmony with the creatures that preceded us to this spot, we strive toward the unity of the Kingdom.

The monastery and each of the nuns are dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother and symbol of the Church in the order of faith, hope, love, and perfect union with Jesus.

The organization of the monastery is directed to bringing the nuns into close union with Jesus, since it is only through the experience of personal love for him that the specific gifts of the Cistercian vocation can flower. Only with the constant striving of the sisters to prefer nothing whatever to Jesus, can we be willing, able, and happy to persevere in a life that is ordinary, obscure, and laborious.